Rohit Kumar
Port Blair, 11 May 2021
Mr. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala yesterday sent out a tweet in which he expressed concern on receiving reports of deteriorating COVID-19 situation in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Further in his tweet he mentioned about 4-5 deaths happening daily at G.B Pant Hospital. He also mentioned that figures of cases and deaths are allegedly suppressed and no testing is being done even for symptomatic cases. He further mentioned about the Islands having only 50 ventilators for a population of around 4 lakh and blamed the media for being silent.
The political circles of Andaman and Nicobar Islands was abuzz after the tweet of the Thiruvananthapuram MP and many on social media and messaging apps started blaming Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, Member of Parliament from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, for not raising any voice for the people of the Islands. Many in the political circles speculated that the inputs on COVID-19 management on Andamans, may have been shared with the Thiruvananthapuram MP by Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, since both of them are members of Indian National Congress.
Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma sent out a tweet this evening requesting Mr. Sashi Tharoor to verify the information he has on deaths and shortage of ventilators per capita, as it is not the situation on the ground. He went on to add that Andaman and Nicobar Islands is one of the best managed places in the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma tagged the Lt. Governor’s Secretariat-Media Cell, A& N Islands as well as Mr. Jitendra Narain, Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar Administration on his tweet. Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma however did not reply on the tweet of the Thiruvananthapuram MP but instead chose to mention him on one of his own tweets.