People Being Made To Look Like Fools: Congress On Vaccine Shortage

FILE PHOTO: Health workers prepare a vaccination room inside a school, which has been converted into a temporary COVID-19 vaccination centre, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat

The Congress highlighted the shortage of Covid vaccines in some states on Thursday and said people are being made to look like fools in this tussle between the Centre and the states.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also attacked the government over several other issues and asked who brought in these difficult times.

“Built for centuries, erased in seconds, the country knows who brought these difficult times,” he said in a tweet in Hindi. Gandhi used the hashtags “#VaccineShortage”, “#LAC”, “#Unemployment”, “#PriceHike”, “#PSU”, “#Farmers” and “#OnlyPR” to hit out at the government in the cryptic tweet.

After the Centre claimed that there is no shortage of vaccines, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram asked whether state health ministers were lying when there were boards of “no vaccine” put up at various places.

“The new Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya is treading on the same path as his predecessor. That’s sad,” he wrote on Twitter.

“State after State is complaining of vaccine shortage. Vaccination centres have boards saying ‘No Vaccines’. People standing in queues return home after vaccine doses are exhausted. Are all state Health Ministers who have complained about vaccine shortage lying? Are newspaper and TV reports of people being turned away because there are no vaccine doses fake stories?” the former Union minister asked.

“The conclusion is that between the Centre and the states, the people are being made to look like fools,” he said.

Chidambaram’s remarks came after Mandaviya said “useless” statements are being made only to create panic among people and asserted that the states know very well when and in what quantity they will get the vaccine doses.

The Centre has informed the states about the allocation of vaccine doses in advance, he added.

In a series of tweets, the Health Minister said the availability of vaccines can be better understood by an “actual analysis of the facts”.

“I have come to know from the statements and letters of various state governments and leaders regarding the availability of vaccines. This situation can be better understood by an actual analysis of the facts. Useless statements are being made only to create panic among people,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.