Jairam Ramesh dismisses Union minster's 'pushing for foreign vaccine' claims

Congress' Jairam Ramesh dismissed claims made in a Twitter post shared by the Union minister- Rajeev Chandrasekhar over the grand old party pushing for Pfizer vaccine at a time when the pharmaceutical company was “bullying” the Centre for its acceptance.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Sunday refuted Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar's earlier claim that certain opposition leaders tried to “bully” the Centre into giving approval for a foreign vaccine against Covid-19, that is now marred by controversy for allegedly not being able to contain the spread of the virus and leading to other health complications. The senior Congress leader dismissed claims made in a Twitter post shared by the Union minister saying Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram and Ramesh pushing for Pfizer vaccine at a time when the pharmaceutical company was “bullying” the Centre for its acceptance.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the Union minister's post “undermines the most basic principles of democracy and fairness”.(PTI)

“We can understand that for a regime built and sustained through propaganda, why you would feel compelled to make such a distorted and malicious statement. Thus, on the merits of claim, there is little to say other than it is a complete falsehood,” Ramesh said in a letter to Chandrasekhar.

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The Congress MP said that the Union minister's post “undermines the most basic principles of democracy and fairness”. He further said that such actions are expected of online trolls and not of Ministers of the Government who are supposed to held to a higher standard of conduct.

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Ramesh also mentioned about his intervention during the Standing Committee meeting last year on vaccine development and genetic sequencing of Coronavirus to discuss advances in vaccine production in India. He further pointed out several initiatives taken by the Congress during the second of wave of Covid-19.

“At a time when your government was in panic mode, it was the Indian National Congress which stepped up and offered to pay for the train tickets of migrant workers, who were stranded and in dire need of assistance,” he added.