Addressing a virtual press conference the Senior Congress leader Chidambaram said that the central government along with the Gujarat state government has been suppressing the number of Covid-related deaths.
He said so over the issuance of 1.23 lakh death certificates from March 1 to May 10 this year in Gujarat, against about 58 thousand death certificates issued during the same period last year.
The Congress leader said, “The increase was an alarming number of about 65 thousand death certificates. This increase cannot be explained as a natural annual increase in the number of deaths. It can only be attributed to a pandemic or any other natural disaster.”
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“Congress independently has collected the numbers from 33 districts and cities, the sum of the number of the death certificates nearly tallies with the numbers published by Gujarat daily newspaper – 1,23,873 in 2021 versus 58,068 in 2020. And during the period March 1 to May 10 this year, the government of Gujarat has officially admitted to only 4,218 Covid-related deaths.”
He further said, “The difference between the increase in the number of death certificates and the official Covid-related deaths must be explained. It cannot be explained as deaths due to ‘natural annual increase’ or ‘death to other causes'. We have a strong suspicion that the bulk of the increased number of deaths is due to Covid and the state government is suppressing the true numbers of Covid-related deaths.”
Blaming the government, P. Chidambaran said that the suspicion was confirmed when thousands of dead bodies were found floating in the Ganga river and 2000 of the bodies were buried in the sand at the bank of Ganga river.
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He alleged, “We have a strong suspicion that the government of India, in conjunction with some state governments is suppressing the true numbers of new infections and Covid-related deaths. If our suspicions are true, this is a grave misdeed apart from being a national shame and a national tragedy.”
“We demand explanation and answers”, said Chidambaram.
Further, he requested National Human Rights Commission to collect the data from every state about the total number of death certificates issued and the number of deaths officially admitted.”