The Congress on Saturday accused the Central government of failing to protect the lives of the people amid the Covid-19 pandemic. It also urged the Centre to follow the suggestions of the experts to declare a nationwide lockdown in the wake of the rising number of Covid-19 cases across the country. Earlier in the day, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for 'not utilising the vaccination budget'.

"Vaccine budget - underutilized. Human life - undervalued. Because Prime Minister's ego - overinflated," he tweeted, attaching a news report which claimed that only Rs 4,744 crore has been utilised from the vaccine budget of Rs 35,000 crore. In another tweet, he tagged a small video titled "Modi hai to mumkin hai" which showed a rising graph of Covid-19 cases and a declining graph of vaccination. Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Union minister Ajay Maken while addressing a virtual press conference quoted a report from The Lancet medical journal which claimed that India will see one million deaths from Covid-19 by August 1.