'Unplanned lockdown' did not win battle in 21 days as PM claimed, but destroyed lives: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Dec 19: As India's COVID-19 caseload surpassed the one crore-mark, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the unplanned lockdown did not manage to "win the battle in 21 days as the PM claimed", but it "destroyed" millions of lives in the country.

India's COVID-19 caseload surpassed the somber one-crore mark on Saturday, adding 10 lakh cases in nearly a month, while the total number of recoveries surged to 95.50 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry's data.

Taking a dig at the prime minister's remarks in March that the Mahabharata war was won in 18 days and the war against coronavirus will take 21 days, Gandhi tweeted, "1 crore Covid infections with almost 1.5 lakh deaths!

The unplanned lockdown did not manage to 'win the battle in 21 days’ as the PM claimed, but it surely destroyed millions of lives in the country."

The country's COVID-19 case tally had surpassed the 20 lakh-mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5. It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, and surpassed 90 lakh on November 20.

The health ministry's data updated at 8 am on Saturday showed that the total number of cases mounted to 1,00,04,599 and the death toll reached 1,45,136 with the virus claiming 347 more lives in a span of 24 hours.