Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempt to make a virtue out of compulsion triggered a savage retort from the Congress, which said a “faltering and frightened” government had been forced to take corrective steps on the vaccination policy under pressure from the judiciary, political opposition and a widespread national outcry.

Although the Prime Minister did his best to blame state governments, political rivals and critics for the policy confusion, it is not open to dispute that the Opposition and experts had fiercely opposed differential pricing and consistently demanded free universal vaccination by the Centre.

The Modi government’s decision on April 19 to wash its hands of the responsibility of vaccinating adults under 45 was a break from the country’s universal immunisation programme, under which the Centre supplies the states with vaccine doses.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had bluntly said the Prime Minister was directly responsible for the death of lakhs of people because he didn’t formulate an effective vaccine policy.

The Supreme Court’s tough posturing — it called the Centre’s vaccine policy “arbitrary and irrational” — finally compelled the Prime Minister to do the somersault and return to the vaccination policy India has followed for decades.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said: “The Congress and other Opposition parties from the very beginning forcefully opposed the idea of allowing profiteering off people’s miseries. The Modi government abdicated its responsibility for citizens below 45 years and asked the states to procure vaccines. When the Supreme Court and various high courts mounted pressure, a faltering and frightened government changed the policy.”

He added: “There have been three policy alterations in six months. The Prime Minister is directly responsible for endangering the lives of millions of people by his criminal negligence.”

A health worker administers a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to a woman at a regional hospital in Kullu on Monday. PTI

Pointing out flaws in the modified policy, Surjewala said: “Modi said the Centre will procure 75 per cent of vaccines, leaving 25 per cent for the private hospitals. This means the middle class will have to pay Rs 2,500 to Rs 2,800 for two doses. Are they not the citizens of this country? Private hospitals are taking service charge of Rs 200 to 300 per dose. Why is such profiteering allowed?”

Rahul tweeted: “One simple question — if vaccines are free for all, why should private hospitals charge for them?”

Asked about Modi’s insinuation that demands from states for flexibility and criticism from political parties had led to the change in policy in April, Surjewala said: “Which state asked the Prime Minister to allow it to vaccinate citizens below 45?”

He continued: “Don’t blame states. Think of your responsibility instead of demonstrating your sophisticated art of lying. The Prime Minister should apologise for misleading the nation. He has also insulted the scientists and vaccine makers who worked so hard before 2014. It is sad he doesn’t know India’s vaccination history.”

Ripping into Modi’s claim that his government intensified the immunisation campaign after 2014, Surjewala said: “India developed vaccine for TB in 1951, for small pox in 1965, for polio in 1970. Universal immunisation programme was started in 1985. India became free of small pox, polio, leprosy, cholera, TB much before 2014. Vaccines for hepatitis B came in 1997, H1N1 virus in 2009 and cholera in 2010.”

It is a known fact that the Rajiv Gandhi government gave a major push to India’s vaccination programme and set up the infrastructure to make India the vaccine capital of the world.

Had the Modi government accepted the Congress proposal of invoking compulsory licensing, India had the manufacturing capacity to ramp up production by leaps and bounds.

On the government’s claim that the vaccination for Covid will be completed by the year-end, Surjewala said: “Modi said 23 crore people have been vaccinated so far in six months. How can 175 crore doses be administered in the next five-six months as claimed by the government? At this speed, India will need 1,091 days more to cover the entire population. Should India wait till May 2024 to get vaccinated?”

Questioning the Prime Minister’s claim of being ahead of other countries, Surjewala said: “The US has vaccinated 41 per cent of its population and the UK 36 per cent. Even Brazil has covered 9.5 per cent. We have given both the doses to merely 4.61 crore which means 3.28 per cent.”

He also questioned the Prime Minister’s praise for Co-WIN app, saying it was anti-poor and walk-in registration should be allowed for everybody. He reiterated the Congress demand for Rs 6,000 into the accounts of every poor till November in addition to free ration.