Mr.
Vice-Chairman, Sir, before I come to the point, on behalf of my political
party, let me assure you that we are going to protest every single second of
every working day of this Session against this biggest international scam
involving billions of dollars. That is nothing but this Pegasus. It has hacked
the mobile phones of not only the journalists, not only the politicians in
general, but it has also hacked the mobile phone of the General-Secretary of our
political party. We are not going to spare a single second. I am telling you
the fact.
Now,
let me come to the issue of COVID-19. Paying my homage to all the departed
souls who have left us120
due to Coronavirus, let me quote a famous sports personality, "Failure is
not fatal, but failure to change might be."140 The problem with our present Government is that
it is failing to change itself and that is why160 it is becoming fatal. Let us
remember that the first COVID-19 case was reported in January, 2020 in
Kerala. Sir, once again, I assure you that I will maintain the decorum
and certainly I will address Mr. Modi as our learned Prime Minister. I
will never use sarcastic words against him though he used sarcastic
words for our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Sir,
in February, 2020, our learned Prime Minister was busy hosting Donald Trump. We
know the fate of both the persons became240
the same unfortunately. He was busy in doing horse-trading for Madhya
Pradesh Government. Later on, he took fanciful decisions about the migrant
workers. The entire rural India got infected of COVID-19. Everyone saw
this. When the question of testing came up,280
this Government purchased testing kits from China with a profit of 145 per cent
and these were found to be faulty everywhere. Thousands of migrant workers
died on the roads. Even the Government refused to give them the320 train fare. Sir, take the example of
our State, West Bengal. Our Chief Minister not only offered the train fare
but also gave employment to all those migrant workers who were thrown
out of different parts of the country.
Sir,
the COVID-19360 is a multi-system
disease. The situation is not the same in every State of the country,
but there is no value of federal structure of the Government.
With unilateral advisories, the State Governments were restricted. There are severe restrictions on several issues so far as the
States are concerned. I would like to remind you that the concept of
safe420 home, the concept of physical
distancing by drawing circles on the road, the concept of social
distancing, and the concept of co-morbidity studies were the
brainchild of none other than Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister-cum-Health
Minister of our State. Our learned Prime Minister said that just as the
Mahabharat War was won in 18 days, we will win the battle480 against Coronavirus in 21 days. What has
happened? He asked us to beat drums; he asked us to light lamps, and we
followed that. Unfortunately, the Government and the BJP leaders tried to
make our Prime Minister an international leader. So, they declared that we
have won the battle against COVID-19. There was no preparedness for the
second wave. When the second wave came in, what did we see? People
were dying on roads because of scarcity of oxygen in this560 21st Century. Can you believe it? Our
Chief Minister offered a piece of land to build up an oxygen plant but
our learned Prime Minister has given sanction to his beloved State,
Uttar Pradesh where the dead bodies were found600
to be floating in the river. It was most unfortunate.
Sir,
everyone is well aware of the Kumbh Mela. Crores of people got infected because
of that. Sir, what happened during the elections? Were they really conscious?
Tamil Nadu,640 which is having
234 Assembly Constituencies, had election in single phase whereas our
State of West Bengal which has 294 Assembly Constituencies, had election in
eight phases. What was the infectivity rate before the elections? It was only 2
per cent, and after the eight phases of election, it reached 33 per cent. It
was because of the efforts of700
our Chief Minister that the infectivity rate has once again come down below 2
per cent. Sir, we started the720
vaccination in January, 2021. Initially, there was a lot of hesitancy because
of lack of awareness amongst the people of the country. There was no awareness
programmes or proper policy.
It
is very shameful for us that the Lancet, the WHO, the Supreme Court, several
High Courts of the country, several countries like Brazil, Canada and United
Kingdom have openly criticized the COVID-fighting policy of India. What can be
more shameful than this? We have heard the Prime Minister a800 few days back saying 'one earth-one-health
policy'. On the contrary, only a few months back, he made
'one-vaccine-three-prices policy'. Can you believe it? In India, we have seen
that there is one price for Central Government, another price for the State840 Governments and a third price for the
private sector. They have opened the floodgates for corruption. The vaccine
producing companies are not getting paid regularly. A vaccine producer has left
India, and he was under 'Z' category protection given by the Government of
India.
Our
learned Prime Minister and our Health Department initially said that they are
not going to take the responsibility to vaccinate those who are below 45. Are
they not the voters? Are they not the Indian citizens? States decided to
purchase vaccines, but the Prime Minister has centralized the power of
vaccination. You can see what has happened. We have seen our Government was
busy in the Central Vista Project spending crores of rupees. What has happened960 to the budgetary allocation for COVID-19
vaccination? What will you say about the PM CARES Fund which was not at all
audited by980 the C&AG?
The problem is that our Prime Minister is more in the mode of publicity. That
is why again on 21st of June, he started beating his own drum. He once again
came in a self-congratulatory mode. He once again tried to play a one-day
international match instead of a test match. He said that the Government of
India has inoculated this amount of people, and that we have crossed the USA in
terms of pace of vaccination. Unfortunately, if you compare the population
ratio, you will see you have vaccinated only one-third of that of the USA.1080 If
you count the total vaccination, only 5 per cent of Indian citizens have been
vaccinated with two doses as of now.
Sir,
it is not the case of West Bengal only. Several other States are facing this
acute crisis of vaccine.1120
Even when the National Health Mission says that the highest vaccination rate is
in the State of West Bengal and that the vaccination wastage is least in West
Bengal, there is least allocation for West Bengal. Why is there such a
step-motherly attitude towards West Bengal? Sir, a data says that if we
inoculate 10 million per day, we can tackle the third wave; and if we inoculate
3 million per day, it will cover 40 per cent1200
till December and we can inoculate 60 per cent at the end of March, 2022. The
most unfortunate part of the story is that we are the largest COVID vaccine
producing country. We are exporting six crore doses in two months, but we are
starving, we are not getting vaccinated. The affidavit submitted by the Government
of India before the1260
Supreme Court says that 187 crore shots are needed to vaccinate all persons above
18 years and 135 crore shots1280
will be available by December, 2021. But one of the Ministers said that between
August and December, there will be availability of 260 crores of vaccines. One
Minister is saying something, data is saying something else, and the affidavit
that has been produced before the Supreme Court is saying a totally different
thing. Just imagine the real picture. The main problem is that our Government
is always in a self-congratulatory mode. Some of their leaders are saying that
Corona is a virus and it has got the right to live. Can you believe this? Some
leaders of the ruling party say that if one consumes cow urine, one will get
rid of Corona. That is the main problem. Just to1400 shift the responsibility, our previous Health
Minister has been made a scapegoat.
Sir,
we have seen dead bodies floating in the river during the second wave. So, we are apprehensive. If our present Health
Minister does not work properly then the1440
day is not very far when we might see dead bodies lying on roads. Sir, mass
vaccination is the only solution. We know that the third wave might affect the
children because they are not yet vaccinated. The Government should take a
strong note of mass vaccination policy, especially of availability of
ventilators. It should be a must. The federal structure should be given
importance. What is wrong in it if a lady knows better than you? What is wrong
in it to have some good idea from that lady? Why do you not come to West Bengal
for a day? You made the infectivity rate 33 per cent. Within a span of one
month, it has come down to below 2 per cent in our State of West Bengal. My
last proposal before the learned Health Minister will be to give proper homage
to all the COVID warriors. Please have an idea in your mind to build1600 a COVID memorial in a centrally located
place. We believe we will not see dead bodies on roads. With these words, I
conclude my speech.1624
The Pitman Dictionary of
English and Shorthand
