Robert Vadra urged Centre to focus on building hospitals, ICU beds, vaccination centres (File)
Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra on Sunday hit out at the Centre alleging that by allowing state and panchayat elections to be held, it had allowed Covid-19 cases to spike and that the Centre had exported six million vaccines abroad.
Mr Vadra was responding to a Parliamentary affairs minister and BJP leader Pralhad Joshi recent allegation that Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi had not been vaccinated against Covid-19 yet, as they did not have faith in Indian vaccines.
Mr Vadra in a Facebook post said, "Vaccinations are most important for every citizen of our country. Questions were asked by BJP spokespersons and Ministers, ''Why I hadn't taken the vaccine and why do Rahul, Priyanka have no faith in Indian vaccines''. They must get their facts correct."
Mr Vadra said that since Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had contracted coronavirus while campaigning for the polls he had to wait for a stipulated time to get vaccinated and clarified that his wife and party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had already vaccinated.
Mr Vadra in his post urged the Centre to focus on building hospitals, ICU beds, vaccination centres and labs for medicines ahead of a likely third wave of COVID-19 which experts believe might be fatal for children, stating that it is more significant than the Central Vista Project.
"With their mentors, callous attitude towards the virus, they went ahead with state/Panchayat elections and let spiritual melas/rallies occur. Gave away 6 million vaccines, spoke about herd immunity and a sea of heads at their rallies. Only because of all this Rahul, me and millions of citizens of our country, suffered with the super spread of the virus," said Mr Vadra.
"My request to this government on this "Father's Day", as we all know the 3rd wave of the virus can be fatal for children, to immediately focus More on building hospitals, ICU beds, vaccination centres and labs for medicines this surely is more significant than the "Central Vista project". Do not let it be another Tsunami of the virus, Mr Vadra's Facebook post concluded.
BJP leader Pralhad Joshi on June 9 had said:"When we started vaccination in January, Congress leaders raised questions on vaccine efficacy. Now, they are taking the vaccine. As per my knowledge, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi haven't taken vaccine. They don't have confidence in the Indian vaccine."
Mr Joshi's allegation came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an address to the nation, announced a centralised procurement system for COVID-19 vaccines, beginning from June 21, with 25 per cent of the procurement being made available for the private sector, as well as free vaccinations for everyone above the age of 18.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)