Vishwas Sarang claimed the WHO report was a conspiracy by some countries against India.
New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi's tweet "endorsing" WHO report that estimated India's Covid death figure to be 10 times the official number, amounts to sedition, said Madhya Pradesh minister and BJP leader, Vishwas Sarang. Gandhi had said science doesn't lie, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi does, infuriating the ruling party. "47 lakh Indians died due to the Covid pandemic. NOT 4.8 lakh as claimed by the Govt. Science doesn't LIE. Modi does. Respect families who've lost loved ones. Support them with the mandated Rs 4 lakh compensation," he tweeted.
"Rahul Gandhi is endorsing the misleading report of WHO by tweeting; it comes under the category of sedition. Whatever we do politically, when it comes to our country at the international level, we should talk apart from party politics," Sarang was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.
Sarang claimed the WHO report was a conspiracy by some countries against India.
"If India does good work, some countries conspire against us. WHO has submitted a report (on the number of deaths in India due to Covid-19) which has been rejected by all health ministers. The figures WHO have given are without any facts," he added.
The WHO report said that almost 15 million excess deaths were recorded during the pandemic until 2021. Around 84 percent of these deaths were recorded in South-East Asia, Europe and the Americas. 10 countries account for 68 percent of these deaths.
WHO's estimate makes India the worst-affected country in the world.
The Central government and the country's top health administrators have debunked the report "as unfortunate and untenable". They have questioned WHO's methodology used to arrive at the figure.
NITI Aayog member, Dr VK Paul, said WHO has used a methodology for several nations based on a systematic collection of data on deaths.
"We have a similar system, a robust Civil Registration System (CRS). We released that report yesterday (Wednesday) and we have an actual count of deaths for 2020... The 2021 numbers will also come up," he was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI.
"We want them to have used these numbers. Unfortunately, despite our emphatic writing and communication at the ministerial level, they have chosen to use the numbers that are based on modelling and assumptions...Modelling is a one-size-fits-all kind of assumption and you may apply it where the systems are poor. But to apply assumptions based on a subset of states and on reports that come from websites and media, and then you come out with an exorbitant number is not tenable. We are disappointed with what WHO has done," he added.
With inputs from agencies
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