Within 48 hours of announcing the lockdown we gave 80 crore people food for free: Sitharaman

New Delhi: The Opposition is opportunistic and brought an element of suspicion about India’s Covid-19 vaccination by calling it “Modi ka vaccine”, “BJP ka vaccine”, at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is toiling day and night to establish India internationally, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Sunday at the BJP National Executive meeting.

The party passed a resolution hitting out at its rivals and vowed to ensure victory in the upcoming round of assembly elections.

The National Executive is the key decision-making body of the BJP. Major political resolutions and election strategies are decided on at this meeting.

Sitharaman said a total of 18 issues were discussed as part of the resolution, including India’s Covid-19 vaccination achievement, climate change initiatives, the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ scheme, and how India’s youth are now employment generators rather than job seekers.

The finance minister said India’s image was established through the vaccination programme, but slammed the Opposition for raising suspicions about it while remaining “confined to Twitter” and being “nowhere to be seen” when it came to helping people. She also said PM Modi enhanced India’s image in the climate change dialogue with his speeches at the COP26 conference in Glasgow.

“A total of 18 issues were highlighted including how India’s image abroad has been established through the way our vaccination programme has been run in the country. International institutions and leaders have looked at India’s methodical way of doing it. The methodical fashion in which the vaccination has been conducted has built India’s image abroad,” Sitharaman said.

She also pointed to the free food scheme the government had launched when India went into total lockdown due to the Covid pandemic last year.

“Within 48 hours of announcing the lockdown, we came up with giving people food for free for 8 full months — for 80 crore people,” the finance minister said.