FactCheck: Did India relax export norms of medicines under Trump Pressure? Sequence of events & documents say, ?NO?

Congress, Communist leaders and their supporters have alleged that PM Modi capitulated to the threat of retaliation by US President Trump and sanctioned the sale of several life-saving drugs to US. They also alleged that due to this decision India will run short of critical medicines. Cursory investigation reveals that there is no truth in either of these allegations.

The decision to export life-saving medicines was taken much earlier by the government of India. While Trump’s presser was on April 7th where the so-called threat was issued, GOI had released the list of medicines that will be allowed to be exported on April 6th itself. The notification issued by Ministry of Commerce and Industry on April 6th said that the Central Government has amended the ITCHS export policy allowing the sale of a list of medicines which were restricted till that date.

It has also emerged that US President Trump had called and requested PM Modi to allow export of Hydroxychloroquine on April 6th itself and much before the so-called threat from the POTUS. This was also widely reported in various media outlets which the Congress and Communist leaders seemed to have missed.

One such report in The Daily Mail clearly said that PM Modi was ‘considering’ relaxing the blanket ban on exporting the malaria drug (Hydroxychloroquine) which Trump hailed as a ‘game changer’ in fighting COVID19 after he made a personal call to PM Modi.

Moreover, the government and even medical experts have said that there are sufficient quantities of these medicines in the country and will not lead to a shortage in any situation.

Our fact check reveals that the concern of the Congress and Communist leaders over PM Modi capitulating to the US threat is not only false but also fear-mongering.