Wish Centre's COVID-19 vaccine strategy was subject of Narendra Modi's Mann ki Baat, says Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday questioned the government on its strategy for making the COVID-19 vaccine available to people, saying he wished it was the subject of the ‘‘Mann ki Baat’’ programme. “The question is legitimate, but how long will India wait for the government’s answer? Alas, the Covid vaccine access strategy should have been the ‘‘Mann ki Baat’’,” he said in a tweet in Hindi. Rahul’s tweet came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi aired his monthly ‘‘Mann ki Baat’’ programme on All India Radio (AIR). Along with his comment, Rahul shared a news report regarding Serum Institute of India (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla’s tweet in which he asked the government if it had Rs 80,000 crore available to distribute the COVID vaccine to the country’s population over the next one year. “I ask this question, because we need to plan and guide, vaccine manufacturers both in India and overseas to service the needs of our country in terms of procurement and distribution,” Poonawalla had asked on Twitter on Saturday. SII has signed an agreement to manufacture the potential vaccine developed by Jenner Institute of Oxford University in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca.