Have India's rulers favoured Gujarat by supplying only 'safer' Covishield to state?

The controversy surrounding the two vaccines appears to be taking a scary turn. It so happened that I was talking to a senior healthcare expert of Gujarat on January 17. A very kind soul, this expert, whom I have known since 1990s, took the vaccine and posted the exercise on the Facebook so that others should know it's "safe". I contacted him on Facebook messenger, congratulated his gesture, and asked him which one was it. He said, "Covishield. This is the only one in Gujarat."

Covishield is the name the vaccine developed by Oxford, UK, and it is being produced in the Serum Institute in Pune. It has completed all the three phases of trials. The third and final phase, which took place after enrolling around 36,000 people, I presume, in Brazil and South Africa. In sharp contrast, the other vaccine, Covaxin, a Bharat Biotech product, hasn't yet completed its third trial, yet it has been "approved" by the Government of India.
The health expert telling me that Covishield -- the "safer" vaccine -- is the "only one in Gujarat" struck me. I phoned up several knowledgeable persons, and I was told that more than five lakh doses of this brand of vaccine has been supplied to Gujarat. "As for Covaxin (considered by doctors as 'unsafe' because it has not completed all the three phases of trial), it will be available, but at a later stage", I was told. I was left wondering: Why?
This made me contact some senior journalists in Delhi, who told me that in the national capital "only Covaxin has been supplied"! I was told, on Monday, out of 100 All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) doctors, only 11 agreed to take the vaccine because it is "unsafe." They would take Covishield and not Covaxin, they added. I wondered: Is it because Delhi's overwhelming majority disapproves of BJP politics that there the "unsafe" Covaxin has been made available, while in Modi's home state the "safe" Covishield has been supplied?
Not without reason, this seems scary for those of us who are proud Gujaratis. India's politics is dominated by two persons who belong to Gujarat -- Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. And, this is not the only time when they have favoured Gujarat over other states. Media has repeatedly reported how Modi is surrounded by officials who have served in Gujarat. Favouring Gujarat like this might lead to people from other states feeling uneasy. If one looks at social media, I have found that derogatory comments on Gujaratis have become more frequent.
Not only those critical of Modi and Shah address Gujaratis scornfully "Gujjus", they often say Gujjus have "captured" India and are destroying the country! I do take exception to such comments, telling those posting such comments are sounding "parochial", as Gandhi and Sardar Patel were also Gujarati. Some of them readily accept my argument. However, isn't there reason to believe that Gujarat's own leaders, who are ruling India, are showing clear signs of parochialism?

Meanwhile, searching through Twitter, I found that already there are misgivings about Gujarat being supplied with the "safer" vaccine. One of them, Shahid Siddique, editor of the Urdu weekly "Nai Duniya", tweeted, "According to my information only Covishield vaccine is sent to Gujarat. No risks taken with the privileged state." Another, Vidya Bhushan Rawat, a human rights defender, added, it is creating the "impression that Gujarat is now a VIP state treated differently."

Gujarati daily quotes state officials saying they are very happy

And, in a report, the Gujarati daily "Sandesh" has pointed out how Government officials are "very happy" over the state having been offered Covishield, which they consider as "more reliable" than Covaxin. The report states, Covishield has been given to Gujarat even though the state leadership didn't demand it. It quotes Gujarat health commissioner Mukesh Pandya, who is handling distribution of the vaccine, as stating that it is "good" this vaccine has been given both for the first and the second dose. Interesting!!!

Comments

Uma Sheth said…

People living in non-BJP states are also citizens of India as much as those in Gujarat are. Besides, if I am not mistaken, the vaccine exported is Covishield; so, people living in other countries are more important than those living in non-BJP states of India!

January 22, 2021 at 8:24 PM

Disappearing schools: India's education landscape undergoing massive changes

The other day, I received a message from education rights activist Mitra Ranjan, who claims that a whopping one lakh schools across India have been closed down or merged. This seemed unbelievable at first sight. The message from the activist, who is from the advocacy group Right to Education (RTE) Forum, states that this is happening as part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, which floated the idea of school integration/consolidation.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. I don't know who owns this site, for there is nothing on it in the About Us link. It merely says, the Nashik Corporation site "is an educational and news website of the municipal corporation. Today, education and payment of tax are completely online." It goes on to add, "So we provide some of the latest information about Property Tax, Water Tax, Marriage Certificate, Caste Certificate, etc. So all taxpayer can get all information of their municipal in a single place.some facts about legal and financial issues that different city corporations face, but I was least interested in them." Surely, this didn't interest...

Did Bank of India send a fake SMS, or is its website under attack?

On the evening of February 14, after banking hours, I received a strange SMS from Bank of India (BOI)—where I maintain a very small, largely inactive account. I had opened it years ago simply because a branch was located near my home. However, finding their services quite poor, I rarely use it anymore.

A story Gujarat forgot: Dalits and the Dakor temple movement

The other day, I was talking with Martin Macwan, a well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader. He revealed to me an interesting chapter of the Gandhian movement in Gujarat — how Ravishankar Maharaj (1884–1984), a prominent Gandhian social reformer of the state, played a pivotal role in the struggle for temple entry for Dalits (then referred to as Harijans) in the late 1940s.

Varnashram Dharma: How Gandhi's views evolved, moved closer to Ambedkar's

My interaction with critics and supporters of Mahatma Gandhi, ranging from those who consider themselves diehard Gandhians to Left-wing and Dalit intellectuals, has revealed that in the long arc of his public life, few issues expose his philosophical tensions more than his shifting stance on Varnashram Dharma—the ancient Hindu concept that society should be divided into four varnas, or classes, based on duties and aptitudes.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

Remembering R.K. Misra: A 'news plumber' who refused to compromise

It is always sad when a journalist colleague passes away — more so when that person has remained firm in his journalistic moorings. Compared to many others, I did not know R.K. Misra, who passed away on February 23 after a long illness, very intimately, but we interacted occasionally over the years.

Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

Punishing senior citizens? Flipkart, Shopsy stop Cash on Delivery in Ahmedabad!

The other day, someone close to me attempted to order some goodies on Flipkart and its subsidiary Shopsy. After preparing a long list of items, this person, as usual, opted for the Cash on Delivery (popularly known as COD) option, as this senior citizen isn't very familiar with online prepaid payment methods like UPI, credit or debit cards, or online bank transfers through websites. In fact, she is hesitant to make online payments, fearing, "I may make a mistake," she explained, adding, "I read a lot about online frauds, so I always choose COD as it's safe. I have no knowledge of how to prepay online."

Search This Blog