On January 19, 2021, PM started #vaccinemaitri to start exporting vaccines to a number of countries across the globe. Our PM was preparing for this day since September, when India had just about reached the peak of first wave. Our PM at the 75th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session said, “India's vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting the COVID crisis.”
In May, 3rd week, Govt. of India arrests nine people for putting up posters, Modi Ji, “hamare bacho ko vaccine videsh kyun bheji” (Why did you send our children’s vaccine abroad). The fact remains, no country had started vaccinating children across the world. But the question was loud and clear for everybody to ask, Why did you send the vaccines abroad?
Our Govt. under Modi went into huddle and always take every question as the personal attack on 56 inches of our PM. What started as diplomacy stunt, actually backfired. As usual, Govt. got a nice Op-Ed by its party member in a leading newspaper. The person chosen to write is none other than gutter mouth, Sambit Patra, who is a qualified doctor. Though he is not practicing his profession, may be because of his irritating personality or his tone to speak.
The brief gist from his article is written here for quick reference. I will not post my comments on BJP Spokeperson’s and rather counter it with quotes from our Prachar Mantri (PM) and EAM (in Parliament).
Let us look at some facts. As on May 11, India exported 663.698 lakh vaccine doses to foreign countries. At the same time, about three times as many vaccine doses have been administered within India. Out of the exports, only 107.15 lakh vaccine doses have been sent as aid. That is, just about 16 per cent of the total exports. The remaining 84 per cent vaccine supplies fall in two categories.
About 54 per cent of the total exports — 357.92 lakh vaccine doses — have been sent as commercial supplies by two vaccine manufacturers (Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech). In addition, 198.628 lakh vaccine doses (30 per cent of the total supplies) have been sent for the WHO’s COVAX facility by Serum Institute of India. Both these categories fulfil the contractual obligations of vaccine manufacturers. While the government may have given the necessary permissions, it is erroneous to suggest that it could have completely stopped these supplies.
Out of the 107.15 lakh doses, 78.5 lakh doses (73.26 per cent) have been sent to just seven neighbouring countries. This is not just good diplomacy, but it is also good epidemiology.
India is deeply honoured to be a long-trusted partner in meeting the healthcare needs of the global community. Supplies of Covid vaccines to several countries will commence tomorrow, and more will follow in the days ahead. #VaccineMaitri. First tweet by our PM on vaccine exports, three days after launch of India’s Vaccination Program in January.
Towards the end of January 2021, our PM was again applauding himself at WEF, “India had not only defeated COVID-19 but it had also built adequate infrastructure to handle the crisis”. In March, India's UN Representative K Nagaraj Naidu told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that India has supplied more COVID-19 vaccines globally than vaccinated its own people.
In February, Mr S Jaishankar had suggested the need to stop ‘vaccine nationalism’, urged the need to promote internationalism, and had asked to ensure equitable distribution of the vaccine, While announcing the gift of 200,000 doses to UN Peacekeepers while speaking at the United Nations Security Council discussions on Covid vaccines.
Sambit Patra further adds:
About 14 per cent of the commercial supplies have gone to the UK, which is where the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine (Covishield in India) licence is from. What would happen if the licence manufacturer refuses to supply the licensee?
“Our preparation has been such that vaccine is fast reaching every corner of the country,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on January 22. “On the world’s biggest need today, we are completely self-reliant. Not just that, India is also helping out many countries with vaccines.”
“Our reputation as the pharmacy of the world has been reinforced,” Jaishankar told the Parliament in March.
Patra tweeted the “bulk of the exports were because of contractual obligations rather than goodwill gestures”. Our very own Mr Matru (Dr. Harsh Vardhan), MoHFW, is saying, “Despite shortage of vaccine in India, our government had the magnanimity to export 66 million dosage abroad on humanitarian grounds.”
The only lateral hire with adequate experience in the Cabinet, Dr. S Jai Shankar, our head of MEA, said during his speech in Rajya Sabha on March 17, 2021, “the supply of vaccines abroad is based on the assessment of adequate availability at home” and that the process was “continuously monitored and takes into account the requirements of our domestic vaccination programme as it unfolds in different phases”.
Sambit Patra also states, Major commercial supplies (about 12.5 per cent) have also been sent to Saudi Arabia, which is home to a large diaspora of Indians which is being administered the vaccines free of cost by the Saudi authorities.
According to Jaishankar, the initiative was all about India’s generosity and internationalism that are “so characteristic of our culture”. In March, PM also reiterated, it is because of teachings of Bhagwad Gita that India is helping so many countries around the globe.
Sambit Patra explained, The end user simply sees a vaccine vial and assumes that it is completely made in India. But Indian vaccine manufacturers rely on dozens of countries to source various input materials. Those countries, in turn, rely on others to produce the input materials. A vast and complex supply chain spans the globe before a single dose of vaccine can be administered.
This explanation is factually wrong, India’s major raw material supplier is US. Even Adar Poonawalla in mid April had also appealed to US Prez to lift embargo on raw material. Unfortunately for India, USA name does not feature in the list of 94 countries.
India’s commitment to vaccine exports remained stuck on three points; SII commercial commitments to its license holder (Astra Zeneca), GAVI Alliance (UN) and Vaccine Maitri to our neighbours as explained by Sambit and also narrated by MEA.
Sambit Patra concluded, To simply look at the end product, and expect that India can put a sudden stop to exports is juvenile and dangerous.
India's last shipment was to Paraguay on April 22.
Mr S Jaishankar has said, over and over again, Under the Narendra Modi government’s ‘Vaccine Maitri’ initiative, “India has exported over 66 million (6.6 crore) Covid-19 vaccines to 94 countries as of date”.
Mr Sambit Patra wrote, “India itself is to be the recipient of nearly 97 million doses of Covishield through the COVAX facility”.
The order or the sequence of events are not mentioned in chronological order. But it is only to suggest, the game of musical chairs our Govt. is playing on vaccines, which could have potentially saved lives of so many Indians and still it continues to put them at risk.
At first, every dose was credited to our PM’s diplomacy skill with every box exported from India plastered with an Indian map and even PM’s photograph as well. MEA taking extra efforts to get its official photograph clicked either on loading of cargo or arrival of vaccine cargo.
When the temperature is raised on the query, BJP as the party would take support of lies, is something which is so obvious. But Govt. of India is trying to distance itself from the issue. First they gave the success of the company’s (Serum Institute of India) commercial contractual fulfilment to our PM and our Govt.’s credit, which SII had achieved on its own capability, strength and foresight of vision.
Now they are making an immense effort to spin the commercial commitments of a private company as an obligation of the Company with no role of the Govt. Especially when our Govt. is also benefitting from the Covax Alliance. Mr Modi, Mr Jaishankar, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, nobody has expressed its gratitude to Covax (GAVI Alliance) for giving India, 97 million doses. They have not left an opportunity to collect 66 million tweets (if not personal messages) of gratitude about their magnanimity.
All the service of friendship on the humanitarian ground termed as Vaccine Maitri by our marketing head, also known as PM is now framed as liability by his party members. Come elections, Vaccine Maitri will be marketed as major achievement of our PM in Corona Crisis.
Let’s hope, our PM spends some time to read Bhagwad Gita and tries to understand the meaning and essence of the Holy Book, which is said to be the best book on the relationship between human being, the world and the God.
And pray, those nine arrested have been released and not slapped with UAPA or sedition law.
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