Court's Questions Or States' Pressure, What Prompted Centre To Take U-Turn On Vaccine Policy?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on Monday on the COVID-19 situation in India and said that the Union government will take over the vaccination drive to vaccinate the 18-44 age group along with the over-45 age group in the country. From June 21, the Union government will vaccinate those above the age of 18 for free. Let's take a look at how the vaccine policy changed within a couple of months and then weeks, and what was it's subsequent effect.

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Timeline of vaccine policy

January 16, 2021

India began inoculating health workers in what was likely the world's largest Covid-19 vaccination campaign, joining the ranks of wealthier nations where the effort was already underway.

April 19, 2021

A month and a half ago, India＊s Union Government introduced sudden changes to its vaccination policy that it said would liberalise and accelerate India＊s campaign to inoculate all adults. At the time we called some of the moves baffling and talked about how they seemed like a panicked reaction to an unforeseen second wave.

Over the last two weeks, a few more opinions on the policy have emerged.

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May 21, 2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed on the need to remove vaccine hesitancy and said that the Central government was making every effort that a fortnightly supply schedule for vaccines to various States be provided to streamline supply and prevent wastage.

May 27, 2021

NITI Aayog, the Centre＊s think tank, made it very clear that the Union Government knew how misguided some elements of the new strategy were, giving the impression 每 that it chose those policies just to spite the states.

※The states very well knew the production capacity in the country and what the difficulties are in procuring vaccines directly from abroad. In fact, GoI ran the entire vaccine program from January to April & it was quite well-administrated compared to the situation in May. But states, who had not even achieved good coverage of healthcare workers and frontline workers in 3 months wanted to open up the process of vaccination and wanted more decentralisation. Health is a state subject & the liberalised vaccine policy was a result of the incessant requests being made by the states to give states more power.§ In other words, the Centre said, via NITI Aayog, that it knew this was a bad policy. And yet, it claims 每 dishonestly, as we point out below 每 that it was pressured into instituting this bad policy.

AFP

June 2, 2021

The Supreme Court of India concluded that the Centre＊s decision to not provide free vaccination to Indians between the ages of 18 and 44 was ※prima facie, arbitrary and irrational.§ A number of chief ministers of various states have called for the Union Government to return to the earlier approach of it procuring all vaccines, instead of the fragmented approach it chose in the new policy.

June 7, 2021

Cut to Monday when PM Modi after weeks of policy paralysis, announced a big U-turn in the country's vaccination procurement policy. Blaming the states for the lapses, he alleged that the states started seeing the problems in procuring vaccines themselves. They started gauging how difficult it is to go about the processes, he said.

Why the U-turn and why now?

This U-turn comes only at a time when the deadly second COVID surge is subsiding and after many thousands of deaths.

AP

The Centre now wants to portray its much-criticised policy as the outcome of flawed demands of Opposition states. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan implied that the Centre ditched a ※perfect policy§ because of state pressure, a claim that says more about his Bharatiya Janata Party than the Opposition.

Wrote to 11 CMs in the spirit of Cooperative Federalism. Quite unfortunate that Centre absolves itself of its duty to procure vaccines, ensure free universal vaccination. United effort to jointly pursue our genuine demand is the need of the hour, so that Centre acts immediately. pic.twitter.com/ILvEFYSpRu

〞 Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) May 31, 2021

But there is little indication here that Prime Minister Narendra Modi＊s famously centralising government suddenly discovered its federalist principles in vaccine policy and started listening to the states. The Centre＊s new policy seems quite evidently to be a panicked reaction to quieten the barrage of criticism following a brutal second wave that it completely failed to anticipate.

Agencies

Push back from states

Chief ministers of Opposition states like Kerala and Jharkhand asked the Centre to procure vaccines for all, as most central governments the world over have done. Even the chief ministers of Odisha and Telangana, who have tended to vote with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Parliament, have spoken up against the fragmented procurement 每 though, typically, they have addressed their comments to fellow chief minsters, rather than Modi.

Scrutiny by the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court had on May 31 pronounced a strongly-worded judgement pointing out the flaws and lacunae in the COVID vaccination policy adopted by the Central government.

TOI

Among other things, the Supreme Court＊s judgment in the suo moto case 每 meaning one that it started hearing on its own, without any petition 每 on Covid-related matters includes several paragraphs spent telling the Centre that its website for vaccine registration needs drop-down menus and keyboard shortcuts to aid disabled users. Why the top court of the land has to use its time giving basic directions on website design to the Centre, which had a whole year to put together the site, is hard to answer.

CoWin

The order continues the trend of the court asking straightforward questions to the Centre for information on vaccine policy that it ought to have provided to the public anyway, months ago. It asks:

• How is the Centre monitoring vaccine distribution to private hospitals?
• How is the Centre monitoring whether private hospitals are distributing doses in proportion to state populations, as claimed by the government?
• Did the Centre do a ※means-test§ of the demographic of states to conclude that 50% of the 18-44 population would be able to pay for two doses of a vaccine?
• If not, why did it give private hospitals the responsibility to cover 50% of the 18-44 population?
• How will the Centre and states ensure equitable distribution of vaccines across sections of society?
• Is the Centre regulating at all the end-price charged by private hospitals, especially since it regulates how many doses they can get?
• How has the Rs 35,000 crore set aside for vaccines in the Budget been spent?

BCCL

Even after a detailed presentation by the Prime Minister on Monday, these questions above remain unanswered.