Sonia Gandhi on Saturday stressed the need for unity amid the Covid crisis and called for a national plan to fight the epidemic.

“Friends, I want to stress that unity is the key to success in overcoming this crisis. I express my condolences to the families who have lost their dear ones,” the Congress president said in a video message.

“We have to hold each other’s hand; we have to become each other’s support as well as strength. This tragedy has shaken humanity but try to rise above differences to help people,” she said.

Sonia urged the central and state governments to wake up and discharge their duties.

“A national plan to fight Covid should be evolved in consultation with all the political parties of the country,” she said, appearing to hint at the government’s failure to meet the challenge and flag the need to harness the collective wisdom available within the country.

The government has been rebuffing and ridiculing the Congress over the suggestions it has provided on ways of tackling the epidemic and the accompanying humanitarian and economic crises, while subsequently accepting some of them without acknowledgement.

Sonia recently regretted that her suggestions, based on discussions with senior politicians possessing decades of administrative experience, had fallen on deaf ears as the situation plummeted from bad to worse.

On Saturday, the Congress president flagged the severe shortages of oxygen and medicine and yet again provided certain suggestions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The first thing that needs to be done is put Rs 6,000 in the accounts of the poor to stop their exodus from the cities. Ramp up testing, availability of oxygen and medicine, and start vaccination on a war footing,” she said.

“Invoke compulsory licensing to increase vaccine production, avoid discriminatory pricing, stop black marketeering of life-saving drugs and ensure industrial oxygen is transformed into medical oxygen.”

Several Congress leaders expressed outrage at the government’s attempts to deny the oxygen shortage.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Shortage crisis of vaccine, oxygen & medical supply is real... unlike PM’s image.”

Party communications chief Randeep Surjewala dripped sarcasm: “No shortage but India is gasping for oxygen. Only Modi government cannot see it.”

He added: “Patients are dying every day. Hospitals don’t have oxygen. Oxygen cylinders aren’t available. Cylinder refill is a challenge. Paper affidavits in (the) Supreme Court will not change the truth.”

Former finance minister P. Chidambaram chided the government over the vaccine shortage, saying the expansion of the vaccination campaign to include those aged between 18 and 45 had been a “non-starter”.

“All but six states have refused to roll out the programme citing insufficiency of vaccines. The (Union) health minister who declared ‘there is no shortage of vaccines’ should admit his failure and resign,” he said.

“The vaccine shortage and the failure of the rollout programme are examples of the total mismanagement of the fight against (the) coronavirus. If the health minister is not held accountable, who will be?”

The Congress on Saturday launched a medical advisory helpline for Covid patients and a plasma helpline. Youth Congress president B.V. Srinivas said that around 22,000 volunteers were working round the clock on Rahul’s request.

“We have seen how people are struggling for oxygen and plasma. So far, Youth Congress workers were donating plasma. With this helpline, anybody who has recovered from Covid and wants to donate plasma can (do so),” he said.

“This will help patients across the country, at the district and block levels, through a control room that will have the complete data bank.”