Shashi Tharoor’s appeal to the central government to give free vaccine to all.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, on Wednesday, 2 June, appealed to the central government to provide free vaccines to all Indian citizens.
"Having seen the statement by the government that everyone will be vaccinated by the end of December, while seeing the availability or the lack thereof of our vaccines, I wonder how the government is going to get there," Tharoor said in a video posted on Twitter.
“Between August and December 2021, India will have procured 216 crore vaccine doses, while by July this year, 51 crore doses will be procured,” Union Minister Harsh Vardhan had said on 21 May.
However, many Opposition leaders, including AAP's Raghav Chadha and INC's Tharoor, have raised an alarm over the country's the slow rate of vaccination.
Moreover, with the prime minister announcing the differential pricing policy under Phase 3 of the vaccination drive, which began on 1 May, states have been left to inoculate their citizens in the 18 to 44 age group by themselves.
Furthering the INC's campaign calling for change in the Indian government's vaccination policy, Tharoor implored the Centre to "permit universal vaccination of all Indians within the promised deadline of December, and to do so free of cost" in his video.
Tharoor also indicated that the central government had initially posed an arrangement to buy vaccines at affordable prices and give them to the public for free. The Kerala MP suggested that the government should abide by this previous scheme, pushing for "a universal and free vaccination policy" to save the nation from COVID.
"I've been through a lot. I don't want my fellow citizens to suffer even a fraction of what I have done, and certainly not to do worse than me as so many have in the tragedy that has unfolded in our nation," Tharoor said in the video.
Tharoor had tested positive for COVID-19 infection on 21 April and has been recovering from the disease ever since.
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