New Delhi: Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has said that he is not going to get vaccinated because he doesn’t trust the “BJP’s vaccine.”
“How can I trust the BJP’s vaccine? When our government is formed, everyone will get free vaccine,” Yadav said in Ayodhya, soon after he met several Hindu saints and Muslim holy men at his party office.
“Those talking about ‘taali, thaali‘ are now speaking about vaccines,” he said, referring to the lockdown dry run last March when Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the people to come out and bang their plates to commemorate health workers who would be fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.
Akhilesh also raised the issue of Ayodhya’s development during his press meet. He accused the Yogi Adityanath government of only cutting ribbons after the work done by Samajwadi Party. “More development work will happen in Ayodhya when Samajwadi Party will form government in the next assembly elections”, he added.
But UP deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya lashed out at Akhilesh Yadav saying he has no trust in science and scientists and should apologise for his statement.
Meanwhile, UP CM Yogi Adityanath Saturday said that he is confident that the vaccine will be available for people in UP and across the country around Makar Sankranti festival, which falls on January 14.
Nationwide Covid vaccine dry run
India is staging a nationwide dry run today to test one of the world’s biggest coronavirus vaccination programmes as the drug regulator prepared to approve the first vaccine.
This is the second such exercise — a dry run was held on 28 and 29 December in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat.
The Centre had Thursday said that the exercise aims to test the linkages between planning and implementation, and identify challenges.
Also read: How Modi govt plans to ensure uptake of Covid vaccine as India inches closer to rollout