Congress hails Nitin Gadkari's vaccine shortage admission: 'one BJP minister waking up'

Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill claimed that the BJP-led central government was providing the people of India with 'fake toolkits' in place of COVID-19 vaccines as the country battled the second wave of the pandemic. The Congress leader's remarks come after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday opined that demand for COVID vaccines exceeding supply could lead to a problem for India. Reacting to Gadkari's statement, Congress' Jaiveer Shergill said that he felt 'good to know' that a BJP minister had 'woken up to reality' and asked how many more people had to die for the 'system' to arouse itself. It is pertinent to point out that Union Minister Gadkari had later on clarified that he was unaware of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers' efforts to ramp up production and took to Twitter to issue a clarification.

Shergill's attack regarding the toolkit is to do with another raging controversy, about a purported internal research document of the Congress party that carries very detailed instructions on how to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Government of India by leveraging the COVID situation.

Nitin Gadkari flags COVID-19 vaccine shortage

Union Minister Gadkari's remarks on the production of vaccines come at a time when the country's vaccination drive has seen limited success owing to the shortage of vaccines in the context of the second wave, with the government trying to ramp up manufacturing. Addressing the Vice-Chancellors of universities on Tuesday, he called for licensing of vaccines so that production can be ramped up amid rising demand for inoculation. Proposing that the vaccine manufacturers can be given royalty for sharing their formula, he opined that the doses can be exported after India's needs are catered to. In this regard, he urged MoS Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya to take forward this idea. 

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari remarked, "A problem is created when the demand is more while the supply is less. The vaccine company should give licenses to 10 companies instead of one and take royalty. They should not perceive this as assistance. If the vaccine production starts at 10 places, like Haffkin has got importance..."

Nitin Gadkari clarifies

However, shortly after making his remark, Union Minister Gadkari noted that his suggestion to ramp up the vaccine production was made at a conference organised by the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and that he was unaware of the explanation provided by Union Minister for Chemical & Fertilizers Mansukh Mandviya on the govt's efforts to increase production. Further, Gadkari revealed that he was informed by Union Minister Mansukh Mandviya that the Centre was facilitating vaccine manufacturing with the help of 12 different plants & companies and that the production was expected to be rapidly ramp up in the near future. Congratulating the Ministry for its efforts, Gadkari said that he was unaware of the former's efforts before giving his suggestion on Tuesday & said that it was important he put the matter on record.

COVID-19 vaccination in India

A total of 14,42,92,147 persons have been inoculated in India till now, 4,09,26,302 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too. The Union government has asserted that over 216 crore doses of vaccines will be manufactured in India between August and December. This includes COVISHIELD (75 crore doses), COVAXIN (55 crore doses), Bio E Sub Vaccine (30 crore doses), Zydus Cadila DNA vaccine (5 crore doses), SII-Novavax (20 crore doses), BB Nasal Vaccine (10 crore doses), Genova mRNA vaccine (6 crore doses) and Sputnik V (15.6 crore doses).