As PM Modi takes stock, BJP accuses Rahul Gandhi of politicising Wayanad tragedy

New Delhi, Aug 10 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Kerala’s Wayanad on Saturday to examine the aftermath of devastating landslides that struck the region on July 30, resulting in more than 200 deaths.

Ahead of PM Modi’s visit, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi reiterated his demand for declaring the Wayanad landslides as a national disaster.

This has resulted in sharp reactions from the BJP as it accused the former Wayanad MP of politicising the tragedy and using the opportunity for political mileage.

BJP General Secretary and national spokesperson Anil Antony tore into the Congress MP for his ‘unawareness and ignorance’ of the Central government laws on natural calamities and said that this was not a time to do politics.

In a conversation with IANS, the BJP leader from Kerala said that Rahul Gandhi has been a Parliamentarian for the past 20 years, has been party president and is now the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha.

“He is either unaware or ignorant of the Central government laws on national calamities,” he said, citing a reply of the MoS in the UPA government on natural calamities.

Mullappally Ramachandran, MoS in UPA-II, in reply to a similar question in Lok Sabha in 2013, said, "There is no provision to declare a natural disaster as a national disaster."

Anil Antony, the son of former UPA minister A K Antony, further told IANS that the state government was informed and warned about possible consequences in the Western Ghats due to torrential rains but it didn’t pay heed to alerts.

“After the tragedy struck Wayanad, central teams were quickly rushed to the landslide-hit region for relief and rescue work. But, the Opposition’s main focus is to distract people by building political narrative rather than engaging in quick rescue work,” he further said, while also questioning Rahul’s delayed visit to the landslide-hit region, the constituency from where he won twice in 2019 and 2024.