New Delhi: Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misleading the country during his address to the nation on Friday morning, Congress has asked for a white paper on how the government intends to vaccinate all adults by December 31, a deadline fixed by the government earlier.
While addressing a Press conference, Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh told reporters that only 21 per cent of the country's population was fully vaccinated while China, the only other country with over 100 crore population, had given two shots of the vaccine to 80 per cent of its population in September.
The Congress leader also said that instead of offering condolences to the families of 4.53 lakh people who died during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government is busy "celebrating Mahotsava" and ignoring issues affecting common people.
"The Prime Minister should talk about the issues confronting the nation, but instead he is celebrating 'Mahotsava'. The PM touched issues in a wrong manner and shared wrong data while trying to mislead the country," he told reporters.
Vallabh also alleged that "the PM gave the data which is semi-baked, as half-truth is very dangerous."
The Congress leader said that there are only two countries having more than 50 crore population and the claim that India is the first country to achieve 100-crore plus vaccinations is "false" as China had achieved 216 crore doses of vaccinations in September.
China has double vaccinated 80 per cent of its population, while India has only vaccinated 20 per cent of the population, the Congress leader said.
"We would like to ask the prime minister that it would have been nice if he had shared when we are going to start vaccinations for our school-going and college-going students. It would have been good if the PM answered when his promise of the entire population would be fulfilled by December 31, 2021," he said, adding, "Please share a white paper on how we are going to receive 106 crore vaccines in the next 70 days to vaccinate our entire adult population."
He said that "we thought he would talk about inflation because from January 1 till date there is a hike in (price of) diesel by 29 per cent and petrol by 27 per cent." "Is there anybody on this earth except the prime minister's few friends whose income level has increased in last nine months by 29 per cent," he asked.
"We were expecting you to speak on the issue when innocents were killed in Jammu and Kashmir, including 32 persons murdered in the last two weeks and nine soldiers gave supreme sacrifice saving our motherland. But the prime minister does not have time for any of such things," he said.
"When the PM addresses the nation, people expect that the prime minister will speak on something that is of their use, which affects their lives like inflation and terrorism. We expected you would offer condolences to the deceased families, but you did not do that," he said.