Rahul Gandhi calls PM Modi 'event manager'; says India lacks COVID vaccination strategy

New Delhi [India], May 28 (ANI): Claiming that India has no vaccination strategy, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi acts as an 'event manager' and does not think strategically while dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The problem is that there is no (vaccination) strategy. The Prime Minister doesn't think strategically. He is an event manager, he thinks one event at a time. If he wants something he suddenly makes an event for it to happen. We don't need events now, evets are going to kill people. we need a strategy. The aim of the strategy should be should space down for Corona. The more time and space you leave for the virus, the more dangerous it becomes," Gandhi said while addressing media via video conferencing.
He also slammed External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar for doing 'vaccine diplomacy' and said that by not vaccinating the maximum number of people in the country, the government is giving space to the Coronavirus to mutate.
"He (Jaishankar) said that India has created a name for itself by supplying vaccines to many different countries. Today the situation is that only 3 per cent of the country are vaccinated and 97 per cent of the population can still get infected easily. You have kept the door open for the virus," Gandhi said.
The Wayanad MP also came down heavily on the Central government for not have one fixed centralised charge for vaccination, like most other countries.
"There are different rates for vaccines in India while other countries have only one rate. America has vaccinated 50 per cent population. A country like Brazil has vaccinated 8 to 9 percent of its population. They are not vaccine capital, we are," he said.
He took a swipe at the Prime Minister for his vaccine strategy and said it was responsible for the second wave of Covid-19 in the country.
"I am saying that the second wave is Prime Ministers' responsibility. The nautanki PM did, and not fulfilled his responsibility is the reason behind the second wave. If the vaccination keeps on going like this then the vaccination of the whole country will be complete by May 2024," he stated.
Gandhi urged the BJP-led Central government to change the way it is working and said, "because of the way you are working, lakhs of people have died."
Congress leader asserted that the Opposition is not the government's enemy but is "showing them the way".
"I am not frightening people, I am trying to save people. I didn't want to see what I saw in the last 2-3 months," he added. (ANI)