Covid-19 vaccination exercise in India will be complete by December​, says Prakash Javadekar

NEW DELHI: Asserting that the COVID-19 vaccination will be complete in India by December this year, the BJP on Friday slammed Rahul Gandhi for his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the pandemic's spread and said the language he used and the way he tried to stoke "fears" confirm that the Congress was behind the "toolkit".

Speaking to reporters, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar noted that the health ministry had recently given a roadmap about producing 216 crore doses by December and how 108 crore people will be vaccinated, as he rebutted Gandhi's claim that it may take three years to finish the exercise, considered critical to curb the disease.

Attacking the Congress leader, the Information and Broadcasting minister alleged that his choice of words like "nautanki" for the prime minister when Modi is working to curb Covid is part of the toolkit's script, referring to a controversial document about targeting the government.

The BJP has claimed that the Congress is behind it, a charge the opposition party has rejected.

It has instead blamed the BJP and sought police probe into the matter.

"It has been confirmed, and there is no need for any evidence. It is clear that the toolkit was produced by you. The kind of language you used and the way you tried to stoke confusion and fear among people is part of that politics," Javadekar said.

People have instead put an end to his "nautanki", he added, an apparent pointer to the series of electoral setbacks the opposition party has suffered over the years.

What Gandhi has said is an insult to the country and people, he added.

India ranks second in the world in the scale of vaccination by administering over 20 crore doses, and it is set to see a big jump from August, he said.

The BJP leader said Gandhi should rather be concerned about the Congress-ruled states as they have not been able lift their quota from vaccine producers.

Noting that Gandhi had stressed the importance of vaccination, he said this is what the government has been saying and working on from the beginning and cited the production of two vaccines in India.

Attacking the Congress, Javadekar said its leaders raised questions and spread doubts about the indigenously manufactured Covaxin.

Modi put all such questions to rest by opting for this jab himself, the minister said.

Earlier, Gandhi had held Modi's responsible for the second coronavirus wave and warned of more waves at the current rate of vaccination.

Calling on the government to evolve a vaccine strategy for the entire population, he noted that India is the vaccine capital of the world and it is possible to escalate the inoculation drive as only three per cent of the people have received both doses.