Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation, Congress spokesperson Gaurav Vallabh today slammed the government for ‘celebrating’ 100 crore vaccines.
He questioned the government’s response to Coronavirus while there were people grieving for their loved ones who lost their lives to the pandemic. The PM should have apologised to the families of those who died in the pandemic and provide economic assistance to their families.
At a press conference here, Vallabh said that “when there was no vaccine adequacy, the Prime Minister was talking about vaccine diplomacy”. He criticised the vaccination policy of the government and its decision to export vaccines when they were not available to the people in the country itself.
He also pointed out that the vaccination rate in Uttar Pradesh was the lowest in the country and yet the PM saw it fit to praise Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The world, he said, had seen bodies floating in the Ganga during Covid.
On the government’s promise to fully inoculate all adults by the end of this year, Vallabh wondered if India could administer 206 crore doses by 31 December. He also came down heavily on the PM for claiming that this was the “first time” that the country has made an indigenous vaccine, saying India “is the mother of vaccines” worldwide and this comment was an insult to scientists, pharma industrialists, doctors, and other professionals.