JOIN USHealth Minister Harsh Vardhan resigns ahead of Cabinet rejig
As India battles the second surge of Covid-19 epidemic, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and his deputy Ashwini Choubey on Wednesday were dropped from the Council of Ministers giving rise to speculations on whether the duo was made a scapegoat of the Narendra Modi government’s failure to manage the public health crisis.
No doubt Vardhan led a ministry that did not pre-book Covid-19 vaccines from the global pharmaceutical majors last year; failed to foresee the second surge; could not impress upon the Election Commission to scale down the April polls and was a mere spectator during the Kumbh Mela at Haridwar where several lakhs of people took a holy dip.
The critics, however, wonder whether the discredited health minister has any real role in making such choices as decision-making in the Narendra Modi government remains highly centralised with the Prime Minister’s Office calling the shots.
“The resignations of the Union Health Minister and the Minister of State for Health is a candid confession that the Modi government has utterly failed in managing the pandemic,” tweeted senior Congress leader P Chidambaram.
“There is a lesson for ministers in these resignations. If things go right the credit will go to the Prime Minister, but if things go wrong the Minister will be the fall guy. That is the price a Minister pays for implicit obedience and unquestioning subservience.”
Several experts pointed out that the assembly polls in five states including the eight-phase polling in West Bengal and the Kumbh Mela acted as super-spreader events, making the second surge more ferocious. Also absence of adequate vaccine doses have crippled the inoculation drive.
“Poor Dr Harsh Vardhan, a good man has been made a scapegoat for monumental failures at the highest level — nowhere else,” added Congress leader Jairam Ramesh.