'Had he not written the editorial...'Chetan Bhagat gets schooled, Twitter-style, for seeking credit in India's vax drive

Just a few days ago, India's Covid-19 vaccination drive broke a new record with over 10 million doses being administered in a single day across the country for the first time since the vaccination drive kicked off. The data was released by the Union health ministry's Co-WIN platform.

While the country still struggles with the virus cases, this new information did bring a slight moment of relief, and hope. Because this means, that at this rate, the country will most likely vaccinate 32 per cent of the total population by the end of this year. And there are many nameless warriors who deserve to be applauded for their contribution behind India's fight against Covid-19. On Wednesday, author Chetan Bhagat, too, tried to tell Twitterati that he was a member of that club - but earned, what else, some Twitter ire.

Buoyed by the renewed vaccination pace, 'The 3 Mistakes of My Life' author took to Twitter on Wednesday to tell his 12.5 million followers that he too, had a role to play. "Happy to have contributed to bring attention to slow vaccination back in April and May," he wrote.


The 47-year-old columnist further added that his opinion piece published in the Times of India on May 7 helped increase the vaccination drive's pace by 5 to 10 times. "My column from then here, making the case for increasing pace 5-10x, which we have finally achieved now," Bhagat tweeted.


To make his point, Bhagat also linked his blog from May 2021 which had questioned India's vaccination module. In his piece, the writer had recalled that the timeline of the development of the major vaccines in the world, especially the two of the biggest ones: BioNTech and Moderna. "What was India doing around these timelines? Well, in March 2020, we were banging plates. In June 2020, our top news and priority was Sushant Singh Rajput's murder case. In September 2020, we were obsessed with Bollywood celebrities smoking weed," he writes in the article.

While the article raged over Israel, UK, UAE and USA having things under control, India's battle against the Covid crisis with a massive population to handle and limited healthcare resources missed a mention. But this skip by the author earned him the wrath of Twitterati who wanted to give him a reality check.

Using sarcasm and humour, people slammed the author, agreeing with him and saying "yes, all the credit goes to you".

"Agree before the article none in govt citizenry were even remotely focused on increasing the pace ..... thanks for penning the article," one user wrote. Another person mocked Bhagat saying that it's surely him who should be credited and not the healthcare professionals or those who actually manufactured the vaccine. "You saved India," he wrote.

"... had he not written the editorial.. India's vaccination would have still lingered on at around 10-15 lakhs per day," another user replied.


Here are some of the most sarcastic replies to Chetan Bhagat's recent claim.