No more dithering, be clear on vaccine goals
TThe Centre has been talking with little clarity on its assessment of the ground realities. It
had publicly said that it will procure 215 crores doses by December but
the figure was reduced to 136 crores in an affidavit to the SC.
he statement of Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya in the Lok Sabha last week saying that no fixed timeline can be indicated for the completion of the vaccination drive against Covid-19 reflects the ambivalent, confused and opaque manner in which the Union government has been responding to the pandemic which officially killed over four lakh Indians in the last one-and-a-half years. It is a reflection, too, of the failure of the government launching purportedly the world’s largest vaccination programmne to come up with a realistic and practical plan to achieve universal vaccination, this despite repeated averments by the top people, starting from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, about the vaccine being the most important tool to the stop the killer virus.
The health minister, who was non-committal on the vaccination drive, however, went on to add that “it is expected that all beneficiaries aged 18 years and above will be vaccinated by December 2021”. The curious point in the statement is that the deadline of December 31 by which the minister “expects” everyone to be vaccinated was drawn up by no agency other than the government; it was the government and its experts’ group that had been repeatedly assuring the people that they will be able to vaccinate all eligible people before the deadline. It had also told the Supreme Court the same. The three-member bench of the Supreme Court had, in its order on May 31 in a case it had taken up suo motu on the response of the Union government to the pandemic, noted the averments of the Union of India. The judgment quoted from the submission of solicitor-general Tushar Mehta: “The vaccination drive will be complete by the end of December 2021, and the Central government is in active talks with foreign vaccine manufacturers at the highest political and diplomatic levels, to ensure the adequate supply of vaccines.” It’s a bit shocking that the Government of India is in no position, nor with a plan, to honour its word on the most important mission a government has on hand in these times. It was not the first time that the government’s callous attitude towards the vaccination drive has been exposed. Its Liberalised Vaccine Policy had earlier passed on the responsibility of vaccinating people aged between 18 and 45 years to the state governments and the private sector. It was only upon a strong intervention by the Supreme Court, which warned of invoking the fundamental rights to equality and life, that the government went back and made some amends to that self-defeating policy. Equally pertinently, the government has been talking with little clarity on its assessment of the ground realities. It had publicly said that it will be able to procure 215 crore doses by December but the figure was later reduced to 136 crores when it filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court after the apex court insisted on a roadmap on vaccine procurement. In short, the government set before the public one figure, gave the court another, and is now unsure of both. It must at least now wake up to the grim realities instead of attempting to divert attention. Confusion and ineptitude cannot be the qualities that drive a government during a pandemic; but clarity and promptness can.