Covid death toll figures 'false,' says Congress

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge said on Tuesday that the government's Covid-19 death toll figure of 4-5 lakh is 'false' and conservative and claimed the average number of deaths cannot be less than 52.4 lakh so far in the country.

Participating in a short duration discussion on Covid-19 management in the Upper House, the Congress leader alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "failed" in tackling the pandemic and made former health minister Harsh Vardhan a scapegoat for the "mismanagement" of the health crisis. The Congress is ready to cooperate with the government in a crisis of this nature and save the people from suffering, even as the PM has not yet responded to three letters written by the party with various suggestions to address the pandemic, he added. The short duration discussion was on the management of COVID-19, implementation of vaccination policy and challenges of the likely third wave. The time allocated for the debate was four hours. "The government is releasing fake figures (of COVID-19 death toll) and it is far away from the truth," Kharge alleged in the Upper House. There are about 6,38,565 lakh villages in the country. Even if there were five COVID-19 deaths in a village, the total death toll would have been 31,91,825, he said. There are 7,935 urban cities, even if you take 10 deaths in each city, the toll would have been more than 7,93,500. Similarly, there would have been an estimated 3,60,000 deaths in 19 metros, he said. "On an average, it comes to 52.43 lakh deaths. It cannot be less than this. Still, they (government) say it is only 4-5 lakh. They keep saying this," Kharge added.

Deputy Chairman Harivansh and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan were also present at the meeting. Expressing concern over the repeated disruptions in the House, Naidu stressed the need for normalcy to return in the House so that all important issues can be discussed in an orderly manner.Rajya Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge