New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor slammed Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday over his remarks on the COVID-19 pandemic saying it is sad to see the health minister occupy an "alternative reality while the nation gasps for breath".
In the 25th meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Saturday held virtually to review the pandemic situation, Mr Vardhan said 180 districts have shown no fresh cases in the last seven days, 18 districts reported no cases in 14 days, 54 districts reported no infections in 21 days and 32 districts were bereft of any fresh cases in the last 28 days.
Responding to Mr Vardhan's remarks, Mr Tharoor tweeted: "It's sad to see Health Minister @drharshvardhan occupy an alternative reality while the nation gasps for breath and the world sees Indians suffering."
"Can one imagine Dr Fauci (and White House Chief Medical Adviser) celebrating SMSs, promoting faux medicines & endorsing unproven therapies? No one believes our figures," the former Union minister said.
A couple of days ago, Mr Tharoor had criticized another tweet of Harsh Vardhan regarding the Co-WIN platform, wherein Mr Vardhan had mentioned in just three hours, 80 lakh people registered, 1.45 crore SMS were successfully delivered and 38.3 crore API hits recorded.
Mr Tharoor tweeted: "SMS delivered as an indication of success in fighting #Covid?"
In another tweet, Mr Tharoor asked why is the government not spending the ₹ 35,000 crores allocated in the budget and instead of passing the burden of vaccine costs to states.
"Once Parliament has approved it, why does the government sit on the money? There's a record GST collection & windfall gains from fuel taxes. Buy vaccines!!" the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.