PM TARGETS PAK FOR COVID CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took a veiled dig at Pakistan as he inaugurated the country’s Covid-19 vaccination drive.

Recounting India’s journey through the Covid-19-induced lockdown and the process of evacuating millions of Indians stranded abroad, the PM said, “When countries left their citizens stuck in China amid the pandemic, India stepped up. We evacuated not only Indians but also people from other countries under Vande Bharat Mission.”

The PM’S remark was a veiled reference to Pakistan, which had initially refused to airlift its people from China’s Wuhan, the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020. Authorities in Pakistan had cited “larger interests” to defend its decision to not evacuate Pakistani citizens who were working or studying in China when the Covid pandemic broke out.

Reports Pakistani students appealing to Air India to evacuate them from Wuhan were widely circulated early last year.

Pakistan repatriated 270 of its students from Wuhan in May.