Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced that vaccines will be given free of cost to state governments which can then pass it on to citizens 18 years of age and above at health centres. For those who wish to access the vaccine in private hospitals, the government set a price ceiling and a margin ceiling, Modi said.
Addressing the nation in a televised speech at 5 pm on Monday, instead of the 8pm speech, PM Modi said the Centre will take full control of the Covid-19 vaccination drive from June 21, International Yoga Day. He said this was because states were finding it difficult to manage.
The Centre had inoculated people above the age of 45 with free vaccines initially but from May 1, it had allowed state governments to vaccinate the 18-44 age group at a charge. Right from day 1, most states had been calling on Modi to buy vaccines for all eligible citizens across the country, instead of the differential pricing mechanism that had been introduced where the Centre would buy at the least price and the states would get it at a higher mark-up.
Also, state governments like Punjab and Maharashtra had tried to buy vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna but were told the companies will talk only to the Central government. Along with the news of free vaccination, the PM also announced he extension of the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana under which 80 crore poor were getting daily rations free of cost till Diwali this year.
The reason for the course correction is hinting at the situation in Uttar Pradesh. Given the state of the vaccination programme in the key state, which will go to the polls in 2022 and sends the highest number of Lok Sabha MPs, the scheme’s lacklustre performance here will add to the anti-incumbency. It also points to the BJP’s tried and tested method of promising Modi governance and choosing a CM candidate, which in 2017 was Yogi Adityanath, who was chosen after the polls.
It must be remembered that a two-man team of RSS veterans had been to UP to gather inputs on the situation in the state. They had come back with glowing reports from the state but such is politics.
The other thing to note is that the Supreme Court is examining the entire vaccination process including the decisions taken so far. Just last week, a bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat had told the Centre that its policy was irrational and arbitrary. It had asked the government to provide complete data on vaccine choices, vaccine procurement and the price difference. The Apex Court had also wanted to know what had happened to the much-vaunted, much-publicised and budgeted Rs 35,000 crore.
PM Modi’s speech came on a day when India witnessed 1,00,636 fresh Covid-19 cases with 2,427 deaths in the last 4 hours. Only 15.87 lakh samples were tested on Sunday, compared to an average of more than 20 lakh in the last week.
PM Modi said the Covid-19 is the biggest epidemic to struck in the last century, the country has fought bravely and successfully overcome its impact.
Modi began the speech with saying the coronavirus outbreak was the biggest pandemic in the last 100 years. To combat which the government came up with new health infrastructure in the past few months.
Similarly, India has never felt the need for oxygen this much, he said. While condoling the deaths of those who died in the second wave’s worst weeks of April and May, Modi said India has overcome oxygen shortage very fast. He noted that despite vaccination, covid-appropriate behaviour is the only way to fight against Covid.
To save the world, Modi claimed, the country came up with two vaccines, while Covishield was developed in the University of Oxford, UK and was mass-produced in India by the Serum Institute. If the vaccine was not made in India, what would have happened, he said.
Though the PM made some untenable claims on vaccines taking decades to reach the corners of the country, before the coronavirus, it is to be remembered that polio and other diseases were inoculated at birth and none of them were vaccines against pandemics like in this case.
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PM Modi also spoke of more vaccines waiting to get clearances to enter the country and spoke of a nasal spray that would kill the virus.
The final nail in today’s announcement tied in with the BJP announcement of free Covid vaccines in Bihar during the campaign for the 2020 Assembly election. Seems Bihar will finally get its free vaccines after this deft somersault, which is good news for all Indians, poor or rich or middle-class.
