‘Will Twitter have guts’: Congress attacks ‘liar’ Rajeev Chandrasekhar over Pfizer row

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday (January 21) hit back at Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and called him a “liar”, after he had alleged that the leaders of the opposition party were pushing the case of foreign vaccines after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

Tagging a video of Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla’s encounter with two journalists on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Summit 2023 in Davos, Chandrasekhar said on Twitter that the pharmaceutical company tried to bully the Indian government into accepting conditions of indemnity.

Also read: Pfizer confirms COVID pills results, potency versus omicron

“Just to remind all Indians, that Pfizer tried to bully Govt of India into accepting conditions of indemnity. And Cong trio of Rahul, Chidamabaram n Jairam Ramesh kept pushing case of foreign vaccines during,” the Union minister of state for information and technology said.

Just to remind all Indians, that Pfizer tried to bully Govt of India into accepting conditions of indemity

And Cong trio of Rahul, Chidamabaram n Jairam Ramesh kept pushing case of foreign vaccines during Covid 🤮🤬🥵 https://t.co/nT5LHI07hc

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) January 20, 2023

Hitting back at Chandrasekhar, Ramesh tweeted on Friday: “This is total bulls*** Mr. Minister. Let not your ambition to climb the greasy pole make you more of a liar than you are.”

Also read: Double dose of Pfizer/AstraZeneca less effective on Omicron: Study

On Saturday, Ramesh stepped up his attack on the Union minister, saying: “Rajeev_GoI, as minister concerned with regulating social media, you’ve misused it atrociously to peddle lies on me and my colleagues @PChidambaram_IN.”

“We won’t take it lying down, meanwhile I wanted to call you out for what you really are. Will Twitter have the guts to expose you?” the Congress leader added.

.@Rajeev_GoI,as Minister concerned with regulating social media, you’ve misused it atrociously to peddle lies on me & my colleagues @PChidambaram_IN. We won’t take it lying down, meanwhile I wanted to call you out for what you really are. Will Twitter have the guts to expose you? https://t.co/2ZEeGIwY08

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) January 21, 2023

On December 27, 2021, Chidambaram had tweeted, “People are surprised that only three vaccines have been made available in India: Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik. Of the three, you can write off Sputnik because only a small quantity was imported in the initial days.

“We are left with 2 vaccines thanks to the PROTECTIONIST policy of the Modi Government. Pfizer, Moderna and other WHO-approved vaccines are kept out of India on one pretext or other. Which is why we don’t have enough vaccines to administer 2 doses to the 94 crore adult population.

“The tall claim of the Government that the entire adult population will be fully vaccinated by December 31 has gone up in smoke The start of the booster dose, while it Is absolutely necessary, will further expose the demand-supply gap.”

The tall claim of the Government that the entire adult population will be fully vaccinated by December 31 has gone up in smoke

The start of the booster dose, while it Is absolutely necessary, will further expose the demand-supply gap

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) December 27, 2021