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'Masters of doublespeak', minister slams Cong over Covid-19 vaccine, Tharoor replies
As the BJP and the Congress are engaged in a war of words over vaccination, Covid-19 management, Hardeep Singh Puri slams Shashi Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh and Rashid Alvi for triggering vaccine hesitancy.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri has singled out Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh and Rashid Alvi for fuelling vaccine hesitancy when India rolled out vaccination drive against Covid-19 in January. The fresh exchange of barb on social media started after Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi slammed the government's failure in managing the pandemic. BJP chief JP Nadda wrote to Sonia Gandhi, slamming Congress leaders' role for indulging in "wrong politics" over the Covic-19 vaccine, which "does not belong to any political party or leader".
As India is at the peak of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, grappling with rising cases, deaths and depleting medical resources, the blame-game has become intense. Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan recently slammed Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren for criticising PM Modi's role in the management of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, the war of words escalated with Hardeep Singh Puri singling a few Congress leaders out for doubting the vaccines. "When the vaccine rollout began, instead of asking all eligible people to get vaccinated, Congress leader Rashid Alvi continued with petty politics, doubting vaccine efficacy & fuelling hesitancy," Puri tweeted sharing a video in which Rashid can be seen claiming that opposition leaders may fear the misuse of the vaccine.
"Another member of Congress ‘Inner Circle’ Jairam Ramesh said 'Bharat Biotech is a first-rate enterprise, but it is puzzling that internationally-accepted protocols relating to Ph-3 trials are being modified for Covaxin'.Now Rahul Gandhi wants the same vaccine free for everyone!" Puri said targetting Jairam Ramesh.
Replying to Puri's accusation, Shashi Tharoor shared the links of his tweets where he congratulated Bharat Biotech for its Covaxin after it was found effective against the B.1.617 variant too. "Will you take back your words?" Tharoor said.
After JP Nadda's letter to Sonia Gandhi, Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said the BJP is trying to make Covid a political issue to hide its failures. Citing The Lancet, he said it is not only Congress which is attacking the government, many experts and journals have also criticised it.
"India’s fight against COVID-19 continues undaunted. Just a gentle reminder to those fuelling hesitancy & panic. More than 18 cr vaccine doses administered so far. Advance orders for May, June & July 2021 have been placed with the two manufacturers & payments have been made," Puri said adding that the Centre has placed advance orders of Covishield for 5.60 crore vaccines through PM-cares and 11 crore doses on April 22 and 10 crore doses on May 10 by the health ministry. As far as Covaxin is concerned, the government has placed advance orders for 1 crore vaccines through PM-cares and 5 crore doses on April 22 and 2 crore doses on May 10 through the ministry.
