Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Sunday said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was making a laughing stock of itself with its absurd claims on COVID-19 management in the national capital and termed the so-called ‘Delhi model’ nothing more than a desperate bid by the Delhi government to divert attention from its failures.
The Minister, in a statement, described Punjab Leader of the Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema’s statement expressing “dissatisfaction” with the Punjab government’s measures to tackle the pandemic as ridiculous and said the AAP MLA was clearly oblivious to the fact that Punjab continued to fare much better than many other States in the fight against COVID-19, which in fact had totally exposed the inadequate Delhi healthcare infrastructure.
Mr. Sidhu pointed out that the effectiveness of Punjab’s battle against the virus was not on account of any help from the Central government, unlike Delhi where the Centre had to step in and virtually take over the pandemic management to pull the city out of the total and unprecedented mess into which the AAP government had pushed it.
“The less said about the AAP government’s COVID management in Delhi the better,” said the Minister, pointing out that even now, the Delhi High Court was continuously questioning and, in fact, pulling up the Delhi government over its pandemic strategy.
“What Delhi model is this, which even the High Court is not satisfied with?” he asked, adding that Punjab remained far ahead of Delhi in terms of effectiveness in COVID-19 management.
Under HC scanner
“Given that the entire testing strategy of the Delhi government was under the court’s scanner, Mr. Cheema’s insistence on Punjab adopting the same strategy was not just laughable but a clear indication that the AAP was not interested in protecting the people of Punjab,” said Mr. Sidhu.
He said all the AAP had ever cared about was promoting its own interests, which the people of Punjab had seen through back in 2017 itself when they had shattered the party’s dreams of forming the government in the State.
