Ahead of Uttar Pradesh parliamentary elections, Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief, has made a complete 180-degree turn from his previous stance on the Chinese coronavirus vaccines. Former UP CM has today announced that he will take the COVID vaccine jab now that government of India has ‘made it free for all’.
In January this year, when Indian was planning to roll out the vaccination process, the Samajwadi Party supremo had indulged in low-level politics by discrediting a vaccine that has been duly developed and tested enough.
He was amongst the first to spread panic by publicly announcing that he won’t take the indigenous vaccine “developed by the BJP”. Instead, would get vaccinated when his government will be formed after the next election. He had also claimed that he would give free vaccines to all.
“I am not going to get vaccinated now. How can I trust BJP’s vaccine, when our government will be formed everyone will get free vaccine. We cannot take BJP’s vaccine,” Akhilesh Yadav had said addressing a press conference on January 2.
However, in a Tweet today, Akhilesh Yadav declared that he would indeed take the vaccination, which he had earlier dismissed as ‘BJP’s vaccine’. Welcoming the vaccine of ‘Government of India’, he also appealed to others who have not got themselves vaccinated yet to take the jab.
“We were against the BJP’s vaccine, but we welcome the vaccine made by ‘Government of India”, Akhilesh Yadav tweeted, leaving many people perplexed as to what he meant.
“I will also take the vaccination and appeal to others who could not get it due to lack of vaccine to get vaccinated too,” the SP chief added.
जनाक्रोश को देखते हुए आख़िरकार सरकार ने कोरोना के टीके के राजनीतिकरण की जगह ये घोषणा करी कि वो टीके लगवाएगी।
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) June 8, 2021
हम भाजपा के टीके के ख़िलाफ़ थे पर ‘भारत सरकार’ के टीके का स्वागत करते हुए हम भी टीका लगवाएंगे व टीके की कमी से जो लोग लगवा नहीं सके थे उनसे भी लगवाने की अपील करते हैं।
His declaration came just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that, beginning June 21, the Centre will take over the government’s vaccination procedure, eliminating the need for states to acquire vaccines independently.
Immediately, Akhilesh Yadav Tweeted that he welcomes the decision and said that now he will also take the Covid vaccine.
Interestingly, the Samajwadi Party head had previously stated that he would only be immunised when his government is constituted during the next election. Uttar Pradesh is slated to go to polls early next year. It seems, just few months before the election schedule, Yadav has given up hopes of ‘Samajwadi Party government’ giving vaccines to people for free.
Not only that but Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh’s father and Samajwadi Party’s patriarch, received his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine yesterday.
Akhilesh Yadav asked to apologise after his father takes first dose of Covid vaccine
It may be noted that after Mulayam Singh Yadav took his first vaccination, the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya demanded an apology from his son Akhilesh Yadav for deliberately creating vaccine hesitancy for months.
Thanking Mulayam Singh Yadav for taking the vaccine, Maurya in his Tweet said, “Thank you SP patron and former Chief Minister Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav ji for taking the indigenous vaccine. You getting vaccinated is proof that SP’s national president, Mr. Akhilesh ji had spread rumors about the vaccine. Akhilesh ji must apologize for this.”
SP chief peddles half-baked data to prove that India is far behind in the vaccination process
For the uninitiated, Akhilesh Yadav had not only spread rumours and created vaccine hesitancy but also peddled skewed statistics to prove that India lags behind in the immunisation process.
Last month, Akhilesh Yadav shared an infographic about Covid-19 immunizations around the world, claiming that the country has to start a national immunisation push right away that is robust, thorough, and quick.
Akhilesh Yadav had cherry-picked data from immunisation surveys to fit his political narrative, as we have reported earlier.
Though the likes of the Samajwadi Party chief have been regularly engaged in fear mongering against Indian-made vaccines in order to advance their political agenda, resulting in a surge of vaccination apprehension among the public, the fact is that Uttar Pradesh has reached the milestone of administering over 2 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses in the state. It has vaccinated over 30 lakh people between the ages of 18 and 44, the highest in the country for this age group.
