Piyush Goyal seeks apology from CM Siddaramaiah over remarks on vaccine

Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday demanded that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah apologise to the country's scientists and pharmaceutical sector for his recent remarks linking COVID-19 vaccines to a spate of heart attack deaths in the state and questioned whether he was "running the agenda of foreign forces".

Accusing the Chief Minister of "insulting" India's scientists, startups, and its pharmaceutical strength, Goyal said his comments undermine the people who worked tirelessly during the pandemic.

According to Goyal, it is "unfortunate" that such remarks are coming from the CM of a country that is known as the 'pharmacy of the world', a country where our startups are expanding and forming an ecosystem, a country where our vaccines were exported on a large scale to other nations.

This was possible only because our pharmaceutical companies had the strength and innovation to produce vaccines at a cost of less than Rs 100, he told reporters here.

Lauding the pharmaceutical companies, he said they made India proud.

"We didn't just roll out one vaccine, but two. The country was able to provide free vaccines to our entire population... He insulted our scientists and pharmaceutical companies," he claimed.

"Is he running the agenda of foreign forces that want to harm India's pharmaceutical sector, disturbed by India's financial growth? Whether it is the Congress party, the CM, or all their partners, do they want to strengthen the hands of foreign forces by demeaning India? He should answer and apologise to our scientists and pharmaceutical companies," he further alleged.

Earlier, addressing the IIT Madras Alumni Association's Sangam 2025 event here, he added that Siddaramaiah does not take pride in India's success or its startups and scientists. Instead, he is "ashamed of India and its startups achieving such remarkable success."  He credited Bharat Biotech for developing India's first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, and Oxford-AstraZeneca for granting rights to produce Covishield at Pune-based Serum Institute of India.

"We were not only able to provide 2.5 billion vaccines free of charge to all our citizens, but also supplied vaccines to over 100 nations, particularly less developed or developing countries that otherwise had no protection against this disease," he said.

Goyal pointed out that even today, India is being thanked for the medicines and vaccines it provided to other nations during the pandemic.

"They (Congress) want to run down India's success stories, and it pains us when we hear this kind of negativity coming from certain sections of society," he alleged.

Neither the Congress nor Siddaramaiah has responded to Goyal's claims so far.