Thiruvananthapuram: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday morning posted a video from his 'sickbed' targeting the Centre's vaccine policy, he said that India needs free vaccination for all.
The Congress MP for Thiruvananthapuram is currently recuperating after testing positive for Covid-19 late April.
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He targeted the centre's plan to vaccinate the entire country by the end of this year and said, "As you can see, I am in bed, suffering the complications of a long Covid infection. I just want to say to everybody, having seen the government statement that everybody will be vaccinated by end of December, while seeing the availability of vaccines or lack there of of the vaccines, I wonder how the government is going to get there."
He further stated that he supported Congress' call for free vaccines, "I support the Indian National Congress's campaign for a massive change in the government's policy to permit universal vaccination of all Indians within the promised deadline of December, and to do so free of cost," Tharoor said.
"It is unacceptable that this government should be demanding that states, private hospitals and others compete in some sort of market free for all to buy vaccines at different prices, extortionate prices in some cases, when the central government has an arrangement to buy vaccines at affordable prices and give them to the public for free. That was the policy at the beginning of the vaccination drive".
"Let us have a universal, free vaccination policy to save our nation from Covid. I have been through a lot. I don't want my fellow citizens to suffer even a fraction of what I have done, and certainly not to do worse than me as so many have as the tragedy unfolded in the country," he said while referring to the devastating second Covid wave, which is affecting lakhs every day.
Finally he said, "Save India from Covid. Make vaccines free for all," in an almost two-minute long video.
After PM Narendra Modi addressed the nation through his monthly programme 'Mann Ki Baat' on the occasion of NDA government's 7th anniversary, Congress party on Sunday slammed the BJP party released a seven-point "charge sheet" of "blunders" and "criminal wrongdoings" which the party has accused the government of committing, and alleged that the Modi dispensation abdicated its responsibilities towards people.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said that the government needs to have the right intention, policy, and determination to fight coronavirus pandemic - monthly talk won't suffice. The party has strongly criticized the BJP-led centre for the way it is handling the Covid pandemic the difference in prices and that all states are required to buy vaccines from the two manufacturers.