"Centre Covering Up Vaccination Drive Failure With Rhetoric": P Chidambaram

P Chidambaram also asked the government to provide funds to ramp up vaccine production and increase supplies as well as to authorise the use of more approved vaccines and allow their import.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram accused the government on Sunday of covering up its failure as regards the vaccination drive against COVID-19 through rhetoric and hyperbole and demanded that it be made a walk-in exercise. He also asked the government to provide funds to ramp up vaccine production and increase supplies as well as to authorise the use of more approved vaccines and allow their import. The former minister criticised terming the vaccination drive an "utsav" (festival), as suggested by the prime minister, and said it is a crusade instead. "What does one say when the government wants to call the vaccination drive an ''utsav''? By no stretch of imagination can it be a festival. The vaccination drive is a crusade," he said.