India is battling the second wave of Covid-19 and infections are spreading into the interiors of the country, says Dr Anurag Bhadouria, National Spokesperson, Samajwadi Party. It is precipitated by the elections in five states, the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar and also panchayat elections in many states, he says, adding that the country’s medical infrastructure is severely challenged. In particular, he said the situation was very critical in Uttar Pradesh, and the state government was hiding data.

“Corona has spread into villages due to BJP’s failure. What has the centre done in the last seven years to upgrade health infrastructure except for playing negative politics? How many AIIMS’s has BJP set up in UP and how many hospitals or oxygen plants have they set up?” he asked.

Bhadouria was in a live webcast conversation with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now, on Saturday as part of the Visionary Talk series organised by the public policy and governance analysis platform.

Watch the video:



He put the onus of spread of Covid infections on the state’s ruling BJP and said that wrong decisions of Yogi Adityanath and BJP government have led to spread of Covid-19 in villages of UP as well as the country.

He said that the BJP govt only gives tall talks. The centre is sourcing oxygen from existing plants which were set up 40 years ago; there is no additional supply for the state and no new health infrastructure has been created by the govt.

The SP leader said that situation in UP is extremely bad and govt is not giving out true figures. He said the media has reported that in Gorakhpur actual numbers of deaths are 15 times of official government figures. Actual numbers of deaths in Lucknow in last 10 days is 1500 against the numbers put out by the government. In Kanpur, number of deaths are five times those put out by the govt. In Banaras and Kanpur, he said, there are serpentine queues at crematoriums where people are given tokens for conducting last rights of their dead. In Jhansi the govt has now stopped giving out data and same is happening in Meerut.

“It is matter of shame how the UP govt is hiding and suppressing data which is contradicting ground reality. The centre is fudging figures across the country,” said Bhadouria.  

With panchayat elections being held in UP, he said these could have been avoided and the infections would not have spread to villages of UP. “What was the necessity to hold panchayat elections in UP when the country is reeling under the pandemic? The government is to be held responsible for spreading Covid into villages,” he added.

He further said that the West Bengal, Tamil Nadu , Kerala, Puducherry and Assam elections could have been easily held after six months.

“When there was loud chorus by SP and opposition to stop rallies in West Bengal BJP leaders were doing big rallies in West Bengal. Later during Panchayati Raj elections the opposition wanted to postpone counting but BJP went ahead with counting and you cannot avoid crowds at booths. Even after the high court and supreme court said that Covid protocol must be maintained outside booths, during the counting it was not done. The way BJP is controlling the system and it (system) is also delivering accordingly, what can you do?” he asked.

Bhadouria also said with the BJP govt at the centre media is playing to the gallery and the entire day the conversation is only about Delhi. “They will not talk about Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat.”   
He said when the BJP does not want to do any work and expects only opposition to do it then why does it want to remain in power.

“What is the government there for? If everything has to done by the opposition then is the prime minister only there to exert his power as most powerful leader of country and Yogi Adityanath to wield control as the most important leader of state? What is your vision? When you don’t know how to handle the pandemic why do you want people to clap and bang thalis? Why did you impose lockdown last year when you did not know how to handle it? Why did you do the ‘Namaste Trump’ event when corona was spreading in the country? There are many questions which the centre is evading,” he said.              

Asked about Yogi Adityanath’s development projects in UP, Bhadouria said that if the UP CM claims to have constructed many expressways and hospitals in UP, he must share videos of moving cars on these expressways and also of patient on hospital beds. He should also upload videos of industries he claims to have set up in UP.