Akhilesh Yadav’s Covid Vaccine U-turn

A day after Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav took his first dose of Covishield at Gurgaon’s Medanta hospital, his son and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday clarified that he’s not against jabs by Centre but was against ‘BJP’s vaccine’. The SP chief announced that he will soon get vaccinated and has also appealed to others to take the shot. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced free vaccines for all.

In a tweet on Tuesday morning, Akhilesh Yadav wrote, “Instead of politicising vaccination, the government of India has finally announced that Centre will jab everyone. This has come after much public outrage. We were against vaccines by BJP but aren’t against vaccines by government of India. I will take the shots soon and also appeal others to get vaccinated.”

Earlier, the Samajwadi Party chief had courted controversy by saying that he will not take the ‘BJP vaccine’ as he did not trust the BJP government. “I will not get vaccinated by the shot given by the BJP government as I don’t trust them. When we (SP) will come to power, we will ensure free vaccines to everyone,” Akhilesh had said.

The SP chief had also alleged that the BJP government at the Centre only gets concerned about coronavirus, when the opposition parties do something.

“Money is being extorted by people in the name of coronavirus. This government is concerned about corona only when opposition parties do something. The same BJP government wanted to get rid of corona by clapping and banging of plates,” he had said, adding that the government has also failed to ensure that people wear masks to curb the spread of the virus.

Yadav’s statement against the vaccine had invited the scorn of UP’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who demanded an apology for questioning the scientific community’s hardwork in producing the vaccine in a record time.

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