Kamal Nath: Madhya Pradesh is second on corona death list but has no health minister

New Delhi: Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath on Sunday blamed the BJP government for the coronavirus crisis, saying it had continued to run Parliament despite the grave situation.

Kamal Nath, whose government in MP was toppled by the BJP shortly before the nationwide lockdown came into effect on March 25, said the Centre kept Parliament running only to ensure that the Madhya Pradesh Assembly continued to function so that his government would fall.

The Congress government did fall and Shivraj Singh Chouhan was sworn in as the chief minister of the BJP government on March 23. But he has been the only one in the ministry so far.

Kamal Nath questioned the absence of a health minister or even a council of ministers at a time when Madhya Pradesh is in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. The state has a total of 572 corona positive cases with 44 deaths so far. Its industrial city of Indore has emerged as a major hotspot of infection.

The people of the state were “befooled” by the BJP, Kamal Nath said, adding: “Nowhere in the world has this happened.”

He noted that 45 persons, including the principal health secretary, in the health department of the state were coronavirus positive. Saying the situation in MP and the country was “very serious”, he said if more testing was done, the number of positive cases would shoot up.

Kamal Nath said the country was facing a very serious economic crisis due to Covid-19 and the Centre needed to come forward with an economic package. “Our supply chain should not be broken. Grain-producing states should buck up their supplies.”