Rahul Gandhi slams Centre for fighting for blue tick amid vaccine shortage

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday took a swipe at the Centre, saying the Modi government is fighting for a blue tick and people need to become self-reliant for getting Covid vaccines.

His remarks came a day after outrage over the removal of 'blue tick' badge from the personal accounts of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and RSS top functionaries including Mohan Bhagwat, by Twitter, only to restore it later.

Twitter said as per rules, the blue badge and verified status could be automatically removed from an account if it is incomplete or inactive for six months.

"The Modi government is fighting for the blue tick. If you want a Covid vaccine, then be self-reliant," he said in a tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag "#Priorities".

In another tweet, he talked about stopping language discrimination after a Delhi government hospital asked nurses not to converse in Malayalam. The hospital order has been revoked.

"Malayalam is as Indian as any other Indian language. Stop language discrimination," he said.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also shared the concern and posted the order of the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research warning the nursing personnel to use only Hindi and English for communication, else serious action will be taken.

"This order is a violation of the basic values of our country. It is racist, discriminatory and utterly wrong," she said in a tweet in Malayali, saying Malayali nurses are risking their lives in Covid times to save people.

"This order is also an insult. We owe them a debt of gratitude and respect. It should be withdrawn as soon as possible and an apology should be published," she demanded.

In another tweet, Vadra alleged that the Modi government reduced oxygen beds by 36 percent, ICU beds by 46 percent, ventilator beds by 28 percent between September 2020 and January 2021.

"Is the health of Indian citizens less important than the Central Vista project," she asked, alleging that the government has declared the project as an essential service with people working day and night to complete it by 2023.

"When every expert in the country, the Parliamentary Committee on Health and their own Sero-surveys warned them that additional beds would be needed for an inevitable second wave," she said as part of her "ZimmedarKaun" (Who is responsible) campaign.