Gujarat Covid-19 deaths underreported: Chidambaram

Addressing a virtual press conference, former Union finance minister P Chidambaram highlighted a report published in a Gujarati newspaper, Dhaivy Bhaskar.

The Congress on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat of underreporting Covid-19 deaths in the state, calling it a “grave misdeed apart from being a national shame and a national tragedy”.

Congress MP P Chidambaram.(PTI)

Addressing a virtual press conference, former Union finance minister P Chidambaram highlighted a report published in a Gujarati newspaper, Dhaivy Bhaskar. “During the period March 1, 2021 to May 10, 2021, the government of Gujarat has officially admitted to only 4,218 Covid-related deaths, while death certificates issued are about 123,000 against 58,000 certificates that were issued during the same period last year. This can’t be an annual natural increase but can only be attributed to a pandemic,” he said, asserting that the Congress has independently verified the figures and all of it was supported by the thousands of unidentified bodies found floating in Ganga river or buried along its banks.

State home minister Pradipsinh Jadeja has dismissed the newspaper report as “mischievous”.

Chidambaram also accused the BJP-led central government of ‘bluffing with people of India’ by suppressing the true number of new Covid infections in the country.“The Government of India and the Government of Gujarat owe an explanation to the people of India,” he said.