Govt should vaccinate on war footing: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: As like earlier occasions, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday has again urged the government in advance to prepare for the third wave of Coronavirus by improving medical infrastructure and vaccinate on a war footing to protect all Indians.

While releasing a "white paper" by the party on the Centre's COVID-19 handling, he said, "It is pretty clear that the management of the first and second wave was disastrous."

Taking a swipe at the prime minister for turning emotional while talking about Covid deaths in his address to the nation, Gandhi said that the 90 per cent deaths have been needless and could have been avoided.

"The prime minister's tears cannot wipe the tears of those who lost the lives of their kin. The PM's tears did not save the lives of those who died, but oxygen could have saved them," he said.

He alleged that the prime minister did not take the second wave seriously and was fighting elections in Bengal and his focus was elsewhere.

The former Congress chief further said that there were some central reasons as to why the first and second waves were disastrous and added that the party has "tried to point out those reasons in our white paper".

"This is a blueprint on how to react to the third wave, which is going to come. It is our intention to provide the government with information and insights on what went wrong," he told reporters at a virtual press conference.

The purpose of this white paper is not to finger point at the government, but to help the nation prepare for the third wave that is going to come.

Noting that the virus is smart and is mutating fast, Gandhi said, "If the second wave was bad, the third wave would be worse."

Asserting that the central pillar to fight Covid is vaccination, Gandhi said, "It is important that we aggressively do vaccinations and cross this bridge over 100 per cent vaccination as soon as possible because that is the only protection."