New Delhi: The Congress on Friday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of misleading the country on vaccinations and sharing “half-baked” information in his speech marking the 100th crore Covid-19 shot being administered in India, when only 21% of country's population was fully vaccinated.
The country's principal opposition party asked Modi to bring out a white paper on how his government plans to administer vaccines to all adults by the end of the year, as he promise earlier.
Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh also pointed that the Prime Minister did not include issues of inflation and terrorism the country is facing, in his address to the nation on Friday.
He also said that instead of extending condolences to the families of 4.53 lakh people who died due to the coronavirus, the PM is celebrating.
"The prime minister should talk about the issues confronting the nation, but instead he is celebrating 'Mahotsava'. The PM touched issues in a wrong manner and shared wrong data while trying to mislead the country," Vallabh told reporters.
Vallabh also accused Modi of furnishing 'half-truths', "the PM gave the data which is semi-baked, as half-truth is very dangerous." He said there are only two nations having a 50-crore plus population and the Government's claim that India is the first country to attain 100-crore plus vaccination mark is "false" as China had administered 216 crore shots of vaccine in September.
The Congress leader said China has double vaccinated 80% of its population while India's fully vaccinated percentage is 20% of the population.
"We would like to ask the prime minister that it would have been nice if he had shared when we are going to start vaccinations for our school-going and college-going students. It would have been good if the PM answered when his promise of the entire population would be fulfilled by December 31, 2021.
"Please share a white paper on how we are going to receive 106 crore vaccines in the next 70 days to vaccinate our entire adult population," Vallabh said.
Vallabh said that "we thought he would talk about inflation because from January 1 till date there is a hike in (price of) diesel by 29 per cent and petrol by 27 per cent." "Is there anybody on this earth except the prime minister's few friends whose income level has increased in last nine months by 29 per cent," he asked.
"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 and nine soldiers gave supreme sacrifice saving our motherland. But the prime minister does not have time for any of such things.
"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," he said.
When 4.53 lakh people lost their lives due to COVID-19, the government was busy in celebrating Mohatsavs and the prime minister did not offer any words of condolences for those who died either, he alleged.
"When the PM addresses the nation, people expect that the prime minister will speak on something that is of their use, which affects their lives like inflation and terrorism. We expected you would offer condolences to the deceased families, but you did not do that," he said.
A day after country reached the milestone of administering 100 crore Covid vaccine doses, PM Modi on Friday affirmed that India's vaccination drive was "science-born, science-driven and science-based", and declared that it had been ensured that it was carried on without any "VIP culture" in the program.
