New Delhi: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has removed the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Covid19 vaccination certificate following the directions from the Election Commission of India (ECI).
"As the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is in place during the ongoing seven-phase Lok Sabha 2024, it was suggested to remove the image of the Prime Minister," a senior official from the health ministry told ETV Bharat.
Interestingly, it's not the first time that PM Modi's image has been removed from the certificate. During the 2022 Assembly election in a few states, the Prime Minister's image was removed from the Covid19 vaccination certificate in Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh.
Interestingly, removal of PM Modi's image was trolled in the social media on the X platform with several users downloading the certificate to ascertain the fact.
Although PM Modi's photo has been removed from COVID-19 vaccination certificates issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the tagline "Together, India will defeat COVID-19," remains intact with an attribution to the Prime Minister on the CoWIN certificates.
The recent admission by AstraZeneca in a United Kingdom court, reigniting discussions about Covishield's potential side effect of Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS), has prompted many in India to review their vaccination certificates. Following such review, users flagged the absence of PM Modi's image from the Covid-19 vaccination certificates.
Talking on the issue, renowned health expert Dr Munish Prabhakar said the decision should have been taken much earlier. "Such decision of removing the image should have been taken earlier when the MCC was implemented. Anyway, it's good that following the directives of the ECI, the Prime Minister’s image has been removed," said Dr Prabhakar.
