‘Act of depravity’: Congress criticises Centre for ‘undercounting’ Covid-19 deaths

The Congress on Sunday criticised the Union government over the alleged mismatch between the official toll during the Covid-19 pandemic and the deaths during the period revealed by the civil registration system data.

The data published on May 7 revealed that India had recorded at least 37.4 lakh excess deaths in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2018 and 2019, the two years preceding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Excess deaths or mortality refers to the difference between the total number of deaths during a pandemic or any other natural disaster compared to the number of deaths that would have been expected under normal conditions. The difference is an indicator of the likely death toll, as it captures deaths that went unreported.

On Sunday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that while the Opposition had for long claimed that the Narendra Modi-led government had “systematically underreported” Covid-19 deaths, “we now learn that there were an additional 20 lakh deaths reported across India in 2021 alone”.

“Most of these can be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic – and this estimate of 20 lakh is nearly six times higher than the official Covid death tally of 3.3 lakh,” the Congress communications chief said on social media.

Ramesh added: “From the migrant crisis to the manufactured shortage of vaccines, from the mass deaths and oxygen...

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