Centre, states suppressing Covid death figures, alleges Congress

Chidambaram said the difference between the increase in the number of death certificates and official Covid deaths must be explained

Congress on Saturday said it suspected that the Modi government was suppressing the true numbers of new infections and Covid-related deaths in conjunction with some state governments.

Former Home Minister P Chidambaram made the allegation citing reports in a section of the Gujarati media that the state had reported 1.23 lakh deaths between March 1 and May 10 this year as against 58,000 deaths for the same period last year.

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“We have independently verified the two numbers referred to above for the period of 71 days,” Chidambaram told reporters in a virtual press conference. He said the Gujarat government had reported 4,218 Covid-related deaths between March 1 and May 10 this year.

He said the difference between the increase in the number of death certificates – 65,805 – and the official Covid-related deaths – 4,218 – must be explained.

“It cannot be explained as ‘natural annual increase’ or ‘due to other causes’,” Chidambaram said that Congress had a strong suspicion that the bulk of the increased number of deaths were also due to Covid.

“Our suspicions are confirmed by the fact that hundreds of unidentified bodies have been found floating on the river Ganga and nearly 2,000 unidentified bodies have been found buried on the sands along the river,” he said.

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“We have a strong suspicion that the Government of India, in conjunction with some state governments, is suppressing the true numbers of new infections and Covid-related deaths,” Chidambaram said.

Gujarat Home Minister Pratapsingh Jadeja rejected the allegations claiming that the state government never hid the death figures.

“The state government follows the death protocol system formulated for the registration of death figures due to Covid. Sometimes, post Covid recovery deaths are also seen, which if included as Covid death in the report, would be inappropriate,” Jadeja said.