New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed the government over Covid-19 casualties and accused it of lying about the deaths after WHO in its latest report said at least 47 lakh people died between 2020 and 2021 in the country against official claim sof around 5 lakh fatalities.
The Congress leader also demanded Rs 4 lakh compensation for the kin of those who died.
"47 lakh Indians died due to the Covid pandemic. NOT 4.8 lakh as claimed by the government. Science doesn't lie. Modi does," Rahul Gandhi said. "Respect families who've lost loved ones. Support them with the mandated Rs 4 lakh compensation."
India reported 47 lakh excess deaths between 2020 and 2021, the World Health Organization's latest report on the global death toll of the Covid-19 pandemic revealed.
According to the report released on Thursday, the WHO estimated at least 1.5 crore people across the world died as a direct or indirect result of Covid-19 between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021.
The share of India is staggeringly high and it is estimated at around a third of the global toll (according to a WHO report) while it is 10 times more than the official figure reported in the country.
However, India strongly objected to the use of mathematical models by the World Health Organization (WHO) for projecting excess mortality estimates linked to the coronavirus pandemic in view of the availability of authentic data, saying validity and robustness of the models used and methodology of data collection are questionable. (Inputs from UNI)