Was unaware: Nitin Gadkari clarifies suggestion to ramp up Covid-19 vaccine production

Gadkari added that he was unaware that the chemical and fertiliser ministry has started these efforts before he had given suggestion on Tuesday

A day after BJP and Congress got into a big brawl over "toolkit" to allegedly dent PM's image, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday received left handed praise from Congress for his remarks that more domestic companies should get licenses to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines.

As Opposition leaders began hailing the "only minister" in Modi government for having raised the issue, Gadkari went in for damage control saying that he is glad to learn that the government is taking all efforts to ramp up production of vaccines and that he was "unware" of it earlier.

The remarks may give more ammunition to the Opposition as questions could be raised on the involvement of the Cabinet in the decision-making process when a senior minister like Gadkari was not aware of the efforts of the government to ramp up vaccine production.

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Gadkari, who is considered a blue-eyed boy of RSS and a minister with a fiercely independent voice in Modi cabinet, has repeatedly distanced himself from projections of the possibility of his larger role in the government affairs but Opposition parties have often tried to protect him as an alternative voice to Modi in the BJP and the government.

In a series of tweets, Gadkari said, "Yesterday while participating at the conference organised by Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, I had made a suggestion to ramp up vaccine production. I was unaware that before my speech, Minister for Chemical & Fertilizers Mansukh L Mandaviya had explained the government's efforts to ramp up vaccine production. After the conference, he also informed me that, GoI is already facilitating vaccine manufacturing by 12 different plants/companies and rapid ramp up of production is expected in near future as a result of these efforts."

Gadkari said he was "unaware" that his (Mandaviya) ministry had started these efforts before he (Gadkari) had given a suggestion yesterday.

"I am glad and congratulate him and his team for this timely intervention in the right direction. I feel it is important to put this on record," Gadkari said.

By then, leaders from the Opposition had latched on to the Union Minister's Tuesday comments that if the demand for the vaccine is more than supply then it creates a problem and so, instead of one company, 10 more companies be given the license to manufacture the vaccine.

Tagging a video file of Gadkari's Tuesday remarks, former Union Minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Twitter said, "But is his Boss listening? This is what Dr. Manmohan Singh had suggested on April 18th."

Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergil tweeted, "Mr Gadkari says to solve vaccine demand supply issue, more manufacturing licenses should be given. Problem is-Nation is demanding vaccines,BJP is supplying fake tool kits. Good to know at least 1 BJP Minister is waking up to reality- How many more have to die to wake up the “System”?"

A Twitter trend #GadkariForPM also started running in no time.

A day before Gadkari's Tuesday remarks on vaccines, RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagaran Manch had started a digital campaign asking people to build pressure on the government to involve more companies in vaccine making. SJM had asked the government to grant compulsory licence to more pharmaceutical companies for the production of Covid-19 vaccines and medicines, saying that the sovereign right to manufacture vaccine being given to big companies is the reason for vaccine scarcity.

The pitch for allowing more companies into vaccine-making tallied with what Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had demanded in his letter to Modi recently, saying the Centre should share the vaccine formula of the two manufacturers with other capable pharmaceutical companies to scale up production in the country.

On April 18, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had also pitched for the same in his letter to Modi. Singh, had in his letter then said that it is the time to invoke the compulsory licensing provisions in the law, so that a number of companies are able to produce the vaccines under a licence. He had also recalled that this had happened earlier in the case of medicines to deal with the HIV/AIDS disease.