‘Govt Thought It Could Win COVID Battle With Bluff’: Chidambaram

Sanjay Pugalia
·3 min read

Video Producer: Shohini Bose
Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj

As India struggles to cope with the COVID surge – hospitals across the country reporting shortage of beds, oxygen supply and medicines, queues outside hospitals and crematoriums getting longer, rising death toll defying government data, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram, in an exclusive interview with The Quint's Editorial Director Sanjay Pugalia, raises big questions on the government's handling of the COVID crisis.

How could the government go so wrong in handling the crisis? The scenes outside the hospitals are heartbreaking.

The problem is that this government thought it could win a war with bluff, bluster and rhetoric, without doing actual ground work. There is no collective decision-making. May 2014 onwards, this has become a one-person government. All decisions are taken by the one person. And if that one person is away campaigning in West Bengal, there is nobody in the PMO to take a call. Is that the way to fight a pandemic?

Also Read: MP COVID Horror: Overburdened Crematoriums, Health System Crumbles

The government has taken into account your suggestions on handling COVID crisis. Do you appreciate the government for that?

There still many crucial aspects, on which the policy is discriminatory and inequitable. What upsets me most is that there seems to be nobody in the government to understand simple arithmetic. The goal of vaccinating 30 crore people by 31 August (from 16 January) – wherein you have about seven and a half months, including Sundays and holidays – means 13 lakh vaccinations a day, without any break. Which means the supply end should also have 13 lakh doses everyday. Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech have limited capacity. How did they plan for this?

How long will the vaccine shortage supply bottleneck continue?

The capacity of both, Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech, is limited. They need capital investment to increase the capacity. Even now they haven’t reached full capacity. The Rs 4,500-crore announced by the ministry of finance will be a supply credit, which will act as an advance payment for the vaccines that will be supplied before the end of July. You can’t increase the manufacturing facility through a supply credit. You need capital investment.

Also Read: Bengaluru Health Volunteer Breaks Down as the City Gasps for Life

But PM Modi has been chairing crucial COVID meetings on a regular basis.

Where is the result on the ground? Why are most hospitals reporting shortage of beds, oxygen and other health facilities? Why are there long queues of ambulances waiting outside hospitals and patients waiting to get hospital beds? Why are there long queues outside crematoriums? No capacity was added after September or October 2020. This government gave up the minute the curve started flattening. The government said they had won the war and also that they will win the war in 2021. Which war did they win in 2020? If they won a war in 2020, why is there a new war in 2021?

Can importing vaccines clear supply bottleneck?

Centre has not disclosed who they are in touch with. Import can only be by the remaining 5-6 manufacturers in the world, who have got approved vaccines. Who have they negotiated with? Who have agreed to supply? What quantity have they agreed to supply? I don’t know. Just to say that we are opening up for imports doesn’t mean anything. Suppose there is an export restriction on the vaccine manufacturer in that country, how will they export?

. Read more on News Videos by The Quint.‘Govt Thought It Could Win COVID Battle With Bluff’: ChidambaramEuropean Super League Suspended as PL Clubs Lead U-Turn: Report . Read more on News Videos by The Quint.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Biden and Trump face enthusiasm test in battleground Pennsylvania

    U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican challenger Donald Trump go before voters on Tuesday's primaries in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, one of the last tests of voter enthusiasm ahead of November's general election. Pennsylvania, with 19 Electoral College votes toward the 270 needed to win, is a top prize and a toss-up in the 2024 presidential election featuring a Biden-Trump rematch. In 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania by less than 1.5%, or roughly 80,000 votes.

  • London's best coffee shops, from Prufrock to Bar Italia

    Forget Pret, say no to Nero and wish goodbye to Gail’s — this is where to find the very best coffee in London

  • PepsiCo beats quarterly revenue estimates on price hikes, steady demand

    Consumers have remained resilient and shelled out money for PepsiCo's Lays chips and 7UP products across the company's international markets, helping offset a slowdown witnessed in its major market United States. Several rounds of price hikes in the U.S. have led consumers in the region to push back on the company's sodas and juices as sticky inflation makes customers cautious with their spending. PepsiCo's average prices jumped 5% for the quarter ended March 23, while organic volume slipped 2%.

  • Channel horror: Five migrants including a child die after panic on boat 'packed with 110 people'

    A four-year-old girl was said to be in a critical condition

  • Voices: Dominic West has taken a leaf out of David Beckham’s PR playbook

    COMMENT: Why does blame always lay with the ‘other woman’, asks Katie Edwards

  • Long-awaited aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan poised to pass US Congress

    Billions of dollars in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan should easily win approval in the U.S. Senate this week, after the House of Representatives abruptly ended a months-long stalemate and approved the assistance in a rare Saturday session. The Senate on Tuesday will take up the package of four bills passed by the House, one providing $61 billion for Ukraine, a second with $26 billion for Israel, a third with $8.12 billion "to counter communist China" in the Indo-Pacific and a fourth that includes a potential ban on the social media app TikTok, measures for the transfer of seized Russian assets to Ukraine and new sanctions on Iran.

  • How to make the perfect iced coffee (and save a fortune)

    Iced coffee season is (almost) upon us. The clink of cubes in a creamy frappé is one of the great joys of spring. But while we might feel deserving of a cooling caffeinated beverage as soon as the sun shines, it’s a wallet-denting habit.

  • UPDATE 1-PepsiCo beats quarterly revenue estimates on price hikes, steady demand

    PepsiCo beat Wall Street expectations for first-quarter revenue on Tuesday as demand held steady for the soda and snacks giant's Tropicana juices and Cheetos in its international markets. Consumers have remained resilient and shelled out money for PepsiCo's Lays chips and 7UP products across the company's international markets, helping offset a slowdown witnessed in its major market United States. PepsiCo's average prices jumped 5% for the quarter ended March 23, while organic volume slipped 2%.

  • US Supreme Court examines firings of pro-union Starbucks workers

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday steps into the contentious unionization drive at Starbucks as the coffee chain challenges a judicial order requiring it to rehire seven employees at a Tennessee cafe who were fired as they pursued efforts to organize. The justices are set to hear arguments in the company's appeal of a lower court's approval of an injunction sought by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board ordering the reinstatement of the workers. It is a case that could make it harder to bring a quick halt to labor practices challenged as unfair under federal law while the NLRB resolves complaints.

  • Manchester City star Phil Foden, 23, and girlfriend Rebecca Cooke, 22, expecting third child together

    Phil Foden and girlfriend Rebecca Cooke have confirmed that they are expecting their third child together. The Manchester City midfielder, 23, and his childhood sweetheart, 22, threw a lavish baby shower at Stockport Country Football Club in Manchester over the weekend to celebrate the happy news. In images shared to their five-year-old son Ronnie’s official Instagram account, the proud parents-to-be could be seen posing with the youngster and their one-year-old daughter True in front of a large blue and white balloon arch and large LED letters that spelt “Baby Foden”.

  • Need a poem? How one man cranks out verse − on a typewriter − in a Philadelphia park

    Marshall James Kavanaugh takes a battered old typewriter to a park and lets people give him a prompt for a poem. They walk away with a piece of art.

  • Morning Bid: Tanking Tesla reports, Europe business beats

    World markets have cheered up a bit this week, but ailing Tesla's tanking stock price faces a critical earnings test later on Tuesday and this month's European business pulse proved surprisingly racy. Relief at cooling Middle East tensions helped steady the ship on Monday after the worst week on Wall Street since 2022 - with bellwether chip giant Nvidia recouping some of Friday's 10% lunge as Big Tech megacaps get set to report first quarter updates over three days of a heavy earnings diary. First of the "Magnificent 7" vanguard stocks to report on Tuesday is electric vehicle behemoth Tesla, which is down a massive 43% for the year to date and off almost 60% over the past two years amid a brutal price war, waning EV demand worldwide and serial corporate governance and product questions.

  • Trump trial live updates: Judge to consider gag order violations before first witness returns to stand

    Former president’s historic ‘hush money’ election interference trial is underway in New York

  • Metaphor: ReFantazio, a fantasy RPG from the Persona 5 team, comes out in October

    Metaphor: ReFantazio is coming out on October 11, and you can pre-order it right now.

  • What is the UK's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda and how many could go?

    The UK government has passed new legislation to let it send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.

  • 12 cosy crime dramas to watch if you’re already missing Vera

    Who needs flamboyant sleuths or gritty urban settings? The outpouring of grief following Brenda Blethyn’s decision to quit her ITV series Vera after 14 series shows we can’t get enough of elderly ladies solving crimes in Northumberland. , whimsically solved by deadpan middle-aged men in suits, while an all-star guest cast camp it up around them.

  • Amazon launches low-cost grocery delivery subscription plan in US

    The subscription plan would allow Amazon's Prime members to get unlimited grocery delivery at $9.99 per month on orders over $35 from Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh, and other local grocery and specialty retailers on the platform, including Save Mart, Bartell Drugs, Rite Aid and Pet Food Express. The service will be available in over 3,500 cities and towns across the country.

  • US Supreme Court faces fight over emergency abortions after toppling Roe

    The idea of a doctor in the United States having to consider the risk of imprisonment before performing an emergency abortion might have been difficult to imagine just two years ago. But after the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide, such dilemmas are a reality in several states that have since adopted Republican-backed near-total bans that include the threat of criminal penalties and loss of medical licensure. The court on Wednesday is set to hear arguments in a case pitting Idaho's strict abortion ban against a federal law that ensures that patients can receive emergency care.

  • What years are Generation Alpha? Meet the mini-millennials

    Move over Gen Z, there's a new generation in town. Named "Generation Alpha," it is currently the youngest age cohort. What to know about its members.

  • Boris Johnson ‘said he wished he was Black’ on night Obama became president

    Journalist of British-Ghanian heritage claimed Mr Johnson also demanded to know where she was from