Harsh Vardhan slams Manmohan Singh, says Congress-ruled states busy raising doubts about vaccines

Hitting back at senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh for his critique of the governments COVID19 management Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday alleged the second wave of the pandemic was instead fuelled by Congress ruled states as they were busy raising doubts about vaccines rather than vaccinating peopleResponding to Singhs letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Vardhan also said that the letter drafters of the senior Congress leader have done a great disservice to his standingAcknowledging that while Singh understands the importance of vaccination as an important method of fighting the COVID19 battle Vardhan said in his letter that irresponsible public pronouncements made by some Congress leaders have resulted in a below national average vaccination coverage of senior citizens and even frontline workers in some of the Congressruled statesHistory shall be kinder to you Dr Manmohan Singh ji if your offer of lsquoconstructive cooperationrsquo and valuable advice was followed by your INCIndia leaders as well in such extraordinary times Herersquos my reply to your letter to Honrsquoble PM Sh narendramodi ji PMOIndia pictwittercomIJcz3aL2momdash Dr Harsh Vardhan drharshvardhan April 19 2021Tweeting the letter to Singh the health minister said History shall be kinder to you Dr Manmohan Singh ji if your offer of constructive cooperation and valuable advice was followed by your INCIndia leaders as well in such extraordinary times Singh on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Modi suggesting five measures to battle the COVID19 crisis including ramping up vaccination and boosting supply of medicinesVardhan said People in responsible positions in your party as well as in the state governments formed by your party do not seem to share your viewHe expressed shock that senior members of the Congress party are yet to utter a single word of gratitude towards scientists and vaccine manufacturers for innovating under trying circumstances and empowering the world with vaccinesLet alone thanking our scientists many Congress members and Congress ruled state governments have taken extraordinary interest in spreading falsehoods regarding the efficacy of these vaccines thereby fuelling vaccine hesitancy and playing with the lives of our countrymenIn all humility a word of advice to you as well Dr Manmohan Singh ji A learned man of your stature could do well to surround himself with better advisorsAll suggestions given by you have been implemented a week prior to your letterPS Theres value in staying updatedmdash Dr Harsh Vardhan drharshvardhan April 19 2021A sitting chief minister of your party created a dubious world record of sorts by being the only head of government directly inciting people against an indigenously developed vaccine Some Congress leaders even shamed the vaccines in public but took their doses in private quietly he chargedA word of advice from you to them even if it had been done in private by you may have ensured better cooperation from these people Knowing your penchant for constructive cooperation which you have said you always believed in I would assume that you did advise them and yet quite clearly your advice has been in vain the minister saidVardhan said the former prime ministers advice to not get tempted to go by absolute numbers but to go by percentage of population covered is not incorrectHowever he said this is a practice that must be followed uniformly and junior members of your party too must follow your adviceQuite obviously it cannot be that the discussion on total cases active cases or mortality is based on absolute numbers which the Congress party often tries to do but the vaccination numbers continue to be touted as a percentage of the population covered he saidWith due respect and irrespective of the negativity that your party spreads Vardhan said he takes Singhs suggestions at face value and with the belief that they are made keeping national interest in mindHowever it does seem that those who drafted your letter or advised you have done a great disservice to your standing by misleading you regarding material that is already in public domain he saidHighlighting the point in the letter on allowing import of vaccines that have already been approved by credible foreign authorities Vardhan said a decision on this had already been taken a week ahead of your suggestion on April 11 2021The same is the case with your suggestion regarding providing funds and other concessions to augment vaccine manufacturing This decision had also been taken many days before receipt of your letter and multiple vaccine manufacturing entities have been funded by the government to immediately enhance productionAnyway despite such factual inaccuracies we understand your deep concern for the country and also assure you that we share the same the minister saidWe request your continued cooperation in the battle against the pandemic and welcome more such illuminating suggestions However as a senior leader we expect that you shall offer the same advice and wisdom to your own party leaders as well Vardhan statedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever