Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misleading the country during his address to the nation on Friday morning, the opposition Congress party asked for a white paper on how the government intends to vaccinate all adults by December 31, a deadline fixed by the government earlier.
Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh told reporters at a press conference that only 21% of the country’s population was fully vaccinated while China, the only other country with over 100 crore population, had given two shots of the vaccine to 80% of its population in September.
He also said that instead of offering condolences to the families of 4.53 lakh people who died during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government is busy “celebrating Mahotsava” and ignoring issues affecting common people.
“We thought he would talk about inflation because from January 1 till date there is a hike in (price of) diesel by 29% and petrol by 27%... We were expecting you to speak on the issue when innocents were killed in Jammu and Kashmir, including 32 persons murdered in the last two weeks, nine soldiers made the supreme sacrifice. But the Prime Minister does not have time for any of such things,” Mr. Vallabh said.
“We were expecting that the Prime Minister would offer condolences to the families of people who lost their lives due to coronavirus. He has no time for them and instead he is celebrating Mohatsavs,” the Congress leader added.
The Congress said Mr. Modi should have shared when the government intends to vaccinate the school and college going children as well as the remaining adult population. The party claimed that 32 crore Indians have not received even the first dose of the vaccine while another 42 crore are waiting for their second dose.
“Please share a white paper on how we are going to receive 106 crore vaccines in the next 70 days [December 31 deadline] to vaccinate our entire adult population,” Mr. Vallabh said.
