The Congress and the BJP sparred over India-made cough syrups following an incident in Uzbekistan over which the Uzbek government linked the death of 18 children to the cough syrup.
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The Opposition party asked the Narendra Modi government to stop boasting about India being “a pharmacy to the world” and take strict action, while the ruling party accused the Congress of deriding India in its “hate” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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“Made in India cough syrups seem to be deadly. First it was the deaths of 70 kids in Gambia & now it is that of 18 children in Uzbekistan. Modi Sarkar must stop boasting about India being a pharmacy to the world & take strictest action,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter.
Hitting back, the BJP’s IT in-charge Amit Malviya tweeted: ”The death of children in Gambia had nothing to do with the consumption of cough syrup made in India. That has been clarified by the Gambian authorities and DCGI, both. But blinded in its hate for Modi, Congress continues to deride India and its entrepreneurial spirit. Shameful.”
Officials said that the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation has initiated a probe in connection with the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan allegedly linked to a cough syrup manufactured by an Indian pharmaceutical company. However, on the reports linking the deaths of children in Gambia to an India-made cough syrup, the Drugs Controller General of India had claimed that the World Health Organization drew a premature link.