Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan has denied conducting Covid vaccination on the basis of caste or religion in his Assembly constituency of Malleswaram in northern Bengaluru.
Congress MLC B K Hariprasad had alleged a few days ago that Covid vaccination in Malleswaram is being done on the basis of caste and religion. He was referring to the vaccination of temple priests on May 31. A video showed a heated argument at the vaccine centre. Some people who had gathered there claimed that they were denied vaccination because of their caste.
Narayan reacted sharply to the allegation.
"This is a baseless allegation. They (Congress leaders) cannot think of anything other than caste and religion. It seems their agenda is to derail the successful vaccination drive in Karnataka. Neither I nor our party has dragged caste or community into the vaccination programme. No such incident happened in Malleswaram nor did we deny vaccines to anyone,” he said.
The deputy chief minister asked Congress leaders to help the state government in the fight against the virus.
“Covid does not affect any particular caste or creed. It would be better if Congress leaders understand this and not drag sensitive issues like religion or caste into this. Are they saying that priests should not be vaccinated?”
Giving details of the vaccination in Malleswaram, Narayan said that more than 1,000 slum dwellers had been vaccinated, apart from the 9,000, most of from the seven slums in the constituency, he added.
Referring to the particulate incident pointed out by Hariprasad, Narayan said vaccination was done for all frontline workers. "Anyone belonging to those groups turned up that day was vaccinated based on Aadhaar numbers," he said. "Hariprasad must understand that Aadhaar does not reveal the caste or religion of a person.”
(Published 02 June 2021, 19:33 IST)
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