CHENNAI: While welcoming the Central government’s move to provide vaccines to States free of cost, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday said that it would also be appropriate to grant each State complete control over registration, validation, and administration of the vaccine, since health is a State subject.
This statement, filled with undertones of protecting regional rights and federalism, comes at a time when all States governed by non-BJP alliances are united in their fight to safeguard domestic interests.
Though the Centre revoked its vaccine decentralisation policy, after the Supreme Court dubbed it “arbitrary” and “irrational”, the course of last two months has exposed the growing State-Centre tensions owing to the policy.
Radhey Shyam, professor of political science from New Delhi, who has taught at JNU and Indira Gandhi Open University, says that the Central government’s “discrimination against States” had already come to the fore during several past incidents, including floods.
“The Covid situation has only aggravated it. The Union government’s ideology and affiliations led to this situation, as there were differences in vaccine distribution among States,” he said. The professor also said that the Centre must prioritise the domestic population over the international community. “This is the time for it to practice cooperate federalism with the States, and all States too must forget their ideological differences and come together,” he added.
Despite facing severe vaccine shortage, the States were unable to procure vaccines through global tenders. U.S-based vaccine manufacturer Moderna turned down Punjab’s request, citing that they only deal with the Union government.
Experts opine that this only wasted time during the shortage and created in-fighting among States, with no positive outcome whatsoever. Professor of Economics Venkatesh Athreya says that the international players will not deal with States as they would prefer buyers with better bargaining power. “The question is why the Centre did not call global tenders,” he added. Apart from allowing the States to call global tenders, the Centre’s vaccine pricing was discriminatory in nature.
The Centre had to pay only base price, while States had to shell out a higher procurement price. “The vaccine pricing was irrational and it was dictated by profit. The Centre should have bargained with the Indian manufacturers for the total supply at lower prices,” he said, adding that the Centre’s vaccination policy revision had a boomerang effect.
In this backdrop it may also be noted that the Centre had in the last few years completely dictated norms for admission to medical courses via the implementation of the NEET. DMK MLA and practising doctor N Ezhilan, who has previously voiced strong opinions on federalism and State rights, says that medical education and health service delivery are synonymous.
“In areas where centralisation (such as the NEET) was not required, they intervened excessively, and they pressed breaks in areas where centralisation (vaccine procurement) was required. Concerning the vaccine policy, Centre realised its mistakes only after the Supreme Court’s intervention,” he adds. Since this is a pandemic, Dr Ezhilan says, our Constitution allows the Centre to deal with vaccine policies for global procurement.
“They must use this provision and ensure bulk procurement of vaccines and distribute them to all States. If only the Centre had played the part of a guiding force, ensured global procurement of vaccines and financially empowered the States, this situation would have worked out much better,” he said. The MLA also took exception to the Centre not giving significance to public sector units such as the Chengalpet vaccine manufacturing plant. “Centre does not want to empower public sector units due to its connections with private sector lobbies of vaccine producers,” he alleged.
Ramu Manivannan, professor of political science at the University of Madras, said that if the Centre wanted the States to procure vaccines, they could have taken that decision long ago. “The timing of the policy indicates that the Centre did not want the responsibility to rest on their shoulders. It virtually abandoned the States when the stakes were high and this exposes the Central government’s nature. Take the case of West Bengal elections. Since the polls were held in multiple phases and the party at the Centre fought it bitterly, the lockdown norms and health guidelines went for a toss,” he added.
‘Mistake rectified after SC intervention’
DMK MLA and practising doctor N Ezhilan, who has previously voiced strong opinions on federalism and State rights, says that medical education and health service delivery are synonymous. “In areas where centralisation (such as the NEET) was not required, they intervened excessively, and they pressed breaks in areas where centralisation (vaccine procurement) was required. Concerning the vaccine policy, Centre realised its mistakes only after the Supreme Court’s intervention,” he adds.
The DMK MLA also took exception to the Central government not giving significance to public sector units such as the Chengalpet vaccine manufacturing plant. “Centre does not want to empower public sector units due to its connections with private sector lobbies of vaccine producers in the country,” he alleged.