The Congress has blamed the Centre for negligence in Covid management that led to a loss of thousands of lives, arguing that a better-planned vaccination drive would have prevented such a grim scenario in the country.
Congress veteran and former finance minister P. Chidambaram told The Telegraph: “The central government should immediately approve Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson without insisting on further trials in India or any onerous conditions. In return for immediate approval, the government should get written commitment from each of the three to supply a large number of doses on an accelerated delivery schedule.”
This insistence on the intervention of the central government has come on a day the American pharmaceutical company Moderna refused to directly deal with the government of Punjab. A Punjab government official said Moderna replied saying it can only deal with the central government according to its policy. Punjab, as well as other states, was exploring possibilities of floating a global tender to procure vaccines from all possible sources.
The Congress had advocated centralised procurement of vaccines by the Narendra Modi government instead of leaving it to the states. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot had pleaded with the Centre to procure the vaccines directly and distribute among the states. The Centre had under the Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Act usurped all the powers, dealing with small issues such as deciding containment zones and restrictions for the last one year, but left the states to the mercy of international markets. Some Congress leaders believe competition between different Indian states vying for vaccines with global players can create an ugly situation. Moderna’s refusal to deal with states has created a peculiar situation.
Vaccine shortage has emerged as a major concern in the country, delivering a crippling blow to the vaccination drive and forcing centres to close down in several states. Chidambaram blamed the Centre for this crisis in a series of tweets. “Five sentences from a recent interview of Dr Shahid Jameel (who resigned as head of SARS-COV 2 Genomics Consortium) captures why India faces an acute vaccine shortage: ‘Well, if you look at all the countries that have vaccinated their populations to a large percentage, all of them booked vaccine doses around mid-2020. India didn’t do that. The private sector does not work on charity; it needs to be given orders …And that is where we took our eye off the ball. They did get orders, but they got orders in January or maybe December last year.’”
Chidambaram asked: “Has the ‘no shortage’ Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan read the interview? What is his answer? Is not the Government guilty of grave negligence that has cost thousands of lives?”
The former finance minister added: “After Delhi suspended vaccination of 18-44 years age group because of shortage of vaccines, there is more bad news from Telangana. No vaccines have been administered in 29 out of 33 districts of Telangana because there are no vaccines. The Union Health Ministry should put out a daily statement of the number of vaccinations administered district-wise every day. The number for the whole State hides many alarming facts.”
Commenting on the allegation of an official of Serum Institute of India that the central government expanded the vaccination drive without taking into account the availability of vaccines and WHO guidelines, Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “Ek toh mahamari, us par pradhan ahankari (As if pandemic is not enough, arrogance of the supreme leader too).”
Rahul also tweeted about the photographs showing countless bodies on the bank of the Ganga, saying: “I don’t like sharing photos of dead bodies. The country and the world are sad seeing those photos. But we have to understand the pain of those people who left the bodies on the bank of Ganga in compulsion. It is not their fault. There is no collective responsibility in this context, the Central Government is solely responsible.”
