BJP accuses Congress of politicising Covid-19
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, June 16 2021: Responding to MPCC president K Govindas' reaction to CM N Biren's earlier statement, BJP Manipur Pradesh has accused the Congress party of politicising the Covid-19 pandemic and demanded the party to tender an outright apology.

Speaking to the media, BJP state vice-president Ch Chidananda pointed out that the world is facing the impact of Covid-19 and many lives have been lost in the pandemic.

However, Congress is indulging in a low level politics and misleading the public.

Congress party does not see the pandemic as a pandemic but as a political game, which is very unfortunate.

BJP strongly condemns such low-level politics of Congress party, he said and added that the Congress should apologise to the public for this.

The vice president contended that there are huge differences between the price of petroleum products during the last 10 years of Congress rule under Manmohan Singh and seven years of BJP rule under Narendra Modi.

It is fortunate that Congress party brings out data on tax collected from petroleum products.

There was an outstanding liability of around Rs 8000 crore when BJP came into power in 2017 .

As a result, RBI deducts Rs 700 crore from the state budget every year.

In short, the tax collected from transport fuel by BJP government is far less than the interest the state is paying due to the liabilities created by the Congress government.

As such, it is necessary to bring out the financial status the BJP government undesirably inherited from the previous Congress government, he said and termed the statement made by CM Biren against Congress as a befitting reply.

BJP spokesperson Johnson Elangbam also reacted against the statement of MLA Govindas and said that all the good works done by the previous government have already been appreciated in the state assembly.

BJP warmly welcomes positive criticism from the opposition but cannot remain silent if they try to discredit the initiatives taken up by the incumbent government.

Maintaining that the BJP government is taking up various public welfare schemes during the pandemic, he expressed suspicion of Congress trying to gain political mileage from the issue of price hike in petrol and diesel.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decontrolled petrol and diesel as part of his economic policy.

Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi adopted the policy.

As a result, international fuel price directly affects pricing in the country and oil companies are in complete control.

Business sectors are facing severe drawbacks and there is acute shortage in revenue from this sector due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Only 45 per cent of revenue is collected by the government.

As a result, the government has increased excise duty on petrol, diesel and liquor to fill the gap.

Changing the tax rate is not feasible at the moment but once the pandemic is over, the government can bring down fuel prices, he added.

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