E-Paper
'Big conspiracy': JP Nadda addresses BJP workers, refers to 'calf serum' issue
People won't forgive Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari for their statements on Twitter against vaccine, the BJP chief said.
Addressing BJP MPS and workers on Friday, BJP chief JP Nadda said there is a 'big conspiracy against the vaccination drive which every BJP leader has to derail. Referring to the recent controversy over the use of calf serum in Bharat Biotech's Covaxin production, Nadda said, "A big conspiracy was hatched against vaccination drive and war over pandemic. The opposition played politics. Why lockdown? Why no lockdown? Now the issue of calf serum in vaccine and suspicion on the vaccine."
Congress's Gaurav Panndhi has recently stirred a social media storm after he posted an RTI document which said calf serum is used in the production of Covaxin in the initial stage of the Vero cell growth. The government clarified that it is not present in the finished product as it undergoes several steps in between. Bharat Biotech too clarified that this is a standard procedure of vaccine production.
In Friday's meeting, the BJP chief put the onus of vaccine wastage on states and said giving vaccines is the Centre's task whereas to waste vaccines was the state's task. "On vaccination, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal said they want to buy vaccines themselves. PM Modi decentralised it. However, it was centralised again after the failure of states. People need to be told that we were serving people whereas opposition was derailing the process," said Nadda.
"Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor promoted hesitancy and said we aren't rats and guinea pigs. Society was made to fear the vaccination process," he said accusing the Congress.
"State governments were unsuccessful in following what was told to them and advisories sent to them, they were not alert enough," he further added.
The BJP chief, who addressed party leaders virtually, urged the party MPs to go amongst people and tell them how opposition played politics to ensure that the Covidvaccination drive isn't successful and that attempts to provide relief to people are thwarted, ANI reported.
"When state governments were callous in their approach in tackling coronavirus, 17 advisories from the Centre were sent to every State. On March 17, PM Modi, at CM's conference, addressed and told them that containment zones should be made and test and trace should be promoted," he said
"Listen to the Netas and their statements they misled people, Shashi Tharoor or Gyani Netas like Manish Tewari. People won't forgive them. These people were issuing statements on Twitter. Apart from Covaxin and Covishield now we will have SputnikV as well. Bharat biotech was asked to increase its capacity," he added
(With ANI inputs)
