Complete vaccination by Dec, Rahul stoking fear: Javadekar

NEW DELHI: Asserting that the Covid-19 vaccination will be complete in India by December this year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the pandemic’s spread and said the language he used and the way he tried to stoke “fears” confirm that his party was behind the alleged “toolkit” to defame the country and the PM.

Senior BJP leader and Union minister Prakash Javadekar noted that the health ministry had recently given a roadmap about producing 2.16 billion doses by December and how 1.08 billion people will be vaccinated, as he rebutted Gandhi’s claim that it may take three years to finish the exercise, considered critical to curb the disease.

Attacking the Congress leader, the information and broadcasting minister alleged that his choice of words like “nautanki” for the Prime Minister when Modi is working to curb Covid-19 is part of the toolkit’s script, referring to an alleged document about targeting the government.

India ranks second in the world in the scale of vaccination by administering over 200 million doses, and it is set to see a big jump from August, he said.

At a press conference on Thursday, Gandhi held PM Modi’s “nautanki” (theatrics) responsible for the second coronavirus wave and warned of more waves to come at the current rate of vaccination.

Calling on the government to quickly evolve a vaccine strategy for the entire population, he urged the PM to procure vaccines for all Indians and not indulge in a blame-game or find excuses. Gandhi said India is the vaccine capital of the world and it is possible to escalate the inoculation drive as only 3% of the people have received their jabs yet.