E-Paper
‘Insult to India’: Javadekar slams Kamal Nath for variant remark
Addressing the media, Javadekar said Congress president Sonia Gandhi should explain why her party is engaged in negative politics and why she has not criticised her colleague and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath’s statement on the variant being Indian.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday accused Congress leader Kamal Nath of “insulting the nation” by referring to the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus as the “Indian variant” and said the opposition party has not only been stoking fear and apprehension, but also weakening the fight against the pandemic.
Addressing the media, Javadekar said Congress president Sonia Gandhi should explain why her party is engaged in negative politics and why she has not criticised her colleague and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath’s statement on the variant being Indian.
“He called it the Indian corona. And said Hamari Pechaan, Mera Bharat Covid. This is an insult to India. Many other Congress leaders have also done so. The WHO has already clarified that no country’s name has been attributed to any variant,” Javadekar said.
To be sure, it has become common practice the world over to refer to mutant strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid by the location where they are first identified. For instance, one identified in the UK late last year is called the UK variant -- even by Indian government departments. However, the Indian government has been vary particular about ensuring that no one calls the B.1.617 variant, first identified in India, as the Indian variant and even issued a statement in this regard.
Nath, while attacking the government over its response to the second wave of Covid-19 had referred to the variant first found in India as the “Indian variant”.
Commenting on the letter Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Modi on the procurement of drugs for patients of black fungus, Javadekar said the government has already taken proactive steps to procure the necessary medicines for the over 9,000 patients across the country.
In her letter to the PM, the Congress chief said there is an acute shortage of vital drug Amphotericin-B that is required to treat Mucormycosis or black fungus. She also said that since the black fungus infection is not covered under the Ayushmann Bharat scheme that offers free health insurance to the poor, the government should provide relief to a large number of patients who cannot afford the treatment.
Javadekar insisted that the opposition has not played a constructive role and instead created doubts about vaccines. “When Covaxin was developed after research in the country they called it the BJP vaccine; now when the vaccine has proved effective, they are spreading doubts and fears that there will be a travel ban because it is not on the list of vaccines that are globally recognised... As far as I know, WHO has not taken any such decision, but the Congress’s statements show the party is insulting the country and weakening the fight against the pandemic,” the minister said.
His reference is to the Indian drug regulator’s unprecedented emergency use authorisation granted to Covaxin, in clinical trial mode, before even interim data on the efficacy of the vaccine was available. Subsequently, this interim data did show the vaccine was very effective, but it is still not clear on what basis the approval was given. News reports on Saturday claimed that as countries reopen for travellers, they will look for those vaccinated with vaccines approved either by their regulators or WHO. Covaxin is yet to be approved by WHO, although some reports add that this is largely a procedural issue and will be sorted out soon.
Responding to the Delhi government’s demand for more vaccine doses, Javadekar said the Union government is making all efforts to undertake distribution of vaccines to all states. “The 50 lakh (5 million) vaccines that have been provided to Delhi so far were provided by the Union government. It is the Union government that has provided the 20 crore-plus (200-million plus) vaccines in the country and in future also it will continue to do so,” he said.
