Sibal flays the Kejriwal govt on Delhi lockdown situation

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Saturday flayed the Delhi government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and maintained that his party can't offer suggestions on the lockdown situation in Delhi as "no data is in the public domain".

"The Delhi government has absolutely no idea how to deal with the situation. Sometimes, he (Kejriwal) supports the central government; sometimes, he opposes it; he has no policy at all, it is all ad hoc," the former Union Minister told a press conference here.

"In this situation, how do we even give suggestions if true data is not before us?"

In reply to a question, he said: "The problem is that you can't put life vs livelihood. If there is no life, there can be no livelihood and if there is no livelihood, there can be no life...."

The Congress leader said that these things had to be assessed very carefully and that was possible only if data is available. "Nobody gives you the correct data neither the Delhi Government nor anybody else. And we have reports that the municipal data (on corona deaths in Delhi) is much different than what the Delhi government is putting out."

Sibal said that while the Delhi government was claiming that hospital beds were empty, and that anybody could visit the hospitals, but the fact was to the contrary.

"I know of cases where ultimately intervention has to be done at the highest possible level to get a man admitted to a hospital. When you go to a hospital, doctors are also available with great difficulties... it is not easy for the common man, impossible."

Sibal said that he had all along been saying to convert stadiums in Delhi into hospitals to house increasing number of patients.

( With inputs from IANS )