‘Hoard, vaccinate, go back to limping’: Chidambaram on ‘secret behind vaccination record’

Congress leader P Chidambaram Wednesday took a swipe at the Narendra Modi-led government after India saw a significant dip in total vaccinations on Tuesday as compared to the record number of jabs administered on Monday.

“Hoard on Sunday, vaccinate on Monday, and go back to limping on Tuesday. That is the secret behind the world “record” of vaccinations on a “single day”,” tweeted P Chidambaram.

Targeting the Central government, Chidambaram also said that the ‘feat’ will find a place in the ‘Guinness book of records.’ “Who knows, there may be a Nobel Prize for Medicine awarded to the Modi government. ‘Modi Hai, Mumkin Hai’ must now read as ‘Modi Hai, Miracle Hai,” he further tweeted.

Chidambaram’s tweet comes a day after the vaccination figures in India dropped to 54.22 lakh on Tuesday after Monday’s record 88 lakh.

India closed Tuesday at 54.22 lakh vaccinations after a record Monday. It is the Congress ruled States that are limping, and dragging India down. So keep the scorn and derision for your colleagues and allies in Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Maharashtra, spare us. https://t.co/7aZpHTnYnM

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) June 23, 2021

Hitting back at Chidambaram, BJP’s Amit Malviya blamed the Congress-ruled states of “dragging India down”. “India closed Tuesday at 54.22 lakh vaccinations after a record Monday. It is the Congress-ruled states that are limping and dragging India down. So keep the scorn and derision for your colleagues and allies in Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, and Maharashtra, spare us,” Malviya tweeted.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also raised concerns about vaccination figures in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh vaccination trend last 3 days:
20th June: 692
21st June: 16.93 lakhs
22nd June: 4842

Who are we trying to fool?

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) June 23, 2021

The drop in vaccination figures comes even as the government declared the Delta plus variant, a new mutant version of the Delta strain first detected in India, to be a variant of concern.

There were two main reasons for the surge in vaccination numbers on Monday, top government sources monitoring the drive told The Indian Express: increased vaccine supply to states after the new guidelines went into force; and an increase in the number of free vaccination sites.