Hyderabad: Amid yet another surge in COVID-19 cases across the country, Congress party former president Rahul Gandhi on Friday opined that India’s vaccination program has to move beyond an individual’s picture on the vaccine certificate, towards guaranteeing maximum vaccination.
The ‘individual’s picture on vaccine certificate’ is obviously a jibe at Modi’s photos on certificates handed out to those who took vaccination.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi highlighted concerns related to vaccination and said that the efforts of the scientific community and vaccine makers had been undermined by the “Centre’s poor implementation and oversight.”
India had a first-mover advantage in vaccination and yet is moving at “snail’s pace” and fully vaccinate less than one per cent of the population in three months, Gandhi wrote.
“At our current vaccination rate, it will take years to inoculate 75 per cent of the population. This will have catastrophic effects and will gravely decelerate India’s economy,” he warned in the letter.
Rahul Gandhi also attacked the Centre’s policy of large-scale vaccine export, while the country is facing vaccine starvation and several state governments highlighting vaccine shortage.
“Was the export of vaccine also an oversight, like many other decisions of this government, or an effort to garner publicity at the cost of our own citizens,” Rahul asked.
Apart from opening up vaccination to everyone who needs it, the Congress leader also urged to expedite the process of approving other vaccines and let state governments have greater say in vaccine procurement and distribution.
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi said vaccine shortage is a very serious problem during Corona times and is not a celebration. “Is it right to export the vaccine and put Indians at risk? The central government should help all states without any bias. We all have to fight this pandemic together and defeat it,” he wrote in a series of tweets.
Source: Siasat
