In face of insistent denial by the government at the Centre and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled State governments on the shortage of oxygen, vaccines or medicines, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram said, “People must revolt against a government that is assuming all the people of India are fools.”
In a series of tweets Mr. Chidambaram said that both Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s recent comments denying shortage of oxygen and vaccines was “appalling”.
Pointing to news reports in various television channels, Mr. Chidambaram asked if they were telecasting fake visuals. He also asked, “Are all the newspaper stories incorrect? Are all the doctors lying? Are all the family members making false statements? Are all the visuals and photographs fake?”
Puncturing the government’s claims on the vaccination drive, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh pointed out that in January 2021, the Modi government had set a target to vaccinate 30 crore Indians by August 2021. “While 12.12cr have received 1 dose of vaccine, only 2.36cr are fully vaccinated. That is 8 per cent. Increasing vaccine supply and rate of vaccination must be of highest priority, & is a huge collective enterprise,” he tweeted.
