Need to mobilise scientists, engineers to work on innovative solutions to COVID-19 crisis: Rahul

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday described the COVID-19 pandemic as a "huge challange" and an "opportunity", saying there is a need to mobilise the country's scientists, engineers and data experts to work on innovative solutions to the crisis. "The Covid19 pandemic is a huge challenge but it is also an opportunity," he said in a tweet. "We need to mobilise our huge pool of scientists, engineers & data experts to work on innovative solutions needed during the crisis," the former Congress president said.

On Thursday, Gandhi had called for a united fight against the pandemic and said a lockdown is not the solution to defeat coronavirus. He had asserted that aggressive testing is the "biggest weapon" to fight the virus. Gandhi had also extended his support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Centre and all state governments in the fight against Covid-19 and demanded immediate scaling up of the testing facilities to contain the pandemic.

“The biggest weapon to fight this virus is testing. Our rate currently is very slow and we are not using the testing strategically. We are at present chasing the virus. We should immediately and aggressively push for rapid testing, maximise it and use it strategically. If we don’t ramp up testing, we will be forced to again go into lockdown,” Gandhi said during a news conference through video-conferencing. 

The Congress leader had said it was not the time to criticise the government and insisted that he wanted to give constructive suggestions when asked if he agreed with the Prime Minister that India took early steps to contain Covid-19. “I disagree with the Prime Minister on several issues and will continue to do so but this is no time to fight. It’s a long battle and all of us need to fight it together. I don’t want any credit and whoever wants to take it can take it but we would give constructive suggestions even if the government takes it or not,” he added.