Nation wants to know the truth: Priyanka Gandhi on WHO Covid death report

New Delhi, May 6: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi has slammed the ruling BJP over the WHO's latest report that estimated that 4.7 million people in India died due to Covid-19 as against the 4.8 lakh deaths claimed by the government of India.

She took Twitter to criticise the government and wrote, "During the Covid tragedy, when crores of people were pleading for oxygen, medicines and hospital beds for their families, the whole emphasis of the government was on fudging the figures. The countrymen should know what is the truth after all?"

Her brother and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi too targeted the Centre over the WHO report.
He tweeted, "47 lakh Indians died due to the Covid pandemic. NOT 4.8 lakh as claimed by the Govt." and accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi of lying about the numbers. His tweet claimed, "Science doesn't LIE. Modi does."

Demanding Rs 4 lakh compensation to the families of people who died due to Covid-19, he said, "Respect families who've lost loved ones. Support them with the mandated ₹4 lakh compensation. [sic]".

The WHO on Thursday said that 14.9 million people were killed either by COVID-19 directly or due to the pandemic's impact on health systems and society, with the global health agency estimating that India had 4.7 million fatalities.

In New Delhi, India strongly objected to the use of mathematical models by the World Health Organization (WHO) for projecting excess mortality estimates linked to the coronavirus pandemic in view of the availability of authentic data, saying validity and robustness of the models used and methodology of data collection are questionable.