The abrupt disappearance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photo from COVID-19 vaccination certificates, distributed through the CoWIN portal, has stirred a controversy online.
Previously, these certificates featured PM Modi’s image alongside the rallying cry, “Together, India will defeat COVID-19”, but now display the quote attributed to him without his photo or name.
The alteration was first noted on Wednesday, amidst renewed discussions surrounding Covishield’s potential link to Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS), following AstraZeneca’s acknowledgment of the issue in a UK court.
Many citizens in India, prompted by these discussions, downloaded their vaccination certificates and observed the absence of PM Modi’s photo, sparking further inquiries into the matter.
However, officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed a news portal on Tuesday that the image was removed from the vaccine certificate following the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) amidst the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
This isn’t the first instance of PM Modi’s photo being removed from COVID-19 vaccination certificates.
In 2022, Modi’s photograph was also excluded from certificates issued in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur, and Goa, under the mandate of the Election Commission of India (ECI) ahead of assembly elections in those states.
The inclusion of PM Modi’s picture on vaccination certificates had previously sparked controversy in 2021, leading to a legal battle in the Kerala High Court.
Justice PV Kunhikrishnan, while responding to a contention that certificates issued in other countries did not feature photos of elected leaders, had said, “They may not be proud of their PMs, we are proud of our PM.”
