In New Interview, Sonia Gandhi Says Government Did Not Support Medical Sector Financially, Then Accuses Vaccine Makers Of ‘Brazen Profiteering’

In an interview with the Indian Express today, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has accused the Narendra Modi government of not supporting the medical sector financially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The medical sector was not supported financially in any way,” Sonia Gandhi, who is also the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance, says.

In what many have identified as a contradiction to this statement, which suggests that the medical sector needs greater financial resources to increase its capacity, the Congress president has accused vaccine makers of “brazen profiteering”.

“Tragically, we have a situation where we have one nation and five vaccine prices from two vaccine manufacturers. How can the Modi government remain a mute spectator to this brazen profiteering and discriminatory pricing of vaccine?” Sonia Gandhi says.

“It gives strength to the argument that the government is complicit in vaccine profiteering at the cost of people in the middle of the pandemic,” she adds.

Interestingly, Sonia Gandhi also says that the government should “involve the industry” as a partner in the fight against Covid-19.

The government should “create new and sufficient hospital infrastructure on a war footing through a partnership between government and the private sector,” the Congress president has been quoted as saying.

This suggestion from the Congress president to the government comes only days after former Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, attacked private sector vaccine maker Serum Institute of India on Twitter and labelled it as a friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Rahul Gandhi has been on an offensive against the private sector for years now, and this campaign has only intensified in the last one year.

Over the last few months, Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders have been attacking leading private sector entities, suggesting that the Modi government’s policies have been tilted in favour of these entities. Rahul Gandhi has said that the pandemic has become an opportunity for “Modi’s friends”.

Many businesses, which have come under attack from Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, including Reliance and the Adani Group, have launched multiple programmes to aid the fight against Covid-19.