Covid: PM Modi injects vials of hopes to vaccine policy

New Delhi | Ramakant Chaudhary

After a dirty political mud-slinging over the vaccine policy between the Centre and states that threw spanner in the battle against the cataclysmic Covid pandemic at the cost of horrifying casualties in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday revamped the immunization programme announcing that Central government will provide free vaccines to all states for inoculation of those above the age of 18 years from June 21. He further assertively said that the Centre would procure 75 per cent of all Covid vaccines and give them to states free of cost, while the rest 25 per cent would be procured by the private hospitals for those who want to get inoculated there.

The address of PM Modi on new vaccine guidelines might have been jaw-dropping for those who love political see-saw for settling their scores, but it has brought big consolation for common people who are desperate to get vaccinated for safeguarding their lives from the brutal killer Corona. The nation witnessed an unprecedented political Tamasha over the shortage of vaccines, the only armour for human beings against Sars-CoV-2, during the peak of Covid when the Coronavirus was wreaking havoc and butchering many lives. Even the Supreme Court had to hammer the vacillating vaccine policy, reprimanding the Centre and states for inefficiently handling the Covid situation. The apex court had slammed the vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group as "arbitrary and irrational".

Such blame games and political one-upmanship has been played when the immunization campaign, which is the only shield against dreadful Covid, has struggled to keep pace with demand, especially after the monstrous second wave left hospitals inundated with patients and killed more than 180,000 people since April. Had there been a unified approach to fend off invisible common enemy Covid keeping aside personal political gains, many lives could have been saved and children would not have been orphaned in such disturbingly large numbers. It is a profound irony that the politics for personal gains have sent the vaccination drive awry in India which has earned the reputation of the world's biggest producer of vaccines and has its glorious past of conducting the immunization programme successfully to eradicate polio, diphtheria and other diseases.

Vaccine flip-flop

The vaccination drive kick-started in India on January 16, giving jabs to healthcare workers first. On February 21, frontline workers were included. The vaccine campaign was expanded to include senior citizens (60 years and above) and 45+ with comorbidities on March 1 and thereafter all above 45 years were included from April 1.

The role of Opposition has been deplorable and “destructive” since the beginning of the inoculation campaign. Instead of pushing the government for course correction, the opposition leaders locked horns with the Centre in the battle of taking credits on vaccinating the population of India. They chorused in unison for decentralizing the vaccination programme. Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders attacked the Central government saying that the inoculation work should be handed over to the ruling establishment of states. Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Hemant Soren joined the Congress bandwagon to oppose the Centre’s vaccine policies amidst the hardship of people running helter-skelter for getting Covid shots.

The blistering comments of former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was disgraceful as he had, in January, termed the anti-coronavirus jab as "vaccine of the BJP" and said outrightly he would not take the ‘saffron-shot’. Such comments could potentially damage the gargantuan task of inoculating the mammoth population of India. Akhilesh Yadav is a popular political face and his vaccine remarks could have caused cynicism toward the Covid jab among his big fan-followers. Now, Akhilesh Yadav took U-turn saying that he will take the shot against Covid-19, a day after his father Mulayam Singh Yadav got himself vaccinated against the virus at a private hospital in Lucknow.

Yielding to the Opposition’s pressure, the Modi government decentralized the immunization programme asking individual states to buy vaccines from domestic manufacturers or import the shots themselves to inoculate their adults aged below 45 from May 1 onwards. But states failed to secure vaccines and again fell back on the Centre shooting letters to the Modi government for centralized vaccination policy. And consequently PM Modi again sat on the hot-seat of vaccination drive for inoculating the 135 crore population of the country.

Vaccine roadmap

The Centre will have to spend nearly Rs 45,000 crore to foot the bill of new vaccine policy to meet the December deadline while Rs 35,000 crore was earmarked in the budget. In the first quarter of fiscal 2021-22, Rs 4,000 crore was spent. The Centre informed that from January 16, when the first Covid shot was given, till July 31, 53.6 crore vaccines would be available. Of this, 23 crore vaccines have been delivered to date. The target now is to ensure availability of 188 crore shots from January 16 to December 31. From August 1 to December 31, approximately 133.6 crore doses could be delivered that means almost 90 lakh vaccines daily.

According to a report, as many as 50 crore doses of Covishield will be supplied by Serum Institute of India, 38 crore doses of Covaxin will come from Bharat Biotech and 30 crore doses from Biological E. This apart, another 10 crore doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine and five crore doses of Zydus Cadila's coronavirus vaccine will also be procured between August and December.

Political trump card

In his televised address to the nation, PM Modi unfolded two big announcements: first, universal vaccination for all, and free ration to 80 crore people every month till Diwali under the scheme of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna. Reading between the lines by political analysts, it could be sensed that such announcements could be BJP’s political trump card in the face of five states going to polls next year.

Facing fire of public anger during the second wave of the Corona pandemic, the Bharatiya Janata Party organised a key meeting with its party general secretaries to take stock of the Covid relief work. According to a report, BJP decided to revitalize its cadres to speed up the Covid relief activities ahead of the five assembly elections to be held in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Punjab and Goa. People are reported to be bitter with the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand owing to the Covid-hit situation while the farm protest in Punjab has already compounded problems for the saffron party. The results of five states assembly elections could herald the political fortunes of the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The government has fixed the deadline of December 20121 for providing vaccines to all adults. India's total adult population (aged 18 and above) is 94 crore, requiring 188 crore vaccine doses. The BJP will get an opportunity to take credit for vaccinating the huge chunk of population by the end of this year. The government is in touch with the vaccine manufacturers to ramp up the production to achieve the target by the year-end.

(Ramakant Chaudhary is a journalist and political commentator. The views expressed are personal.)