The Congress on Thursday said it felt vindicated after the Supreme Court accorded legitimacy to the questions its leaders have asked over the past few months that attracted sarcasm, taunt, contempt and insult from the Narendra Modi government.
The Supreme Court has asked similar questions on vaccine procurement and protocol, demanding answers from the government in the form of an affidavit, encouraging the Congress to declare that the country would have been in a much better shape had Prime Minister Modi paid heed to the constructive suggestions by Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The use of harsh words — arbitrary and irrational — about the vaccine policy by the apex court echoed the sentiments expressed by the party.
Drawing parallel between the views of the court and the Congress on vaccine procurement, pricing and the need for free universal vaccination, party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “We are not interested in singing ‘we told you so’. But we want to say the country would have been better placed today had the government accepted our suggestions. Precious time has been lost. The arrogant Modi government offered us — through two ministers and the BJP president — sarcasm, contempt, taunt, insult…”
Singhvi added: “What pains us is that an eminent person like former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was insulted. India would have benefited if his specific, pointed suggestions made on April 18 were accepted. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul also made suggestions on transparency, procurement, differential vaccine pricing, expansion of production of vaccines, etc… Now the court has asked for data, plan, purchase history. What crime Sonia Gandhi committed by making the same arguments except being the president of the Opposition party? The Prime Minister’s hubris inflicted countless wounds on the country.”
The Congress was branded anti-national and accused of spreading negativity for doing what the Supreme Court is doing now, he said. “The Supreme Court asking questions, sitting during vacation, doesn’t answer the core questions. Why didn’t you plan, why did you fail, why didn’t you accept good advice after your strategy failed? Even now there is time to change your attitude. Make fun of us, attack us but act on our good suggestions. It is not a political matter, the country will be benefited.”
The Congress also broached the topic of consensual politics, at least during this unprecedented national crisis, by refreshing its demand for an all-party meeting. Many chief ministers have also objected to the Centre’s vaccination policy and accused the Prime Minister of sermonising instead of creating space for a meaningful conversation. Singhvi lamented that the government’s approach was not to take the suggestions on merit as it presumed there was no point in paying heed to what the Opposition said.
There is not one point in the Supreme Court’s queries which has not been already in public discourse. The government has also been repeatedly accused of ignoring specific suggestions from its own empowered group on Covid and the parliamentary standing committee on health on issues like oxygen shortage and vaccination policy. While the BJP passed a resolution to hail the Prime Minister’s role in handling the pandemic, Modi had boasted how India proved the experts wrong and saved the world by defeating coronavirus.
The Congress also caught the government on the delay in giving clearance to foreign-manufactured vaccines. Citing a government order issued on June 1, former finance minister P. Chidambaram said: “Our suspicion that the government had not approved any vaccine other than Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik has been proved correct. Why did the government go through the charade of negotiating quantities with Pfizer and Moderna without first giving emergency use approval (EUA) to their vaccines? Why has it taken eight-nine months for the government to decide to give approval when the US and other countries had granted approval? Remember, Manmohan Singh had made this specific suggestion in his letter which got a rude reply from the Union health minister!”
The order by the Directorate General of Health Services modified the earlier directive, relaxing the conditions for approval of foreign-manufactured vaccines.
Former Union minister Jairam Ramesh also posted that order and tweeted: “Hope law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will now gracefully withdraw his unwarranted remarks, where he accused Rahul Gandhi and others of lobbying for foreign pharma companies. The same decision if taken months ago, would have saved many more Indian lives.”
