Dilip Ghosh holds rally breaking all Covid protocols, says 'Corona is gone'

Kolkata: When the entire nation has hunkered down amid the pandemic and India crossing the 45-lakh mark with a record 96,551 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, Bengal's BJP unit chief Dilip Ghosh at a public rally in South Bengal on Thursday declared that "Corona is gone" and alleged that the state government is imposing lockdown so that the saffron party could not take out rallies.

After the video of Ghosh's earlier statement went viral, pat came a barb from the Trinamool Congress (TMC). Trinamool MP, Kalyan Banerjee said that time has come when the state president of the party Dilip Ghosh should go for serious treatment to cure his mental disorder. "The recent statements made by Ghosh clearly indicate that his mental balance has gone and serious treatment is

required to cure his lunacy," Banerjee said.

"While the whole of India is still fighting tirelessly against the deadly #COVID19 pandemic, @DilipGhoshBJP announces "Corona is Over"! Evidently, he values vote bank politics much above human lives. The wit of @BJP4Bengal President is horrifying!" the TMC tweeted on Friday. Ghosh had said: "Corona is gone. Didimoni (Mamata Banerjee) is just pretending and imposing lockdown so that the BJP can't hold rallies," said Ghosh while addressing a gathering, which in itself was held breaking all Covid protocols, at Nadia in south Bengal on Thursday. Bengal had imposed lockdown on six days in August and in September, three days of lockdown was announced.

Saugata Roy, TMC lawmaker said: "Lockdown is imposed or cancelled based on administrative convenience and on the advice of experts."

However, this is not for the first time that the BJP MP Ghosh courted a controversy. Earlier in November 2019, a video went viral where Ghosh had said that milk of Indian cows is laced with gold and that's why it was yellowish in colour.

Meanwhile, Ghosh back-tracked from his statement. In a clarification on Friday, the BJP leader said his speech on the virus was taken "out of context" and in a reversal of stance said "corona is still here", as reported.