Agra: Taking on Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav’s claims about the Modi government’s approval for the “deadly” Covishield vaccine, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare S.P. Singh Baghel has called the allegations “baseless”.
Following pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s submission in a UK court about the blood clot risk in rare cases from its Covid vaccine, Yadav has been among those raising the alarm — although doctors and researchers are confident there is no cause for concern.
Continuously raising the issue at election rallies, the SP chief has sought to draw a link between this and donations allegedly made by the Serum Institute of India — which manufactured the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in India under the brand name Covishield — to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Addressing a rally in Mainpuri last week, Yadav said that allowing such “deadly” medicines was equivalent to a “conspiracy to murder someone”. He further alleged: “The company that made the vaccine has donated to [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi’s party… There should be a judicial inquiry into this.”
Speaking to ThePrint, Baghel — the sitting MP and BJP candidate in the Agra constituency, which is voting in the third phase of the Lok Sabha polls Tuesday — rubbished Yadav’s allegations.
“His allegations are baseless,” he said, referring to the World Health Organization having approved the vaccine and adding, “it’s like raising questions about Modiji’s tireless hard work during the Corona period”.
The minister said that by doing this, Yadav was also questioning the efforts of India’s health workers, from doctors and paramedics to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) scientists.
Baghel also expressed confidence that he would retain his Agra seat, a reserved (Scheduled Caste) constituency where he faces the SP’s Suresh Chand Kardam and the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Pooja Amrohi.
“We have schemes for the welfare of the poor, the issue of the unity and integrity of the country, and law and order in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
Referring to the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which provides free foodgrains to the poor, he added: “Apart from this, 80 crore people who are eating 5 kg of wheat and rice are giving a suraksha kavach (security cover) to Modi ji.”
‘Shouldn’t consider people of India to be Kalidas’
Baghel also said Yadav should not consider the people of India to be “Kalidas” — alluding to the legend about the ancient poet and playwright having been a fool earlier in life.
“We are doing that work so that in the future, Akhilesh Yadav’s children can also eat the fruits of Modi’s welfare tree,” he further said, adding that the SP would be defeated in the elections and the BJP would win more than 400 seats.
Baghel, once a close aide of Yadav’s father and SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, defected to the BSP in 2009 and later went on to join the BJP.
He has faced Akhilesh Yadav directly twice and lost both times: for the Firozabad Lok Sabha constituency in 2009 (on a BSP ticket) and for the Karhal assembly seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections on a BJP ticket. In total, the BJP has fielded him five times in the past 10 years — in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and in the 2017 and 2022 UP polls, and now in the 2024 general election as well.
“I have contested elections five times and Modi ji has repeatedly expressed confidence in me,” he said.
(Edited by Rohan Manoj)