Rahul Gandhi on Friday demanded an immediate moratorium on vaccine export, saying the Narendra Modi government’s mismanagement had frittered away the advantage India’s scientists had given the country.
“Over the last year, our country suffered irreparable losses, made tremendous sacrifices, and yet we are under a renewed attack by the coronavirus,” Rahul wrote to Prime Minister Modi.
“This is unfortunate considering our scientific community and vaccine suppliers worked overtime to develop a solution but their efforts are undermined by the poor implementation and oversight.”
The invocation of “oversight” seemed an attempt to underline the questions about the government’s functioning that were recently raised when finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman used the word to explain an apparently inadvertent order cutting small savings interest rates.
While the order was quickly withdrawn at a time many states were election-bound, many citizens and social media users wondered how casually the Centre had to function for such an order to be issued by oversight.
Demanding an “immediate moratorium” on vaccine export, Rahul wrote to Modi: “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?”
A notice outside a Covid-19 vaccination centre in Mumbai announces the unavailability of stock on Friday PTI
India has already exported 6.45 crore doses of Covid vaccines, some of them free of cost, as a goodwill gesture to friendly countries. But the process has now been halted with several states reporting shortages.
“India had the first mover advantage in vaccination and yet we are moving at a snail’s pace. Historically, India has achieved abundant experience in designing and executing some of the world’s biggest vaccination programmes. Yet in the present case, we have managed to fully vaccinate less than 1 per cent of the population in 3 months,” Rahul wrote.
“Countries with sizeable populations have managed to vaccinate relatively many more people. At our current vaccination rate, it would take years to inoculate 75 per cent of the population. This will have catastrophic effects and will gravely decelerate India’s economy.”
Rahul appeared to be seeking to expose the BJP’s ‘India first’ slogan by harping on the vaccine exports.
Rahul recalled how the Congress had successfully run vaccination drives over the last 70 years.
He sought more freedom for the states.
“Centralisation and individualised propaganda are counter-productive. Even though public health is a state subject, our states have been bypassed right from vaccine procurement to registration,” he wrote.
Rahul suggested a few measures: “Provide vaccine suppliers with necessary resources to increase manufacturing capacity. Fast-track approval of other vaccines as per norms and guidelines. Open up vaccination to everyone who needs it. Double the central allocation for vaccine procurement from the existing Rs 35,000 crore.
“Give state governments a greater say in vaccine procurement and distribution. Provide direct income support to the vulnerable sections in the disastrous second wave.”
