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‘First nation to celebrate a pandemic’, TMC stings Sunday’s ‘9pm 9-min’ show

Hindustan Times, Kolkata | By
Apr 06, 2020 10:47 AM IST

In Kolkata, firecrackers burst at several places right after 9pm, following which the police launched a crackdown and arrested 98 people.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and Trinamool Congress youth wing chief Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday night criticised the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s light-out call for 9 minutes at 9pm was observed and asked if the government was preaching isolation or destruction.

In Kolkata, firecrackers burst at several places right after 9pm, following which the police launched a crackdown and arrested 98 people.

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“With the firecrackers, fancy diyas & sky lanterns, we have become the first ever Nation to celebrate a pandemic #COVID19 I am also contemplating how many actually followed the norms of #lockdown to gear up for this. What was being preached: self-isolation or self-destruction? (sic)” Abhishek Banerjee wrote on Twitter late on Sunday night.

On Saturday, Mamata Banerjee had refused to comment on the Prime Minister’s call for switching off the lights for nine minutes in a show of solidarity with those fighting the battle against Covid-19 from the front.

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“If someone wishes to participate, it’s up to him and her. What do I have to say?” she had said when journalists asked her about Modi’s announcement.

Incidentally, in a tweet posted an hour before 9pm on Sunday, TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien wrote without referring to the event that the Centre needed to take nine urgent steps.

“We need to take these 9 urgent steps to fight the #COVID19 challenge,” O’Brien wrote in a tweet that accompanied a photo of a burning candle.

Also read: Will districts with no Covid-19 cases be first to be unlocked?

Meanwhile, the Raj Bhavan on Sunday was all decked up with candles as Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar observed the light-out event.

“Raj Bhavan Kolkata at 9 PM was lighted with Candles and Diyas with all electric lights off in the entire premises. Governor Dhankhar and First Lady Sudesh Dhankhar lighted up with Candles and Diyas Raj Bhavan in response to the visionary call @narendramodi (sic),” Dhankhar tweeted on Sunday night.

A 55-year-old railway employee who tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday and was admitted at a hospital in Siliguri died on Sunday, marking the second death in the region and eighth in the state.

The state government said 80 people have tested positive till Saturday night, out of whom 49 are active cases.

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