Modi Can’t Speak Truth, 4 Million Indians Died with Covid: Rahul Gandhi

Prime Minister (PM) of India Narendra Modi. Photo: PIB
Prime Minister (PM) of India Narendra Modi. Photo: PIB

Rahul Gandhi – whose only purpose of existence is to blame Modi on Twitter – demanded Rs. 4 lakh compensation for each family that has suffered because of Covid. 

By Rakesh Raman

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said today (April 17) that 40 lakh or 4 million people in India have died with Covid-19. While the Indian government headed by prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi has been downplaying the effect of Covid, Rahul Gandhi said Modi neither himself speaks the truth nor does he allow others to speak the truth.

“मोदी जी ना सच बोलते हैं, ना बोलने देते हैं।वो तो अब भी झूठ बोलते हैं कि oxygen shortage से कोई नहीं मरा! मैंने पहले भी कहा था – कोविड में सरकार की लापरवाहियों से 5 लाख नहीं, 40 लाख भारतीयों की मौत हुई।फ़र्ज़ निभाईये, मोदी जी – हर पीड़ित परिवार को ₹4 लाख का मुआवज़ा दीजिए।” Rahul Gandhi said in his tweet.

Rahul Gandhi – whose only purpose of existence is to blame Modi on Twitter – demanded Rs. 4 lakh compensation for each family that has suffered because of Covid. Congress had also launched a website with the hashtag #4LakhDenaHoga to demand Covid compensation from the Modi government. But after raising an issue momentarily, Congress forgets about it.

He also attached a newspaper clipping of April 16 from The New York Times which claims that the Modi government is opposing the WHO’s efforts to make the Covid death toll public because India has vastly underreported the Covid deaths.

Earlier, a leading epidemiologist Prof. Prabhat Jha had said that the Covid-19 deaths being reported by India are substantially undercounted and WHO does not trust Indian figures.

Prof. Jha – who is the founding director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Ontario – estimates that the actual number of Covid deaths in India is nearly 3.4 million (34 lakh) as opposed to the official figure of around 400,000 (4 lakh).

In a 25-minute interview on January 13 to journalist Karan Thapar for The Wire news service, Prof. Jha – who was the lead author of a study that estimates India’s total Covid-19 deaths – advised India to release the actual data.

The latest study reveals that between June 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021 the total number of Covid deaths in India were 7-8 times greater than the official figure of around 400,000. In the study, Prof. Jha estimates that the number of Covid deaths in India during this period was between 3.1 and 3.4 million. He said the reason that WHO doesn’t trust India’s Covid-19 death count is because the undercounting in India is substantially greater than other countries.

As the Modi government has been hiding data related to Covid-19 cases, deaths, and vaccination, the health experts advise the government to release the data truthfully.

Prof. Jha said the collection and dissemination of correct data will help India make better healthcare plans to deal with the coronavirus crisis. While the official data says that as of April 17, 2022 just over 521,000 Indians died of Covid, independent research reveals that the actual number of deaths is much more than the official figures.

According to a BBC report, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused excess deaths in India to cross more than four million (40 lakh). While there are serious doubts about the efficacy of vaccines being used in India, it is believed that many people are still dying in India, but the Modi government is hiding the real data.

Meanwhile, a study published in the Science magazine on January 6, 2022 about the Covid mortality in India claims that India’s national Covid death totals remain undetermined.

As of January 1, 2022, according to the Science magazine study, India reported over 35 million cases of SARS-CoV-2, second only to the United States (U.S.). Astonishingly, however, India’s official cumulative Covid death count of 0.48 million implies a Covid death rate of approximately 345/million population, which is about one-seventh of the U.S. death rate. 

The study adds that India’s reported Covid death totals are widely believed to be under-reports because of incomplete certification of Covid deaths and misattribution to chronic diseases and because most deaths occur in rural areas, often without medical attention. 

Of India’s 10 million deaths estimated by the United Nations Population Division (UNPD) in 2020, over three million were not registered and over eight million did not undergo medical certification. These data discrepancies suggest that India is deliberately hiding the Covid death numbers.

Prof. Jha gave the examples of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) and Bihar states where the actual number of deaths is being largely concealed. He believed that the same figure fudging is happening now when the other variants are wreaking havoc in India. 

Since Modi is an uneducated religious demagogue, he can’t speak on any subject that needs the application of intellect. Therefore, he uses the unskilled bureaucrats who behave like his slaves to counter every truthful finding that challenges Modi’s ability to govern. The dishonest bureaucrats have also refuted WHO claims of Covid deaths in India.

Meanwhile, in an ongoing RMN Poll, 81% people say that Modi is not handling the coronavirus crisis effectively while the infections and deaths are still increasing in the country.

With the coronavirus explosion, India has become the pandemic epicenter, which is posing a health threat to the entire world. As the Modi government is not capable of handling any situation that requires professional competence, the global community including the UN, WHO, the U.S., and the European Union must intervene to guide Modi before coronavirus assumes catastrophic proportions.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.

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