BJP chides P Chidambaram's 'ignorance' over G7 criticism; flaunts India's COVID-19 fight

On Monday, BJP hit back at senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's dig at PM Modi's participation in three Outreach sessions of the G7 Summit on June 12-13. Taking umbrage at the PM's physical absence at the meetings, the Rajya Sabha MP claimed that the former was deliberately left out as India is the most infected and the least vaccinated country as far as COVID-19 is concerned. He added, "The Modi government should practise in India what it preaches to the world".

Chiding Chidambaram for being "ignorant", BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya stressed that PM Modi was invited to address world leaders despite India not being part of G7. Mentioning that this was a matter of pride for the country, he also countered the former Union Finance Minister's stance regarding the COVID-19 situation, claiming that India had done really well even in comparison to the G7 countries-the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US. both in terms of the number of cases as well as the vaccination rate.

BJP leader Amit Malviya wrote on Twitter, "India has administered 253 million vaccine doses and at current run rate will soon surpass US population, the biggest country in G7. Also our infection in proportion of our population is no where close to some countries in the G7. So wake up and smell the coffee!" 

PM Modi thanks G7 nations for COVID-19 support

Speaking at the 'Building Back Stronger- Health' session on June 12, PM Modi thanked the G7 and other guest countries- Australia, South Korea and South Africa for their support during the second COVID-19 wave. He highlighted India's 'whole of society' approach to fight the pandemic which entailed synergizing the efforts of the government, industry and civil society. Moreover, he delved into the successful use of open-source digital tools for contact tracing and vaccine management and offered to share the expertise with other developing nations.

Committing India's support for collective endeavours to improve global health governance, he also sought the G7's support for the proposal moved at the WTO for a TRIPS waiver on COVID-related technologies. Observing that this meeting should send out a message of 'One Earth, One Health' for the whole world, he called for global unity to prevent future pandemics. A day earlier, the PM participated in two sessions titled ‘Building Back Together—Open Societies and Economies’ and ‘Building Back Greener: Climate and Nature’.