Tharoor bats for 'universal and free' vaccine policy, says doesn't want citizens to suffer like him

Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, June 2

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Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said that India required a universal and free vaccination policy to save the country from Covid.

Tharoor, who made the statement in a video message on Twitter, said he was suffering from long Covid and didn’t want “fellow citizens to suffer a fraction” of what he did.

My message from my Covid sickbed: #SpeakUpForFreeUniversalVaccination pic.twitter.com/JjKmV5Rk71

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 2, 2021

“The government said that everyone will be vaccinated by the end of December while seeing the availability or lack thereof of vaccines, I wonder how the government is going to get there,” he said.

Tharoor said he supported the Congress campaign for “a massive change in the government policy to commit universal vaccination of all Indians within the promised deadline of December and to do so free of cost.”

“It is unacceptable that this government should be demanding state governments, private hospitals and others to compete in some sort of market free for all to buy vaccines at different prices, extortionate prices, in some cases, when the central government had an agreement to buy vaccines at affordable prices and give them to the public for free,” he added.