Nana Patole, another treasure from the Congress vault, issued a bizarre statement on Monday saying that the lumpy skin disease virus, which has been prevailing in Nigeria for many years, is being spread in India by the eight Cheetahs that Central Government brought in from Namibia.
The President of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee attacked PM Modi by accusing him of purposely bringing the Lumpy disease, basically prevailing in Nigeria, to India by importing the Cheetahs from Namibia. He said that it is the central government’s ploy to harm the farmers.
In a video shared by news agency ANI, Nana Patole is heard saying, “This Lumpy illness has been prevalent for many years in a country called Nigeria and the Cheetahs have been brought from there. The spots on a cheetah’s body are comparable to those seen in animals suffering from lumpy sickness. This is the central government’s plot. It has deliberately done this so that the farmers suffer.”
Responding to Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole’s outlandish remarks, BJP MLA Ram Kadam said, the Congress party should be awarded the Nobel Prize for connecting the Lumpy skin disease spread with the arrival of Cheetahs in the country.
Notably, the Cheetahs had arrived from the African nation Namibia and were released into Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park last month on a day that also marked PM Modi’s 72nd birthday, whereas the lumpy skin disease has lingered around for well over three months in the country.
Furthermore, the Cheetahs brought to India were not Nigerian Cheetahs, but Namibian Cheetahs. While both Nigeria and Namibia are in the same continent Africa, the distance between the two countries is well over 5,000 KMs. However, Nana Patole didn’t let such small details distract him.
Notably, Patole’s bizarre remarks came days after a suspected case of lumpy skin disease, which affects cattle like cows and buffaloes, in an animal was detected in the Mumbai suburb of Khar in Maharashtra.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the cheetahs brought from Namibia into a special enclosure at the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh on September 17.
The cheetahs were brought in as part of a plan to reintroduce the big cat to India seven decades after it was declared extinct.
Interestingly, the Congress party had then courted controversy by trying to hog credit for Project Cheetah. Despite its failed bid in 2013, it had tried its best to eclipse the achievement of the incumbent BJP government.