Congress's double standards on Wayanad landslide, reversed its own decision to declare it a national disaster

Opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi have been demanding for the past several days that the landslide in Wayanad, Kerala be declared a national disaster. Even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Wayanad, Rahul tried to build pressure by posting on X, while the fact is that there is no provision to declare a natural disaster as a national disaster.

This argument is not of the current central government, but the Congress-led UPA government itself had given a written reply in Parliament in 2013 regarding the terrible tragedy of Uttarakhand and said that there is no provision to declare a natural disaster as a national disaster. Recently, many villages were destroyed due to landslide in Wayanad. More than 300 people are reported to have died.

Discussion in Parliament

Since the budget session of Parliament was going on at that time, it was raised in Parliament by the Congress and the government also gave details of the relief and rescue work being done there, but other opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, who was elected MP from Wayanad for the second time, are constantly demanding that the central government declare the Wayanad tragedy a national disaster.

The demand was raised again during the PM's visit

Now this issue has heated up again because on Saturday PM Modi reached Wayanad to inspect the spot. Just before that on Friday, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi wrote a post on Instagram, 'Thank you Modi ji for personally visiting Wayanad to take stock of the terrible tragedy. This is a good decision. I am sure that once the Prime Minister sees the devastation firsthand, he will declare it a national disaster.'

Responding to this political ploy of Rahul, without any comment, BJP leaders are circulating the written reply of the then UPA government's Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullapally Ramachandran of 2013, which he had given in the Lok Sabha on the demand to declare the Uttarakhand tragedy as a national disaster.

The UPA government had cited rules

In fact, Mullapally had then given a statement that the Government of India decides the disaster of serious nature only after considering the intensity and consequences of the disaster, the level of relief assistance, the state government's ability to deal with the problem and the options for planning relief.

It was clearly written in the reply that immediate relief and response assistance is the priority in the context of natural disaster. There is no fixed rule in such a case. However, after following the procedure, additional assistance from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) is also considered. In view of natural disasters, the responsibility of taking necessary rescue and relief measures mainly lies with the concerned state government.

Questions raised on Congress

In such a situation, the question arises that when the then Congress government itself had cited rules in the Uttarakhand tragedy which was much more horrific than Wayanad, then today ignoring that fact, on what basis are Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders demanding to declare the Wayanad tragedy as a national disaster.