TMC MP Saket Gokhale comes up with fresh false claims, alleges COVID-19 vaccines were not free and calls PM CARES Fund a ‘personal scam’: Here is the truth

Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale, known for peddling fake news who is also accused of Money laundering scam, sparked another controversy with a fresh claim against the Modi government. On Friday, 19th September, in a long post on X (formerly Twitter), he alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi lied to Indians during the COVID-19 pandemic by presenting vaccines as “free” when, according to him, they were not. 

Gokhale claimed that the Government of India had borrowed billions of dollars from foreign banks to procure vaccines, and therefore, citizens were now repaying those loans through their taxes. He went further and described the PM CARES Fund as a scam, accusing the government of creating a “personal fund” for Modi that was kept away from public accountability.

This is not the first time that the TMC leader has attacked the Modi government on sensationalized charges. Gokhale, over the years, has acquired a reputation for distorting facts, producing doctored documents, and combining half-truths with speculation.

His latest post is no different. By selectively presenting details about India’s pandemic borrowings, he attempted to give the impression that citizens were tricked into believing the vaccines were free, while in reality, the government had simply followed a path taken by almost every country in the world facing a once-in-a-century health crisis.

Gokhale’s claim about free vaccines

In his post, Saket Gokhale wrote that the Modi government misled the nation by claiming vaccines were a “gift from Modi.” He pointed to foreign loans worth $3 billion (₹26,460 crore) that India borrowed specifically for vaccines, and another $7.25 billion (₹64,000 crore) borrowed for the wider COVID-19 response. 

He then argued that these borrowings were ultimately being repaid by taxpayers, thereby proving that the vaccines were never really free. To give his claim more weight, Gokhale posted screenshots of official documents listing loans taken under the COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Programs and the Responsive Vaccines for Recovery Projects.

He also dragged the PM CARES Fund into his allegations, questioning why the government had to borrow money if such a large amount was collected through donations in the fund. According to him, PM CARES is nothing but a “personal and secret” fund that serves the BJP’s political interests.

Shocking: How Modi’s “free” Covid vaccines were NOT free

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Modi Govt & BJP claimed how they provided “free Covid vaccines” to people and, as always, called it a “gift from Modi”.

What’s the reality?

Modi Govt borrowed AT LEAST $3 billion from… pic.twitter.com/7amqGc4gKy

— Saket Gokhale MP (@SaketGokhale) September 19, 2025

In first instance, Gokhale’s post may appear convincing to those unfamiliar with government finance. But a closer look shows that his argument is misleading on multiple counts. Borrowing for public health emergencies is a common global practice, and free vaccines meant that citizens did not have to pay anything when they went to government vaccination centres. The fact that the government used its resources, whether through revenue or loans, does not change the fact that for ordinary Indians, vaccination remained completely free.

The global context: Many countries borrowed loan during COVID-19

The world’s biggest economy, the United States, borrowed a record amount during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of the latest available data, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that, as of 31st January, 2023, the federal government had provided approximately $4.6 trillion in relief funds to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

These comprised the CARES Act of 2020, valued at $2.2 trillion, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 valued at $900 billion, and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, valued at $1.9 trillion. The national debt of the U.S. rose by close to $7.8 trillion between 2019 and 2022, with approximately $5-6 trillion associated directly with the management of COVID-19.

Similarly, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and almost every developed country borrowed heavily during the pandemic to fund healthcare, support citizens, and revive their economies. No government had “free money” lying around to deal with such a massive crisis. Borrowing was the only way to ensure immediate relief and health support.

What “free vaccine” actually means

The most misleading part of Gokhale’s narrative is his twisting of the word “free.” When the government announced free vaccines, it clearly meant that vaccines would be free for Indian citizens at the point of delivery. Millions of people walked into government hospitals and vaccination centres, received their shots, and were not asked to pay a single rupee. That is what free means in public policy, citizens are not directly charged for the service.

The government naturally has to bear the cost of such large-scale programmes, and it does so either from its revenue, from borrowing, or from special funds such as PM CARES. This is how governments across the world provide free healthcare, free education, or free welfare benefits. Citizens do not pay directly at the counter, but the government covers the expenses. To argue otherwise, as Gokhale has done, is nothing but playing with semantics to confuse the public.

If Saket Gokhale’s argument is accepted, that will mean there is no free service by any government, including West Bengal. All governmemt services like health, education, sanitation etc are funded by revenue earned by government from different sources, including taxes paid by citizens. Ministers in the government or the political party in power do not fund public welfare schemes from their own pockets, as Gokhale wants people to believe.

The details of vaccine procurement

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has already placed these details on record. In its official record, the ministry confirmed that between January and July 2021, the government had placed orders for over 100 crore doses of vaccines. This included 64.1 crore doses of Covishield and 36.5 crore doses of Covaxin. All of these were procured centrally by the Government of India and distributed free of cost to states.

By the end of the vaccination drive, India had administered more than 220 crore doses, a remarkable achievement given the size of the population. The loans highlighted by Gokhale were part of the government’s financing strategy to ensure timely procurement, not evidence of a scam.

Gokhale’s history of half-truths and misinformation

This episode is not an isolated one. Saket Gokhale has often been caught spreading false or misleading claims against the Modi government. 

On Wednesday, (17th September), Saket Gokhale, in his long post on X, he alleged that the Modi government had borrowed a massive ₹8 lakh crore from foreign banks in just seven years, presenting it as if the entire debt burden lay on the Centre alone. 

But fact-checks soon revealed how Gokhale had twisted facts by quoting selectively from the Finance Ministry’s 2023 Rajya Sabha reply. Official records easily revealed that the cumulative figure he had mentioned also included loans borrowed by several state governments, including West Bengal, ruled by his own party, the Trinamool Congress.

In September 2024, Gokhale claimed that the cost of construction of these trains has been increased to 50%. He alleged a ‘quid pro quo corruption’ on the part of the Modi government. He claimed that the number of trains has been decreased to 133 in the new contract and that the cost of making one train has increased to ₹436 crores from ₹290 crores. However, the lies of Saket Gokhale were soon debunked by the Ministry of Railways, which highlighted a missing fact in his propaganda-laden tweet.

In June 2020, Saket Gokhale peddled wild conspiracy theories about a ‘ventilator scam’ after the first batch of ventilators procured using the PM CARES fund was made available to hospitals.

In a seven-part thread, Gokhale alleged that ₹750+ crore had gone ‘missing’ from the funds allotted for procuring ventilators under the PM CARES fund.

Soon, other Congress minions spread the same as gospel truth and claimed that there was a ‘ventilator scam’ underway.

All the fake claims were then debunked by the CMD of BEL (Bharat Electronic Limited), a professional Defence electronics company in India. In February 2021, BEL filed a ₹1 crore defamation suit against the RTI activist for spreading lies.

He also misused photographs to falsely accuse Facebook’s public policy director Ankhi Das of links with the RSS, going so far as to use a picture of her twin sister to push his theory. On another occasion, he misled the public by twisting data about Remdesivir supplies in Maharashtra, defending the state government despite clear evidence of mismanagement.

In April 2021, he was caught peddling lies to defend the Maharashtra government’s harassment of Bruck Pharma director over Remdesivir supply. He later complained with Maharashtra Home Minister about how Leader of the Opposition Devendra Fadnavis or the BJP, as private players, could obtain a crucial drug when its sale is allowed only to the state government. 

These repeated instances show that Gokhale relies on creating viral noise rather than presenting facts. His latest claim about vaccines fits neatly into this pattern.