In a scathing assault in opposition to the Centre over the scarcity of Covid vaccines, Congress chief Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday alleged that vaccines in India had been a method for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “personal publicity” fairly than a instrument to save lots of folks’s lives.
This was so from the start of the pandemic, the Congress basic secretary mentioned in posts on Twitter and Facebook.
She additionally alleged that the Modi authorities has pushed the nation right into a “swamp of vaccine shortage” and left India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, depending on vaccine donations from different nations.
Accusing the Centre of shifting the onus of vaccination on to states, Priyanka Gandhi mentioned there’s now solely Prime Minister Modi’s photograph on the vaccination certificates whereas the remainder of the accountability has been placed on the states.
“Today, the chief ministers of states are sending messages to the Central government over the lack of vaccines,” she mentioned in Hindi.
Her sharp assault on the federal government on the difficulty got here as a part of her ‘Zimmedaar Kaun’ (who’s accountable) marketing campaign, asking questions of the federal government on behalf of the folks over its dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic.
On August 15 final 12 months, the prime minister mentioned in a speech from the Red Fort that his authorities has ready a whole plan for vaccination, she posted. Given India’s historical past of vaccine manufacturing and the vastness of its vaccine programmes, it was straightforward to imagine that the federal government would do that work in a greater approach, Priyanka Gandhi added.
“After all, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave flight to India’s vaccine programme by organising a vaccine unit in Chennai in 1948 and the National Institute of Virology, Pune, in 1952. We efficiently defeated illnesses like smallpox, polio and so on.
Later, India began exporting vaccines to the world and at the moment it’s the largest vaccine producer on this planet,” she famous.
Knowing these achievements, the nation was certain that the folks of India wouldn’t face issues in vaccination in opposition to COVID-19, Priyanka Gandhi mentioned.
“But the bitter truth is that from the beginning of the pandemic, vaccines in India became a tool for the prime minister’s personal publicity rather than a tool to save the lives of the common people,” the Congress chief alleged.
“As a result, India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, has today become dependent on vaccine donations from other countries and has joined the ranks of the world’s weakest countries in terms of vaccination.”
Why did this occur and who’s accountable, she requested. Accusing the federal government of sustaining a gradual fee of vaccination, Priyanka Gandhi mentioned solely 11 per cent of India’s 130 crore inhabitants has acquired the primary dose of vaccine in opposition to Covid and solely 3 per cent have been totally vaccinated.
According to her, “vaccination declined by 83 per cent in the last one month after the announcement of Modi’s ‘Teeka Utsav’.”
The authorities’s “failed” vaccine coverage seems to be behind the vaccine scarcity, she alleged.
Priyanka Gandhi mentioned massive nations of the world ordered vaccines many instances their inhabitants final 12 months, however the Modi authorities positioned the primary order in January 2021, that too for just one.6 crore vaccine doses.
Noting that between January-March this 12 months, the Modi authorities despatched 6.5 crore vaccine doses overseas, Priyanka Gandhi mentioned the federal government additionally gifted free vaccines to many nations.
At that point, solely 3.5 crore folks had gotten vaccinated in India, she mentioned.
“From May 1, the government opened the doors to give vaccination to about 60 crore population in the age group of 18-44, but gave orders for only 28 crore vaccine doses, with which it is possible to vaccinate only 14 crores.”
She additionally posed a sequence of questions for the federal government, asking why it ordered just one.6 crore vaccines in January 2021 when, in accordance with the prime minister’s assertion, his authorities was prepared with the entire plan for vaccination final 12 months.
“Why did Modi Ji’s government send more vaccines abroad, while vaccinating less people in India?”
“Why is India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, today in a position that it has to ask for vaccines from other countries, and why is this shameless government trying to present it as an achievement?” she mentioned in one other poser.
Questions should be requested in order that the folks in energy perceive their accountability and accountability in direction of this nation, Priyanka Gandhi had asserted whereas asserting her ‘Zimmedaar Kaun’ marketing campaign on Tuesday.
The Congress has been essential of the Centre’s dealing with of the Covid scenario within the nation, however the authorities has dismissed the criticism of the Opposition celebration, accusing it of politicising the pandemic.
