I don’t trust BJP’s coronavirus vaccine: Former CM Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who served Uttar Pradesh as a Chief Minister for five years, on Saturday made a sensational comment. Ahead of the first phase of vaccination in the country, Yadav said that he doesn’t trust the so-called BJP vaccine. 

“I am not going to get vaccinated for now. How can I trust BJP’s vaccine?” he has been quoted by ANI as saying. Yadav, who is the second most popular leader in UP after Yogi Adityanath, added that everyone in the State will get a free vaccine the day his government is former. Elections are 1.5 years away in UP.

Reacting to Yadav’s comments, author Hindol Sengupta wrote that the remarks are so utterly irresponsible, so malicious, so vile. Columnist Akhilesh Mishra opined that Yadav’s statement is meant as a coded message for his Muslim electorate. “It is a BJP vaccine. Reject it. This is the Old India politics that gets our liberals nostalgic,” Mishra commented. 

Senior journalist Shekhar Gupta asked everyone not to believe any politician who says he or she is not taking the vaccine. “They will all quietly get themselves fixed with Pfizer/Moderna while spreading a scare about vaccines a]easily available here,” Gupta wrote.