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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday, 9 March, slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tweeting that the shortage of vaccines amid the growing COVID-19 crisis was a "very serious problem" and not a "festival".
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, hit back at Rahul Gandhi, asking why he himself has not taken the COVID vaccine yet.
Gandhi was taking a dig at Modi's remark at the meeting with chief ministers on Thursday that a tika utsav (vaccine festival) should be observed between 11 and 14 April for COVID-19 inoculation of eligible people. This should focus on zero wastage and optimal usage of resources. In his virtual conference with CMs, the PM also highlighted the need to focus on micro-containment zones.
"Is it right to export vaccines while putting the people of your country at risk? The Central government should help all states without any bias. We have to defeat this pandemic together," the Congress leader tweeted in Hindi.
Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to PM Modi, detailing the Opposition party’s concerns as India grapples with the COVID pandemic.
Gandhi noted it as “unfortunate, considering our scientific community and vaccine suppliers worked overtime to develop a solution but their efforts are undermined by the Centre’s poor implementation and 'oversight’”.
Congress takes “immense pride in building the framework over the last 70 years to make India world’s vaccine hub and, hence, we firmly support a well-planned, universalised and speedy vaccination drive”, he wrote.
Taking a jibe at PM Modi, Gandhi said that the current vaccination programme should move beyond “an individual’s picture on the vaccine certificate, towards guaranteeing maximum vaccination”.
The Election Commission had directed the Centre to remove PM Modi’s photograph from COVID vaccine certificates ahead of the state Assembly elections, in line with the model code of conduct.
Some of the Congress Party’s concerns over the vaccines have been listed in the letter are as follows:
Furthermore, Gandhi has mentioned seven recommendations in his letter:
Union Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad hit back at Rahul Gandhi, asking why he himself had not taken the COVID vaccine yet in a series of tweets. He said, "India is not facing vaccine starvation but Shri Gandhi is facing attention starvation. Why has Rahul Gandhi not yet taken vaccine?”
Accusing Gandhi of failing at politics, Prasad asks whether the Congress leader has moved into lobbying full time. He also called Gandhi “arrogant”, asking him to tell his party to stop their extortion ventures and concentrate on administering lakhs of vaccines.
Gandhi's remarks came after several states, including Maharashtra, flagged the issue of vaccine shortage amid a surge in daily COVID-19 cases across the country in what is being called the second wave of the pandemic.
Vardhan, while chairing a meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 on Friday, said that India had exported 6.45 crore doses to 84 countries so far. “This included 1.05 crore doses to 44 countries as grants, 3.58 crore to 25 countries as commercial contracts and 1.82 crore to 39 countries via the COVAX initiative of WHO,” he said.
Meanwhile, over 9.43 crore vaccine doses have been administered in India since the inoculation drive began on 16 January. Currently, anyone above the age of 45 is eligible to get the shot.
The country has been witnessing a rapid rise in the number of daily cases over the last few weeks. On Friday, 1,31,968 new cases were reported, taking the tally in the country to 1,30,60,542. The death toll increased by 780 to 1,67,642.
This was the biggest one-day rise in cases in the country ever since the pandemic began.
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