A post is being shared on social media claiming that no opposition leader in India had taken COVID-19 vaccination until PM Modi got vaccinated. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: No opposition leader in India took the COVID-19 vaccination until PM Narendra Modi got vaccinated.
Fact: The Government of India insisted all politicians stay out from the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive in India. Two MLAs of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party received the COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021. Narendra Modi took the vaccination on 01 March 2021. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched for the details on the official Indian Government website, we found that the Government of India has prepared a priority list for the COVID-19 vaccination. On 16 January 2021, the COVID-19 vaccination drive began in India and the government announced that healthcare and frontline workers will get vaccinated in the first drive of the COVID-19 vaccination. In the second phase of the vaccination, the Government included politicians and persons over 60 years of age. PM Narendra Modi at a meeting with state Chief Ministers advised all politicians to stay out of the first round of the vaccination.
However, two MLA’s of the Trinamool Congress party (TMC) in West Bengal took COVID-19 vaccine on 16 January 2021. Katwa MLA Rabindranath Chatterjee, Bhatar MLA Subhash Mondal from TMC received the COVID-19 vaccine in the first phase. Reporting this, a few news websites published articles on 16 and 17 January 2021. They can be read here and here. When questions were raised on TMC leaders getting vaccinated, a District health official mentioned that these leaders are members of the Patient’s Welfare Committee (Rogi Kalyani Samiti) in West Bengal. BJP MP Mahesh Sharma, who is a trained doctor also get vaccinated on 16 January 2021.
On 01 March 2021, PM Narendra Modi got vaccinated at AIIMS Delhi. Following PM Modi, several politicians from BJP and opposition parties get vaccinated on 01 March 2021.
News articles published on politicians getting COVID-19 vaccine can be seen here and here.
To sum it up, PM Narendra Modi is not the first politician to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in India.
