Halt Covid jab export, open vaccination to all who need it, Rahul tells PM

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 9

Pandemic politics took a new turn on Friday with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking why Covid vaccines were being exported at a time of vaccine starvation in India and demanding immediate moratorium on export to address local demand.

The letter written a day after Modi said to chief ministers that vaccines would have to be prioritised due to limited supply seeks opening up of inoculation to “everyone who needs it and fast-track approval to pending vaccines as per norms”.

Gandhi, in a jibe at the PM, said, “There is no clear reason as to why the government permitted large-scale exports of vaccines. While our nation is facing vaccine starvation, more than 6 crore doses of vaccines have been exported.”

The PM on Thursday said some people were playing politics on vaccines.

“Was the export of vaccines also an “oversight”, like many other decisions of this government, or an effort to garner publicity at the cost of our own citizens?” Gandhi retorted on Friday, after non-BJP-ruled states - Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Delhi - sought more say in vaccine strategy, including expansion of vaccine plan, which currently covers only 45-plus people.

The PM on Thursday defended the strategy saying it was in coherence with global practice of prioritisation. The PM told CMs to saturate current eligible people first and focus on testing.

The PM said vaccine is a long-term strategy and testing is key to Covid containment.

The Congress, however, has been demanding vaccine for all.

Gandhi on Friday accused the PM of undermining the efforts of scientists through “poor implementation and oversight”. 

Gandhi said India had achieved abundant experience in designing and executing some of the world's biggest vaccination programmes and yet  in the present case, we have managed to fully vaccinate less than 1 per cent of the population in three months while nations with sizeable populations have managed to vaccinate relatively many more people. 

“The state governments are repeatedly highlighting vaccine shortages only to receive intemperate statements by the Union Health Minister targeting Opposition-ruled states, undercutting cooperative federalism which you too have stressed as essential,” Gandhi said as Congress-ruled Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh continue to see severe surge in daily cases that reached beyond 1.31 lakh on Friday. 

Questioning the vaccine export policy, Gandhi said, “Was the export of vaccines also an oversight or an effort to garner publicity at the cost of our own citizens?”

Noting that centralisation and individualised propaganda are counter-productive, Gandhi said since public health is a state subject, states must get a say in vaccine plans.

“States have been bypassed right from vaccine procurement to registration. Additionally, a large section of the poor has been excluded due to the initial mandatory online registration,” he said, demanding support to vaccine makers to enhance production, fast-track approval to pending vaccines, doubling of vaccine budget and expansion of vaccines to those who need it.