Chaos At Parliamentary Panel Meet As BJP, Congress Spar On Vaccine Policy

The BJP lawmakers claimed any discussion on vaccines at this stage "would affect the frontline workers and health workers who are fighting the pandemic".

A parliamentary panel meeting turned chaotic today as BJP members opposed any discussion on the vaccine policy for nearly an hour and even briefly left the meeting. For the first 50 minutes, BJP members of the Science and technology panel objected to the circulated agenda, which was on the vaccine policy. While the panel was to discuss "the development of vaccines and the genome sequencing of Covid variants", questions on the differential vaccine pricing controversy led to political sparring. The BJP MPs left the room but soon returned and rejoined the meeting. They said they had gone for discussions. When they returned, panel chairman and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh reportedly assured that the meeting would stay on its original agenda. Some opposition MPs, however, pressed on with questions on the disparity between the price at which the makers sold the vaccines and what people were paying for the shots. On Monday (June 21), India saw record vaccinations as the government's new policy of free vaccines to all above 18 kicked in. Before that, free shots were restricted only to those above 45. Vaccinations of those between 18 and 44, handled by states and private hospitals, were paid.