- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
A MAN in India moved the court to complain about prime minister Narendra Modi promoting himself as the face of the country’s vaccination drive against Covid-19 pandemic but saw himself getting slapped with a fine for wasting the judge’s time.
The incident happened on Tuesday (21).
Modi has been the focus of a massive advertising campaign which touts his government’s fight against the pandemic even though the country has seen the third highest number of deaths caused by the deadly virus – 478,000 – after the US and Brazil.
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The prime minister’s image has been plastered on billboards and the side of passenger aircraft alongside a triumphant message celebrating India’s recent milestone of administering more than a billion jabs.
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Even the vaccine certificates that are handed over to the recipients have the prime minister’s image printed on them.
The opposition has slammed the government over its handling of the pandemic and dryly suggested that his face should also be shown on the death certificates of those who have died of coronavirus.
Peter Myaliparampil, who belongs to the southern Indian state of Kerala, had objected to the prime minister’s face printed on his vaccine certificate with a message encouraging people to fight the virus.
He approached the state’s high court and told it that India’s vaccination drive could become “a media campaign” for the political leader’s benefit, AFP reported.
Myaliparampil filed a petition in which he said he had paid for his own vaccine and Modi’s image on his certificate “served no utility or relevance”.
But the Kerala High Court refused to entertain the case saying it appeared to be politically motivated. It also fined the man Rs 100,000 (£9,949) for wasting its time.
“If the petitioner… is ashamed to see the picture of his Prime Minister, he can avert his eyes to the bottom side of the vaccine certificate,” the court’s judgement said.
Myaliparampil’s lawyer told AFP that they would appeal the decision.
The government has justified using Modi as the face of the media campaign with the junior health minister telling the country’s parliament in August that it helped in creating awareness about the prevention of the outbreak.
