DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Expressing shock at Harsimrat Kaur Badal's pathetic and insensitive attempts to make political hay from the current Covid crisis in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said the Akali leader's habit of lying, even on the most sensitive of subjects, was shameful, especially at a time when the unrelenting efforts of the state's healthcare workers were showing some positive results. "While all Punjabis know what a congenital liar she is, her comments on the Covid situation have exposed a new low," said the Chief Minister, slamming the former Union Minister for playing dirty political games on the issue of the pandemic. Instead of choosing to support his government's concerted efforts, which had led to some bright spots on the Covid front, Harsimrat, along with the rest of her party colleagues, including SAD president Sukhbir Badal, had been continuously indulging in cheap criticism of his government on the management of the pandemic, he remarked. Pointing out that the state's medical community was working day and night to fight the pandemic, which had not spared any state or country, Captain Amarinder noted that the untiring efforts of the medical fraternity had led to some improvement in the situation over the past few days, with Punjab no longer among the top five states contributing the maximum case load. As per official data released by the Central government yesterday, 10 states had shown a step rise in the daily new Covid-19 cases accounting for 80.92 per cent of the new infections reported in a span of 24 hours. Punjab was not in the list, and has maintained that even today, according to the Centre's data, observed the Chief Minister, adding that this was marked improvement over the situation in the state till a few days back. While Punjab was still a long way from victory in the battle against Covid, this was a matter of optimism, and a cause for appreciation of all the frontline workers who were working hard for the past over one year, he noted. "But far from appreciating the hard work, dedication and sacrifice of all these workers, all that Harsimrat is worried about is how to take political mileage from the calamity, which has struck her own state and people," said the Chief Minister, lambasting the SAD leader over her attempts to undermine the efforts of all these people. "Does she not realise how such statements are demotivating for the frontline workers, and all the people of Punjab? Or does she simply not care, because her entire focus is on finding excuses to pull down my government?" asked Captain Amarinder. The fact was that the entire nation, in fact the world, was suffering the effects of the pandemic, with Punjab no exception. Some states did better at some time, while others showed improvement at others, he pointed out, adding that Harsimrat had conveniently chosen to ignore the hard facts in favour of frivolous allegations and petty blame-games. (editor@dailyworld.in)