New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: Politics divides, disaster unites. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing her party’s full support for the 21-day national lockdown as a “welcome step”.
“As president of the Congress, I would like to state that we will support and collaborate fully with every step taken by the Union Government to ensure the containment of the pandemic,” Sonia wrote in the four-page letter.
“At this challenging and uncertain time, it is imperative for each one of us to rise above partisan interests and honour one’s duty towards our country and indeed, towards humanity,” she added.
The Congress chief also suggested economic and health measures in the fight against coronavirus, NDTV reported.
She wrote that the government should “immediately put in place broad-based social protection measures including direct cash transfers” to daily wagers, MNREGA workers, factory workers, construction workers, farmers and others in the unorganized sector.
Earlier on Wednesday, the opposition BJP in Odisha had expressed a similar solidarity to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, offering to assist the state administration in its fight against coronavirus.
In a letter to the CM, Odisha BJP president Samir Mohanty wrote that his party workers will do whatever responsibility the state government assigned to them to lessen the misery of the people during the lockdown, New Indian Express reported.
“We sincerely wish that the State Government emerges victorious in the battle against COVID-19,” Mohanty wrote.
“While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the national battle against the epidemic from the front, you (the Chief Minister) have been taking extraordinary measures to deal with an emergency situation like this. We are standing solidly behind you to protect the people from the deadly virus,” he added.
