Did Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr C.N. Ashwath Narayan tweak the priority list for COVID-19 vaccination to inoculate the priests in his constituency?
A special vaccination drive for priests conducted in Malleswaram in Bengaluru by Narayan on Tuesday has drawn flak from netizens and the Congress party who accused the minister of giving out vaccines based on 'caste'.
Congress MLC B. K. Hariprasad alleged that the special drive was meant for only "Brahmins" and those who questioned it were driven away from the vaccination centre.
The netizens wanted to know if the DCM would conduct exclusive drives for other castes and communities, too.
Narayan later took to Twitter to respond to criticism. In a series of tweets, he hit back at the Congress, saying the party which was skeptic about the vaccine earlier was now peddling lies for its political gains.
"The Congress is unable to tolerate the success of our vaccination programme and is playing caste politics even as we are vaccinating the priority groups and frontline workers. We have already vaccinated 9,000 people in Malleswaram irrespective of their caste or religion. Our volunteers have visited the slums to vaccinate the priority groups, labourers, differently-abled, roadside vendors and other vulnerable groups," tweeted the minister.
However, the priority list recommended by the Union health ministry nowhere mentions that the priests qualify as frontline workers, and they do not figure in the current priority list, too.
