Vardhan slams ex-PM; Congress hits back
NEW DELHI: A day after former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh wrote to PM Narendra Modi, listing out five points to keep vaccine shortage in check amid the second wave of Covid in the country, the government and the Congress traded barbs over the letter.
First, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan wrote a threepage note to Singh, responding to his letter, and attached it to his tweet in which he said, “History shall be kinder to you Dr Manmohan Singh Ji if your offer of constructive cooperation and valuable advice was followed by your Congress leaders as well in such extraordinary times.”
Accusing the Congress and its state governments of spreading lies and rumours about the efficacy of vaccines produced in India, his letter said it is “saddening” that while the former prime minister understands the importance of vaccination as an important weapon in combating Covid-19, people in his party “do not seem to share his views”.
Later, the Congress hit out at Harsh Vardhan, calling his response to Singh’s letter a “cheap retort”.Alleging that the minister was engaging in name-calling, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate and senior party leader Ashok Chavan said his remarks were meaningless as the letter was addressed to the PM and not to him.
On the health minister’s allegation that Congress-ruled states created vaccine hesitancy, Shrinate said, “Vaccine hesitancy is a natural concern and despite being a medical doctor, it is sad that the minister labelled it as a politically fuelled hesitancy.”.
“There are more people turning out positive in Congress-ruled states like Maharashtra because more people are getting tested there, unlike the BJP-ruled states where the Covid figures are being rigged by the government to hide their incompetency. BJP-ruled states are witnessing the worst, in seven cities of Gujarat alone, 680 deaths were witnessed and there are states like UP where the BJP government has unofficially banned private testing,” she said.
Calling the minister’s remarks pedestrian, Chavan said Harsh Vardhan should apologise for his remarks.He added that other responsible members of the Union government have been involved in politics at this hour of distress.“When Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope flagged shortage of vaccines in the state, BJP ministers such as Prakash Javdekar said that states were wasting the vaccines. This, when Maharashtra has spent Rs12,000 crore in making medicines and Covidrelated facilities available to its people and is planning to spend another Rs 350 crore out of the MLAs’ funds for tackling the pandemic in the state.”
In his letter, Singh had asked Modi to make public the order for vaccine doses placed by the government and also indicate how the vaccines will be distributed among states based on a transparent formula.
Singh also urged the government to “resist the temptation to look at the absolute numbers being vaccinated and focus instead on the percentage of the population vaccinated”.
India recorded 273,810 new Covid cases on Monday, the fifth consecutive day of over 200,000 cases.