Congress on Wednesday lashed out at the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of mishandling the second wave of Covid-19 infections across the country and warned that the situation could turn into a tsunami if not dealt with properly.
Congress alleged that there are several drawbacks in the Centre’s Covid-19 strategies, particularly the ones dealing with Covid-19 vaccinations as several states are reporting shortages of vaccines and have called for speedy approvals for newer vaccines.
“Because of its unscientific and stubborn stance, the government has allowed the number of infections to gallop every day. A grave catastrophe awaits the country,” senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said.
The former finance minister alleged from demonetisation to the botched vaccination programme, Indians are paying a huge price for the wrong policies of the BJP government.
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Chidambaram said that the Indian Medical Association and several chief ministers had demanded universal vaccination, which has been rejected by the Centre.
"The need of the hour is walk-in vaccination to all age groups without any pre-registration," the senior Congress leader said.
Congress also accused the government of delays in approving newer vaccines for use.
“There is a dilly-dallying on the vaccine approval and regulatory protocols that have held back many globally accepted and approved safe vaccines from entering the Indian market, this ensures over-dependency on limited vaccines, therefore, delaying the nationwide vaccination program,” Congress spokesman Pawan Khera told reporters in Delhi.
He claimed that countries with a diversified pool of Covid-19 vaccines have witnessed ease in immunisation drives that has led to a decrease in the number of fresh cases.
“The spike of the Covid-19 cases is alarming, and the width (duration of the spike) of the Covid-19 cases needs to be curtailed now before this wave turns into a tsunami,” Khera said.