Shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on the country’s citizens to light diyas and candles on the coming Sunday to show India’s collective determination to fight against the darkness of coronavirus, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said that the PM’s message lacked any substance related to containing the disease or protect the medical practitioners and others. “Modiji, Learnt nothing about government’s steps to- 1) contain the virus, 2) protect our medical practitioners, 3) provide testing kits, 4) reach food and supplies to the poor, 5) finance migrant labour, the jobless. Light the ‘ Diya ‘ of reason, Not that of superstition !” Sibal tweeted. The senior Congress leader was not alone in criticising the video message by Prime Minister Modi as Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor also shared a tweet stating that it lacked measures “to ease people’s pain, their burdens, their financial anxieties.” Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister had urged people to gather together for a unique exercise on April 5 at 9 pm to show they were together in the fight against coronavirus. “On this Sunday, April 5, we will challenge the darkness of coronavirus threat together. On April 5, at 9 pm, I need your 9 minutes. At 9 pm, turn off all the lights in your houses and light a Diya, candle, torch or flashlight for 9 minutes at your doors, or balcony,” Modi said. The Prime Minister further said that this will send out a message that nobody among the 130 crore Indians is alone in this fight against the deadly infection.
