Sunil Gavaskar lauds India's ‘effective handling of Covid’; Vivek Agnihotri, BJP leaders react
Sunil Gavaskar said the way India handled Covid-19 has been “unbelievable, fantastic.”
Several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders took to Twitter and hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi after veteran cricketer Sunil Gavaskar lauded the effective handling of the Covid-19 pandemic by India. Gavaskar was speaking on the sidelines of an Indian Premier League (IPL) match in Chennai.
"The entire world through a couple of years of total uncertainty; didn't know what was happening; didn't when Covid will end. For India, with its population, the way it handled the Covid situation was fantastic. Remember, we were probably the vaccine supplier to the world. Millions of vaccines that we sent to the entire world. India has played its part. With a little bit of that still remaining (Covid), I walk around with a mask on my face in public places… The way India handled this Covid has been unbelievable, fantastic," Gavaskar can be heard saying in a video clip which is being widely shared on social media.
Reacting to the former India captain's comments, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted, “Legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar lauds the Modi Govt's successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 'Vaccine Maitri' initiative.”
Tagging Modi, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra wrote, “Legend Sunil Gavaskar acknowledges the effective handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by India under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi Ji. Gavaskar also commends India's initiative of ‘Vaccine Maitri’.”
Film director Vivek Agnihotri, who is working on his new film ‘The Vaccine War’, also commented on the viral Gavaskar video.
“Not just legend like Sunil Gavaskar but all positive people in the world praise India extraordinary handling of COVID. Specially, they Vaccine Project. #TheVaccineWar will tell you who waged a war against India’s vaccine project and how India won it,” he tweeted.
Apart from India’s internal distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, the country had launched a 'Vaccine Maitri' programme with the aim to provide medical and other assistance, to over 150 countries since the beginning of the pandemic.
Since the start of the programme in January 2021, India has supplied 23.9 crore doses of coronavirus vaccine to 101 countries and UN entities in the form of grants, commercial export, or through COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) as of July 15, 2022, the Lok Sabha was informed.