Taking a jibe on the BJP governmet in the center on handling the COVID pandemic, the Congress on Sunday faulted its vaccine policy by saying the muddle arose only due to “Prime Minister wanted to become the vaccine guru”.
Addressing a virtual press conference, Congress spokesman Pawan Khera said: “The Government of India did not manage the crisis as well. When it came to negotiation with vaccine manufacturers, when it came to putting in place a vaccine policy, everything was centralised. Actually, it was not even centralised, it was individualised, because someone wanted to be a ‘Vaccine Guru’. Narendra Modi wanted to be known as a ‘Vaccine Guru’.”
Pawan Khera said that India was not short of oxygen but the governmeht delayed setting up of 162 onsite oxygen plants across 14 states in the last 8 months and “when the crisis hits hard, the state governments were blamed”.
Taking a dig at the eight-phase West Bengal Assembly elections, the “super-spreader rallies” and the Kumbh Mela, Khera said that questions were being asked on the government’s decisions. “You can’t have centralised decision-making and decentralised responsibility, both have to be decentralised, both have to be in tune with each other.”
“Today, because of you, different states are negotiating with the same companies, vaccine manufacturers for their people. They will all get different prices… Why? Who will be answer these questions too?” he asked.
“One man with his government still busy trying to save a fake image that he has built of himself. His fake image cannot be more important than my real life, than the real lives of my family members, my friends, my loved ones….”
