Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation on Monday mentioned that it was the state governments that demanded they be allowed to procure vaccines for their citizens prompting the Union Government to change its vaccination policy.
Within no time barrage of Tweets were put out by the opposition and the left ecosystem claiming that a ‘centralized’ process to procure Covid-19 vaccine is what their leaders have been demanding. Former Union Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram too during his interaction with ANI questioned which state government demanded decentralization of the process trying to put the blame on the Centre for a ‘poor policy’.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1401932753914892294?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwAfter getting a reality check and coming across West Bengal CM’s letter of demand, Chindambaram confessed that he stands corrected. He tweeted, “I told ANI ‘please tell us which state government demanded that it should be allowed to directly procure vaccines’. Social media activists have posted the copy of the letter of CM, West Bengal to PM making such a request. I was wrong. I stand corrected.”
https://twitter.com/PChidambaram_IN/status/1401951379262935042?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwHere is what the Mamata Banerjee led West Bengal government had demanded from the Centre in a letter dated February 24.
Banerjee in her letter had specified that the Centre must allow the state to procure vaccines in ‘large numbers.’
“We would request you to kindly take up the matter with appropriate authority, so that State Government is able to is able to purchase the vaccines from designated point(s) on top priority..”
Chindambaram forgets Rahul Gandhi’s letter
While Chindambaram in his Tweet mentioned that the ‘social media activists’ informed him about West Bengal’s demand, he conveniently eliminated a similar demand made by his party. Netizens flooded the comments section with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s letter too, however, Chidambaram chose to not highlight the same.
Rahul Gandhi in a letter to Prime Minister Modi dated 8th of April, 2021, had demanded that state governments have a greater say in Covid-19 vaccine procurement.
Rahul Gandhi said in the letter, “Centralization and individualized propaganda are counter-productive. Even though Public Health is a state subject, our states have been bypassed right from vaccine procurement to registration.” Consequently, he demanded, “Give State governments a greater say in vaccine procurement and distribution.”
Netizens share old demands made by the opposition and left ecosystem to refresh their memories
Several from the left ecosystem who are now upset with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling their demand which ultimately backfired, had vouched for it as the best ‘strategy’.
Netizens were quick to remind them of their ‘decentralization’ demand after they refused to take the responsibility for their failure.
Ironically, Chindambaram had himself in an interview to the NDTV in April had hailed former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his decentralization ‘strategy’ demand.
https://twitter.com/idnani_nandini/status/1402090219470409728?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThePrint’s Shekhar Gupta in a Tweet dated May 09 had said, “Many states’ demand to be allowed to manage their own vaccine distribution and use their own apps is fair. If the states have to find the shots & pay for them too, Centre must get out of the way. It can’t dump responsibility, and yet be a control-freak.”
https://twitter.com/ShekharGupta/status/1391403446343897091?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwDelhi Chief Minister also made a u-turn by first asking the Centre to decentralize the process and then urging the government to take it back into their hands after complete failure.
https://twitter.com/knowthenation/status/1397807121006174209?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwHowever, centralizing the process once again, Prime Minister Modi during his speech informed that the Union Government will procure 75% of the vaccines available and distribute it to the states for free while 25% will still be available for private hospitals to purchase.