“Thank you PM Modi,” screamed the message, from Lucknow’s roadsides to the Delhi University campus and website. In the context of a pandemic where the Indian government’s failures have invited worldwide criticism.

But this was Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming credit for the “world’s largest free vaccination campaign” on a day the Centre started bearing the cost of free vaccination for all adults at government centres, sparing the states any expense.

Lucknow, capital of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh where bodies floated down the Ganga at the peak of the Covid second wave, bristled with billboards thanking Modi. The billboards carried the national emblem and the words “Government of India”, seeking to associate themselves with the Centre.

Delhi University, which has lost about 60 teachers and other employees to the pandemic, uploaded digital banners in English and Hindi on its website at the behest of the University Grants Commission and put up physical hoardings on the campus.

More institutions are expected to follow the example with the higher education regulator having written to all the universities “to kindly display these hoardings/ banners in their institutions” and attaching to the letter a model banner.

Several academics condemned the publicity blitz, calling it “shameful propaganda” to divert attention from the government’s Covid mismanagement and the people’s sufferings.

Some resented the attempt to turn the universities into “cheerleaders”; others underlined that the government wasn’t doing citizens a favour by offering free vaccination — a policy adopted by many other countries right from the start.

The development comes on the International Day of Yoga, an annual event the Centre habitually uses to build up fanfare around Modi.

While Monday’s banners and billboards crowed “Vaccine for all, free for all”, they seemed to sacrifice accuracy for hype in one respect.

“So far free vaccine was available for people above 45 years of age. From June 21, free vaccine available for everyone above 18 years in government centres,” they said.

However, the jabs had been free for every adult at almost all government centres even before Monday although the Centre was supplying the states with free doses only for those aged 45 and above. While the states had to buy the vaccines to inoculate adults younger than 45, almost all of them including Uttar Pradesh and Delhi had absorbed the cost themselves.

There were slight differences in the DU and Lucknow banners. While the DU banner carried images of Modi and four smiling citizens, Lucknow’s billboards showed the Prime Minister and chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

An email that UGC secretary Rajnish Jain had sent on Sunday to all the universities said: “The government of India is starting free vaccination for 18 years and above age group from tomorrow i.e 21st June 2021. In this regard, universities and colleges are requested to kindly display these hoardings/ banners in their institutions.”

It added: “The approved design (creatives) of hoardings/ banners in Hindi and English, as provided by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, are attached for your ready reference. Kindly note, these creatives are embargoed for social media till 7 am tomorrow, i.e 21st June 2021.”

Manoj Sinha, principal of the DU-affiliated Aryabhatta College, said the university had forwarded the UGC email to him, and that his college too would put the banner up on its website.

Sinha said the move would encourage campus communities to get themselves vaccinated and facilitate the gradual reopening of higher education institutions.

Rajib Ray, president of the DU Teachers’ Association (DUTA), slammed the government.

“This is shameful. Academic institutions should not be used to propagate the name of any person. Whether it’s Yoga Day or any other central government event, academic institutions are being used for propaganda,” he said.

Former DU executive council member Rajesh Jha said teachers and students were “not cheerleaders of the government”.

“On any government policy, there can be divergent opinions. It’s part of academics to see and analyse policies critically. The way DU has used its website and Twitter handle to spread this message is condemnable,” Jha said.

Another former DU executive council member, Abha Dev Habib, said free vaccination was a right and not a favour.

“There have been vaccination programmes for many ailments, but there never was such propaganda praising the Prime Minister,” she said.

“Such propaganda is now happening amid a disaster in terms of deaths and suffering caused by the government’s failure to handle the situation.... Since 2014, we have been witnessing educational institutions being used for propaganda.”

Habib chided Modi for addressing huge poll rallies when he should have been focusing on managing the Covid crisis.

A hoarding thanking Narendra Modi for coronavirus vaccination is put up on a road in Lucknow on Monday. Naeem Ansar

“DUTA had requested Covid care centres with oxygen facilities on the campus, but nothing was done. It was a nightmare for the staff who had to run from pillar to post to get treatment in April and May,” she said.

DU registrar Vikash Gupta defended the university’s actions. “Today was International Yoga Day. We discussed how students and staff should remain safe with healthy food, yoga and vaccination,” he said.

“It was our own decision to put up this banner to spread the message about vaccination.”

He said some people always criticised whatever the university did. “Everybody has the right to cry, crib...” Gupta said.

The Central Board of Secondary Education too has for sometime been exhibiting two banners showing Modi on its website. One urges people to register for vaccination, the other to follow the Covid protocols.

Emails sent to the UGC and the Union education ministry, to which the regulator reports, brought no replies.

To some in Uttar Pradesh, the hoardings in Lucknow seemed a sign that the Centre had taken direct charge of the BJP campaign for the Assembly elections, due next March, at a time the party high command seemed to have lost some of its confidence in Adityanath.

The image-conscious Modi seems to feel let down by Adityanath’s Covid mismanagement, with the pictures of corpses floating down the Ganga or buried on the riverbanks earning the Prime Minister scathing criticism from the foreign media.

Modi — roasted at home and abroad also for his own short-sighted Covid policy — and Union home minister Amit Shah had recently summoned Adityanath to Delhi and briefed him on what party sources claimed was “poll strategy”.

A BJP insider said: “Modi had worked hard to burnish his international image. But the way the world criticised him for the dead bodies floating in the Ganga — this could be why the Centre has taken over the campaign in Uttar Pradesh.”