At an election rally in Gursahaiganj, Kannauj on February 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took credit for massively slashing the prices of stents—which are used to treat narrowed or weakened arteries in the heart. The decision, which was taken the previous day, he said, would help the poor suffering from heart ailments to get stents at just ₹8,000, which was earlier sold at ₹45,000. Why had the Congress for years failed to revise the prices of stents, he asked.

Indeed the decision was a huge relief for many cardiac patients across the country as the ceiling price of bare metal stents was brought down to ₹7,260 from ₹45,000; and that of drug eluting stents were fixed at ₹29,600 from about a whopping ₹1.2 lakh. Clearly there was much profiteering happening on the sale of stents.

However, the PM as usual was economical with the truth on why and how his government had to slash the stent prices.

The fact is that the Modi government had not put 'stents' on the list of essential medicines on its own and had dithered with slashing the stent prices as long as possible till the Delhi High Court left it with no option by issuing it a March 1, 2017 deadline. And, behind all that were the efforts of a lawyer—Birender Sangwan, who through his persistent efforts since 2014, made that all happen.

"The UPA Government did bring in important reforms such as the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) in 2011 and also issued the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) in 2013," said senior Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who along with Sangwan, addressed a party press briefing in New Delhi on Wednesday.

"However, the Congress doesn't claim to have listed stents in the essential medicines list nor should the BJP take credit for the decision," he said.