A political row has erupted over whether the national record set by the Centre in administering 8.6 million Covid-19 shots in a single day on Monday was a publicity stunt aimed at boosting the image of the government’s controversy-ridden vaccine drive that has been plagued by shortages.

Critics charge that BJP-ruled states went slow in giving jabs in the days beforehand to allow for the massive surge in the number of jabs delivered. The shots were the most given in a single day since the Covid immunisation programme began in January. The Centre has said the stellar vaccination performance was due to regaining control of vaccine procurement from the states and Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted on Monday, “Well done India!”

Madhya Pradesh was the most glaring example of the alleged holding back of vaccine doses by BJP-governed states in order to create the one-day record, Opposition politicians say. They point to data on the Union government’s CoWin vaccination site that they say is clear evidence.

“Clearly, yesterday (Monday) was a pre-planned image-booster. Today (Tue Jun insday) we have not sustained that level (of vaccinations). We simply have to sustain at least 80 lakhs a day for the next four-five months,” said senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. Some experts say that the country needs to administer as many as one crore doses a day to shield people from new Covid-19 outbreaks.

Madhya Pradesh administered 16.9 lakh jabs on Monday, the most in the country. The next day, though, on Tuesday, health authorities in the state administered a record low of just 4,536 shots, according to the CoWin portal.

Before administering the 16.9 lakh vaccines on Monday, Madhya Pradesh gave just 692 inoculations on Sunday. In fact, the number of shots being delivered by Madhya Pradesh had been declining precipitously in the state for several days before the record tally.

Rajesh Bhushan, secretary, ministry of health, told reporters on Tuesday that Monday’s numbers are sustainable but added a crucial rider “when vaccines and capacity is available.” He said Monday’s performance was thanks to “coordinated planning between the states and the Centre” and that it was “expected to continue.”

On Tuesday, health authorities nationwide administered 51 lakh doses, considerably above its average so far this month of 35 lakh doses.

Speaking Monday to Doordarshan, government adviser Vinod Kumar Paul said India has the capacity to administer 12.5 million doses a day and intends to give jabs to at least 10 million people daily. He said vaccine supply shortages were a thing of the past as the government anticipated having between 200 to 220 million doses in July.

Paul’s projected number of vaccines is considerably higher than previous government statements. India has around 120 million doses available this month, an increase from 75 million in May, and had said it expected that some 135 million doses would be available in July. After the devastating second Covid-19 wave, experts see a fast vaccine rollout as vital to averting even worse coronavirus outbreaks.

The record number of vaccine doses administered Monday came on the first day of the government’s new inoculation strategy in which the Central Government provided free vaccines against Covid to adults across states.

Another BJP-ruled state Karnataka administered the second-biggest number of vaccinations on Monday -- 11.21 lakh doses. It had given just 68,172 jabs on Sunday. The day following Monday’s big number of jabs it delivered 3.8 lakh shots. High numbers of vaccinations administered were reported by BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Haryana. Uttar Pradesh administered 7.25 lakh doses on Monday, following up with 7.41 lakh doses on Tuesday -- well above its average daily administration of around 4 lakh doses.

But the number of vaccinations in opposition-ruled states like Punjab, Jharkhand and Delhi were far lower Monday. On Tuesday, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri slammed Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for low vaccination numbers in the national capital the previous day. “On a day when India vaccinated more than 84 lakh people, Delhi administered only 76,259 out of more than 11 lakh doses available. Why?" The Delhi government has accused the Centre of not making available a sufficient number of vaccines.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had claimed Monday that the 86.16 lakh vaccine doses administered was the “highest single day coverage” across the globe. But according to a report in Nature which appeared on June 9, China had been vaccinating two crore (20 million) people daily for more than a week.

Maharashtra, meanwhile, gave 383,495 vaccine doses Monday and followed that number by administering 5.48 lakh doses Tuesday.

India has given around 290 million doses of vaccines so far. Around 3.8 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, while less than 20 per cent of people have received at least one dose. If one takes the adult population of those aged 18 and above, though, the full vaccine coverage would represent 5.5 per cent.