Minister Puri slams Akhilesh Yadav, Shashi Tharoor over vaccine

A day after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav questioned India’s Covid-19 vaccines and said he won’t take “BJP’s vaccine”, Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Shashi Tharoor too doubted the approval given to Bharat Biotech’s vaccine while its third phase trial is going on. Slamming their doubts, Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Jairam, Tharoor and Akhilesh are behaving true to form. “They first questioned the valour of our soldiers and now unhappy that the two vaccines to get DCGI nod are made in India,” he wrote. “Clearly, they are on a quest for permanent political marginalisation,” he added. As Hardeep Singh Puri termed the three politicians as the “in-house cynics”, Jairam Ramesh replied to Puri by calling him the “in-house Goebbels-cum-Albert Speer”, referring to two politicians who were close to Adolf Hitler.

So says the in-house Goebbels-cum-Albert Speer

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) January 3, 2021

The DGCI while announcing the approval to the two vaccine candidates clarified that both are running their third phase of trial which will continue. AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria too said that the approvals have been given keeping all aspects in mind, including the new mutant strain. He also clarified that Bharat Biotech’s vaccine can be used as a backup while Serum’s Oxford vaccine will be primarily given. “Initially, Serum Institute vaccine will be given. They already have 50 million doses available and they’ll be able to give that in initial phase where we will vaccinate around three crore people. Gradually, we will build on it and by the time Bharat Biotech data will also be available,” Guleria said.