fredag 30. april 2021

India's ruling party leader says 'responsibility is ours' for Covid-19 outbreak

Responsibility for the devastating second wave of Covid-19 now sweeping India belongs "first and foremost" to the government, according to Narendra Taneja, a spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "We are in power, we are the government in India so of course responsibility is first and foremost ours, good or bad, whatever it is. It is our responsibility and we're trying our very level best," Taneja told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday.

However, he also argued that the current crisis could not have been foreseen. "A lot of people are saying that... we knew in February. At that time, scientists and doctors were more or less of the same view," he said. "Evidently something went wrong, evidently we were hit by a tsunami, and as you know, you're often not aware. In most cases 80-90% reasons could be external. We don't know. We don't want to blame anybody. We know we're in power, we are responsible.. our focus is now on how we can save lives."

India is experiencing one of the world's worst Covid-19 outbreaks, reporting 379,257 new cases on Thursday, a new global record, according to figures released by the country's health ministry. The country also reported 3,645 deaths, the highest number of Covid-19 deaths the country has reported in a single day. Even more deaths and cases may be going unreported.