Youth Congress volunteers supply oxygen to two foreign embassies: Government, Congress spar on social media | India News – Times of India

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NEW DELHI: The government and the Congress engaged in a war of words on Sunday over members of the Youth Congress supplying oxygen cylinders to two embassies in the capital. While the government said the supply was unsolicited, Youth Congress said that they had acted on specific requests.
The government and Congress sparred on Twitter after senior opposition leader Jairam Ramesh questioned the Centre’s Covid-19 preparedness given how the youth wing members of the opposition party were responding to SOS calls made by foreign embassies.

Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas BV had shared a video of volunteers delivering oxygen cylinders to the New Zealand high commission on Sunday morning while a video of Philippines embassy was shared on Saturday night.

Foreign affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar responding to Ramesh’s tweet said that the supply of oxygen made to the Philippines embassy was “unsolicited” as there were no Covid-19 patients in the embassy. He said that it was done only for “cheap publicity”.

However, the Indian Youth Congress (IYC), sharing screenshots of the requests made by the New Zealand and the Philippines embassy said that they delivered cylinders only after receiving requests.

Even as the embassy of New Zealand deleted their earlier tweet in which they had tagged the IYC, later the embassy clarified that they were trying all sources to get oxygen and apologized for their request being misinterpreted.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a statement said that the ministry is responding to the medical demands of all the high commissions and embassies and also urged people to not hoard supplies.
“The Chief of Protocol and Heads of Divisions are in continuous touch with all High Commissions/Embassies and MEA is responding to their medical demands, especially those related to Covid. This includes facilitating their hospital treatment. Given the pandemic situation, all are urged not to hoard essential supplies, including oxygen,” said the statement.
The controversy broke out even as India continues to record almost 4 lakh new cases and more than 3,000 deaths as the second wave of Covid-19 turns into a storm causing an acute shortage of oxygen, hospital beds and medical supplies.

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