Rahul Gandhi explains ‘free’ in his vaccine demand for all

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday demanded free Covid-19 vaccination for all Indians, adding the dictionary meaning and the usage of the word ‘free’ to emphasise his point.

Calling the government’s vaccination policy discriminatory, Gandhi and other Congress leaders have been demanding free vaccines for everyone.

In his tweet on Thursday, the Congress leader posted, “free /friː/ adjective, adverb — costing nothing, or not needing to be paid for,” and then went on to illustrate the usage of word “free” through two examples relevant to his demands, “India must get free Covid vaccine. All citizens must receive the inoculation free of charge.” “Let’s hope they get it this time”.

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Gandhi’s tweet comes a day after the Centre started registrations for Phase 3 of the vaccination drive, which has been opened up for all adults. Over 11.6 million people had registered for vaccination on CoWIN, the government’s vaccine registration website, on Wednesday.

The Wayanad MP had attacked the Modi government just a day ago, for not making the vaccine free. “People’s money was given to vaccine companies to develop Covid vaccines,” he had tweeted. “Now, GOI [government of India] will make same people pay the highest price in the world for these vaccines.”

India began its first phase of vaccination drive in January, starting with healthcare and frontline workers. The second phase, which was rolled out in March, included those aged above 45 and those with other illnesses.

The country has been reporting over 300,000 cases every day for over a week. On Thursday morning, India’s Covid figures hit a new milestone as it reported 379,257 new cases and 3,645 deaths in the last 24 hours.