Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram was left red-faced after his own statement made in an interview backfired at him.
In an interview to ANI, P. Chidambaram while speaking about the revised vaccination strategy announced by Prime Minister Modi on Monday, asked which Chief Minister of a State demanded for direct procurement for vaccines.
Nobody, but nobody said that Centre shouldn't procure vaccines. He (PM) now blames state govts saying – they wanted to procure vaccines so we allowed them. Let us know which CM, which state govt, on what date demanded that he should be allowed to procure vaccines: P Chidambaram pic.twitter.com/DteCacgHag
— ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2021
However, netizens were quick enough to point out that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Chidambaram’s own party leader Rahul Gandhi had asked demanded states to have more say in vaccine procurement.
West Bengal Chief Minister had written two letters to Prime Minister Modi – one in February and one in April – in which she demanded that states be given permission to procure vaccines.
Wayanad MP and Congress’ de facto leader Rahul Gandhi had written a letter on April 8 to PM Modi saying that states should have more say in vaccine procurement and distribution.
Following this, P. Chidambaram issued an apology saying that he was wrong and he stands corrected.
"I told ANI ‘please tell us which state govt demanded that it should be allowed to directly procure vaccines’. Social media activists have posted copy of letter of CM West Bengal to PM making such a request. I was wrong. I stand corrected," Congress leader P Chidambaram clarifies pic.twitter.com/UwsQFj3VgH
— ANI (@ANI) June 8, 2021
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