From The Character of the Good in NITI SATAKA (One Hundred Couplets on Polity and Ethics) by SHREE BHARTRIHARI, translated into English from the original Sanskrit by REV. B. HALE WORTHAM in 1886
Pictures tweeted by the BJP’s social media spearheads on Monday showed a ventilator with the “PM CARES” label, including the circle. The pictures — the one above was posted by BJP general secretary (organisation) B.L. Santosh — were used to slam those who asked questions about the PM CARES Fund set up after Covid-19 struck India. “People who want audit of #PMCaresFund...You have it here... Ventilators start reaching hospitals,” Santosh tweeted.
The tweet claimed the number of ventilators being added with money from the PM CARES Fund was equal to what the country had got in the past 65 years. Last month, the Centre had announced an allocation of Rs 3,100 crore, of which Rs 2,000 crore was earmarked for the purchase of 50,000 “Made in India” ventilators.
“With #PMCARES, in one stroke, India will get 50 thousand more ventilators!” tweeted the BJP’s information technology cell chief, Amit Malviya. “Did someone want an audit? To learn to count till 50,000 to start with...” he added.
But the fundamental questions still remain unanswered:
- What was the need for the PM CARES Fund when the PMNRF (PM National Relief Fund) was already there?
- How much money has been contributed to the PM CARES Fund?
- Who contributed how much?
- Why is there no account of daily receipts and allocations?
- Why is the fund not under the Right to Information Act?
- Why does the corporate social responsibility norm apply to the PM CARES Fund and not to the relief funds of chief ministers?