Congress, BJP take a jab at each other over ‘vaccine shortage’

The Centre and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi have locked horns over availability of vaccines to combat surge in Covid-19. After Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking an immediate “moratorium on export of vaccine” to address "vaccine starvation" and to deal with the "vaccine shortage" of states, the government responded through law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who said the nation was not facing a vaccine starvation but Gandhi was experiencing “attention starvation”. While Gandhi pitched for “fast track approval of other vaccines as per norms and guidelines”, Prasad accused the Congress leader of “lobbying for pharma companies by asking for arbitrary approvals for foreign vaccines”.

Gandhi lamented more than 6 crore doses of vaccines were exported while “our nation” is experiencing “vaccine starvation”. “Was the export of vaccines also an “oversight”, like many other decisions of this government, or an effort to garner publicity at the cost of our own citizens”, he asked and added: “Amid growing Corona crisis, shortage of vaccines is a very serious issue and not an ‘utsav’. Is it right to export vaccines by putting lives of the countrymen at risk?" Mr Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.. Prasad too took to Twitter to react: “India is not facing vaccine starvation but Shri Gandhi is facing attention starvation. Why has Rahul Gandhi not yet taken vaccine? Is it an oversight or he doesn’t want it or has he already taken one in many of his undisclosed trips to foreign locations but doesn’t want to disclose?”

Gandhi accused the centre of having “undermined” through “poor implementation and oversight the solution” the Indian scientific and vaccine suppliers had developed by working overtime. Prasad responded: “Fighting a pandemic is not a one trick game. Apart from vaccination, there needs to be adequate focus on testing, tracing & treating. Rahul Gandhi’s problem is that he doesn’t understand all this and his ignorance is compounded by his arrogance.”