New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today said vaccine shortage in the country is a serious issue and not a festival, in an apparent dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to observe ‘Tika Utsav’ from 11 to 14 April.
The Congress MP also questioned the government over export of vaccines at a time when vaccine centres in several States, including hardest-hit Maharashtra, have been shutting early and turning people away as supplies run out.
“Amid the growing corona crisis, shortage of vaccines is a very serious issue and not an ‘utsav’. Is it right to export vaccines by putting the lives of the countrymen at risk? The Central government must help all States without any bias. We have to defeat this pandemic together,” Rahul tweeted in Hindi.
He slammed Modi’s call to observe a ‘tika utsav’, or ‘vaccine festival’, between 11 and 14 April to inoculate the maximum number of eligible beneficiaries across States.
During his meeting with Chief Ministers on Thursday, the Prime Minister referred to the ongoing row over vaccination between the Union Health Ministry and the Maharashtra government, sending a clear and categorical message that he doesn’t endorse any kind of political blame game while fighting this pandemic.