Congress attacks Harsh Vardhan for letter to Manmohan Singh

Alleging that the minister was engaging in name-calling, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate and senior party leader Ashok Chavan said that his remarks were meaningless as the letter was addressed to the PM and not to him

The Congress hit out at Union health minister Harsh Vardhan, calling his response former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s letter to PM Modi a “cheap retort”.

Congress leader Ashok Chavan. (File photo)

Alleging that the minister was engaging in name-calling, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate and senior party leader Ashok Chavan said that his remarks were meaningless as the letter was addressed to the PM and not to the health minister.

On the health minister’s allegation that Congress-ruled states created vaccine hesitancy, Shrinate said, “Vaccine hesitancy is a natural concern and despite being a medical doctor, it is sad that the minister labelled it as a politically fuelled hesitancy.”.

“There are more people turning out positive in Congress-ruled states like Maharashtra because more people are getting tested there, unlike the BJP-ruled states where the Covid figures are being rigged by the government to hide their incompetency. BJP ruled states are witnessing the worst, in seven cities of Gujarat alone, 680 deaths were witnessed and there are states like UP where the BJP government has unofficially banned private testing,” she said.

Calling the minister’s remarks as “sadak chhap”, Chavan said Harsh Vardan should apologise for his remarks.He added that other responsible members of the Union government have been involved in politics at this hour of distress.“When Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope flagged shortage of vaccines in the state, BJP ministers such as Prakash Javdekar said that states were wasting the vaccines. This, when Maharashtra has spent Rs12,000 crore in making medicines and Covid-related facilities available to its people and is planning to spend another ₹350 crore out of the MLAs’ funds for tackling the pandemic in the state.”

India recorded 273,810 new Covid cases on Monday morning. This is the highest single-day increase since the pandemic broke out.