Hyderabad: Any vestigial hopes of elected representatives that they could cut the line and get the Covid-19 vaccination on priority effectively ended on Saturday, the first day of the nationwide vaccination drive that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched.
Modi put paid to even the remotest of hopes that many political leaders harboured of breaking the queue, by declaring that the first priority was and would be vaccinating healthcare workers who were the frontline defence against Covid-19. For good measure, he quoted from Desamunu Preminchumanna, the famous Telugu playwright Gurujada Appa Rao’s extremely popular poem, to drive home the message of the importance of putting the interests of others ahead of one’s own.
Modi, duirng his nationally televised address, quoted the verse that goes: “Swantha laabhamu kontha manuko, poruguvaaniki thodupadavoi, desamantay matti kadoi, desamantay manushuloi.” Translating it for non-Telugu speaking audiences across the…