‘Save your own life as PM busy with peacock’: Rahul Gandhi’s fresh salvo at Modi govt

Rahul Gandhi also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the "unplanned lockdown" calling it "gift of one man's ego."

Launching a sharp attack against the Modi government over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that people of India will have to be ‘atmanibhar‘ (self-reliant) and ‘save their own lives because PM is busy with a peacock.’ He also targeted the prime minister for the “unplanned lockdown” calling it “gift of one man’s ego.”

In a tweet posted this morning, Rahul wrote, “India’s coronavirus cases will cross 50 lakh this week and active cases will cross 10 lakh. Unplanned lockdown was the gift of one man’s ego, which led to the spread of coronavirus across the country. Modi government said “be self-reliant (atmanirbhar)”… which meant “save your own lives” because the Prime Minister is busy with a peacock.”

In his tweet, Gandhi is referring to the video recently shared by the prime minister on his Instagram handle. The video, shared with a poem in Hindi, shows PM Modi spending time with peacocks at his Lok Kalyan Marg residence. In the 1.47-minute video, PM Modi can be seen feeding grains to the bird during his morning exercises while another clip shows him with a pair of peahen inside his residence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been repeatedly stressing on the importance of the country becoming ‘atmanirbhar’. The economic package totaling Rs 20 lakh crore to tide over the Covid-19 crisis has also been named as ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’.

The coronavirus tally in India crossed the 48 lakh-mark with 92,071 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. As many as 1,136 deaths were reported on Sunday, taking the toll to 79,722.