Rahul Gandhi questions PM on Centre’s stand on COVID-19 vaccine

New Delhi, 3/12: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi questioned the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi about his stand on the COVID-19 vaccine. The Congress President took on to Twitter, asking the question that “What Does PM Stand By” regarding the vaccine after the opinions of the PM, the Government, and the BJP differ. Rahul Gandhi attacked the centre today, after one of the spokesperson gave the statement that the Government had not given a statement about vaccinating the entire population of the country. The Centre on Tuesday released a statement that there was no need to vaccine the entire population in order to break the COVID-19 chain. The vaccine would only be provided to the ones affected, and the critical mass coming under the category to be easily attacked by COVID-19, and that it would be enough to control the pandemic.

“I just want to make this clear that the government has never spoken about vaccinating the entire country. It’s important that we discuss such scientific issues based on factual information only and then analyse it,” Health Secretary(HS) Rajesh Bhushan had said. It was this statement that irked the Congress leader. The statement from the HS came only three days after PM Modi visited three key facilities that are working on a vaccine. The Prime Minister’s office said the visit was meant to help him get a “first-hand perspective of the preparations, challenges and roadmap in India’s endeavour to vaccinate its citizens”. This is not the first time that statement about vaccine has irked the opposition. Earlier during the Bihar election campaigns, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitaraman had said about “free coronavirus vaccination for all” during the launching of the party’s manifesto for the Bihar election, which had met with a lot of criticism and accusations of foul play from the opposition.