On Monday, President Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP) explained that he had only challenged the preparedness of the Centre and State governments in the Covid vaccination programme and had not cast doubt on scientists, academics, experts, or volunteers involved in the production of vaccines.
Yadav, who had sparked an uproar earlier last Saturday by claiming he would not take the “BJP vaccine,” went on to say that “BJP (people) should first be vaccinated.”
This was his third consecutive assault on the BJP—the party leads the government in the center and governs the state as well—on the Covid vaccine in as many days. He had said on Sunday that the government could not handle
“At a press conference at party headquarters on the sidelines of the Vyapar Sabha meeting of the Samajwadi Party here, Yadav said, “We do not trust the decisions of the BJP. The government of the BJP is in the habit of doing ornamental jobs, making it all into a case. I doubted the vaccine preparedness. The government is doing a dry run, but the priority lists, diagrams and protocols
He also asked, “When will the poor people get the vaccine, in one year, two years or three years? Would they get it free? They should get it free.”
“Yadav said, “The government should dispel concerns, if any, when it was pointed out to him that people were expressing concern about the potential reactions of the vaccine. Yeah, such questions are being posed by people… It is flooded by social media, and other politicians and political parties are also raising questions.
Over the Ghaziabad crematorium tragedy that has taken 25 lives so far, the Samajwadi Party chief also criticized the Yogi Adityanath government in the state. “It’s the responsibility of this country. This is how they create institutions… Rs2 lakh (to kin of victims) compensation is meager, the government must also award Rs50 lakh per,’ he added.
Yadav also indicated that there was no coalition for the 2022 UP assembly elections with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). It (AAP) can be viewed as a broad group. It has a government, a minister in chief and MPs. We’re not going to ally with some large political party, we’re going to ally with smaller parties,’ he added.
After the 2022 assembly polls, the SP leader said that if his party comes to power, it would make certain special arrangements to protect businessmen in the state.
“Our businessmen raised important questions because they suffered the most during the lockdown. They did not get support from the banks and the government. They were forced to pay electricity bills even when factories were shut…,” he said.
