Yashwant Sinha tweets 10-second clip to ‘expose’ PM Modi

Opposition leaders reacted defiantly after Delhi police arrested 25 people for putting up posters critical of the Centre’s vaccine policy

Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Yashwant Sinha on Sunday shared a video of an Indian representative’s speech at the United Nations (UN), joining the backlash against the short-sightedness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “vaccine diplomacy” as states run out of stock amid the country’s brutal second wave of Covid-19.

The former Union minister shared the 10-second clip of an Indian representative in May, saying the country at the time had exported more vaccines to 70 other countries than it had used for its own population. The government has since halted exports as cases grew at an alarming pace.

Sinha joined the ranks of several other leaders who have taken a defiant stance against the Modi government after the Union-controlled Delhi police arrested at least 25 people in the national capital over posters that criticized the government, questioning why the prime minister “send our children’s vaccines abroad”. Sinha’s fellow TMC MP Mahua Mitra and the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi also sent out scathing tweets opposing the development.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders have come out and said they were behind the posters criticising the government and asked Delhi police to arrest party MLAs instead of their workers.

“Today, when people are asking why crores of vaccines were exported to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Iraq, Modiji’s Delhi police is filing FIRs and putting our workers in jail,” AAP leader Durgesh Pathak said at a press conference on Sunday. He added that the Delhi police and the BJP could not arrest people for asking questions in a democracy.

Many vaccination centres in the city, being run by the Delhi government, had to pause their drives last week after they ran out of jabs. The vaccine crunch facing the city prompted top members of the ruling AAP party to hit out at the Modi government, saying it had sent millions of doses abroad in service of “image management”.