Owaisi: SC made PM give free vax
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has maintained that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcements on Coronavirus are an outcome of Supreme Court pulling up the centre. “Yet, the PM has blamed states for the terrible vaccine policy,” he said. In a series of tweets, the Hyderabad MP said "Modi has put politics before saving lives. It's always gimmicks over efforts to increase vax production. Forget everything else, the only question for the PM is why there is such large shortage of vaccines."The MIM president emphasised that the only real test at this stage is how many Indians have been fully vaccinated? “Less than 4 percent,” he pointed out.
Owaisi said till April
2021, no money was spent on ramping up vaccine production. When there are no vaccines, it does not matter who procures them. Not surprisingly, private hospitals will continue to have a 25% quota, so that rich have a “VIP queue” while poor continue to wait for vaccine availability, he observed.
The MP accused PM of congratulating himself for vaccinating frontline staff "in time". Of the 30crore priority group, only
10 percent had been vaccinated by early May. “We need 60 crore doses to vaccinate priority groups by July. Currently, we are getting only 8 crore doses per month. Despite failing in basic math this way, Modi has congratulated himself that India is vaccinating people better than many countries,” he remarked.
The MIM chief said the Prime Minister had even appreciated COWIN. “How can one take pride
in COWIN? What purpose does it serve? It's a lottery. Till recently, it was only available in English, a language understood by a small minority. It excludes women, poor, rural Indians and the majority who don’t have internet. Why have walkin vaccinations been stopped,” he asked.Owaisi said it is good Modi has pointed out that many people have spread propaganda against the vaccines. “Hope his government takes action against such people and punishes ministers who have been always at the service of such anti-science people,” he added.