New Delhi: Questioning the choice to extend the hole between the primary and the second dose of the Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks, former union minister and Congress veteran P. Chidambaram on Saturday cited the instance of the UK the place the interval between the doses have been lowered from 12 weeks to eight week and alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led authorities is laying a lure wherein it should cross the blame on the scientists and medical specialists.
“When the government has increased gap between the first and second dose of the Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks, the UK is announcing that they are going back to the gap of 8 weeks, at least for people over the age of 50. I am not competent to second guess the scientists and medical experts but my humble appeal to them is please don’t play the game of the government,” ANI quoted Chidambaram as saying.
“The government is laying a trap in which the scientists and medical experts will fall and the government will pass the blame on them. Please make up your mind and speak the truth irrespective of the government what’s from you to say or the government says independently,” he added.
Earlier within the day, Chidambaram launched a blistering assault on the federal government over the issuance of 1.23 lakh dying certificates between March 1 to May 10 in Gujarat this 12 months and alleged the ruling dispensation on the Centre is suppressing the precise numbers of latest infections and Covid-related deaths at the side of some state governments.
“On May 14, Divya Bhaskar, a Gujarati language newspaper, published a news story that sent shock waves throughout Gujarat and the country,” Chidambaram informed a press convention just about and added the thrust of the story was that throughout the interval March 1 to May 10 of this 12 months, Gujarat issued about 1,23,000 dying certificates as towards about 58,000 dying certificates issued throughout the identical interval final 12 months.
The Congress chief mentioned “the increase was an alarming number of about 65,000 death certificates”.
“This increase cannot be explained as a natural annual increase in the number of deaths. It can only be attributed to a pandemic or any other natural disaster,” he added.
Asserting that the Congress had independently verified the 2 numbers referred to for the interval of 71 days, Chidambaram mentioned: “We have collected the numbers from 33 districts (including the cities), the sum of the number of the death certificates nearly tallies with the numbers published by Divya Bhaskar — 1,23,873 in 2021 versus 58,068 in 2020.”
“During the period March 1, 2021 to May 10, 2021, the government of Gujarat has officially admitted to only 4,218 Covid-related deaths,” he added.
Chidambaram sought an evidence from the federal government with regard to the “difference between the increase in the number of death certificates (65,805) and the official Covid-related deaths (4,218)”.
“It cannot be explained as natural annual increase or due to other causes. We have a strong suspicion that the bulk of the increased number of deaths is due to Covid and the state government is suppressing the true number of 18 Covid-related deaths,” he mentioned.
Escalating his stack on the Centre, Chidambaram mentioned that his social gathering’s suspicions had been confirmed by the truth that tons of of unidentified our bodies have been discovered floating on the river Ganga and almost 2,000 unidentified our bodies have been discovered buried on the sands alongside the river Ganga.
“If our suspicions are true, this is a grave misdeed apart from being a national shame and a national tragedy,” IANS quoted Chidambaram as saying.
“We demand answers and an explanation,” he added whereas cornering the Centre and BJP-ruled Gujarat Government.
The former union finance minister additional mentioned the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) ought to accumulate the true numbers from every state concerning the dying certificates issued in 2020 and this 12 months.
