Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that India is facing the result of a “failed” lockdown.

Interacting with reporters on the Coronavirus pandemic via video conferencing, he questioned the Centre on its action plan as cases across the country continue to increase at an alarming rate.

“In Congress states, we have a strategy. But we cannot function without the national government,” Rahul Gandhi aid.

He further said while India is the only country where the virus is exponentially rising, the lockdown is being lifted, and added that the aim and purpose of the shutdown has failed.

Further hitting out at the Central government, the Congress leader said, “PM Modi had said we will defeat coronavirus in 21 days. Now we are in our fourth phase of lockdown. It is clear that our lockdown has failed. I would like to ask the government and PM Modi with due respect, as to what is the plan going forward? How do you plan to help businesses, migrants and the poor?”

“What is the strategy regarding opening India? What precautions will they take to now curb the disease? How will they support migrants? How will they support State Govts & MSMEs?” Rahul Gandhi asked as per a tweet by the Youth Congress.

He also said that the Congress party is running some states and the party is giving cash to people, including labourers. However, he alleged that the party was not getting any support from the Centre.

The spread of the novel Coronavirus has shown no indication of slowing down with the increase mercury. In fact in the last 15 days it has steadily climbed the graph adding in two weeks more cases than it did in the first 100 days. On Tuesday, the Health Ministry Data revealed that there were 6,535 new cases added in 24 hours which also witnessed 146 new fatalities.

As the total tally of COVID-19 cases in India touched 1,45,380, it also showed a week of continued spurt in the cases hovering close to 6,000 before almost touching the 7,000 mark. On Monday (6,977), Sunday (6,767), Saturday (6,654), Friday (6,088) and Thursday (5,614).

While in the first 100 days of the disease being reported in the country since January 30, there were around 60,000 cases, now with a steady plateau of cases the fortnight alone saw some 70,000 cases. On May 9, India was inching towards the 60,000-mark and between April 12 and May 26 we have recoded 70,657 cases, even as the mercury remained in the range between 38 and 46 degrees Celsius in the last seven days.

Of the total cases so far 80,722 are active, while 60,490 people have been cured and 4,167 have died. In the past 24 hours at least 2,769 people have also been cured.

India is now among the ten countries worst hit by the pandemic that has over 5 million cases worldwide. The other nine countries ahead of India are – US, Brazil, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, and Turkey.