Aggressive Testing Key in Fight Against COVID-19: Manmohan, Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the party should have a broad framework for protection of migrants.

File photo of former prime minister Manmohan Singh. 

(Photo: AP)

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday, 26 April, said that without aggressive testing facilities, India cannot conquer challenges posed by COVID-19. Testing and tracing are the key to fighting the menace, he said in a video released by the Congress.

“There are problems with regard to the inadequacy of testing facilities and without more aggressive facilities of testing, we are not going to conquer this menace,” Singh said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clear "bottlenecks" and ramp up coronavirus testing in the country. Quoting experts, he said, "random testing is the key to beating the virus".

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Apart from Singh, other Congress leaders, too, shared their thoughts on fighting the coronavirus pandemic in the video. These leaders are members of a consultative group headed by Singh and have been tasked with formulating the party's views on various matters.

The leaders also expressed their views on how the migrant workers’ crisis should be dealt with.

‘Random Testing is Key’: Rahul Quotes Experts

Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi on Twitter said, “In India, a bottle neck is stopping us from scaling testing from the current 40,000 per day to 1 lakh tests a day, for which test kits are already in stock.”

“We must insist that migrants are protected. But, we must also acknowledge that state governments are actually going to be responsible for driving this thing. Different state governments might choose different methodologies to solve this problem,” he said, in a separate statement.

Gandhi said, “Our migrant strategy should include protection. The idea that you can tell the migrant that it is the migrant’s problem, that has to be central. Movement of the migrant should depend on the two states and they should have a conversation.”

“Testing and tracing are the key to fight COVID-19. Humanism, protection and financial security must drive our approach to dealing with migrant labourers. This is the only way ahead,” the Congress said while sharing the video.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram suggested that plans to deal with migrant workers’ crisis must be made by the states they came from. “But, the bulk will have to remain where they are. They have to be immediately given cash and grain,” he noted.

Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said, “the government is failing in this battle and we have to put pressure on the government for the people of the country.” Congress Chief Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the government's financial action plan 1 has not really worked and “government needs to step up.”

Another Congress leader Jairam Ramesh sought scaling up of testing facilities and noted that the country had the capacity to triple the amount of testing. For reaching a threshold level of covering one per cent of population, “we have to do something like 10 million tests, he said.

The Congress also said that it believes in dialogue and discussion as the path to finding solutions.

(With inputs from PTI)