The BJP on Friday reacted sharply to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report on COVID-19 death and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s comments, stating that the WHO’s data and Congress’s “beta” [son] are wrong.
Addressing a presser at the party headquarters in New Delhi, its spokesperson Sambit Patra said the WHO’s methodology to calculate estimated deaths in India due to the virus was “flawed” and “imaginary“ and that the Government of India had conveyed its objections to the organisation.
“Rahul Gandhi has tried repeatedly to lower Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image since 2014 and has in the process lowered India’s image,” Mr. Patra stated. “India has a robust mechanism for birth and death registration under the Registrar General of India,“ he noted.
“The WHO’s data and the Congress’s beta are wrong,” he observed. Mr. Gandhi should not “demoralise” India, he said.
Mr. Gandhi had said that “science does not, Prime Minister Modi does” in response to over the WHO report that claimed there were 4.7 million COVID-19 deaths in India, 10 times higher than the official figures.
‘India handled pandemic well’
Mr. Patra said the entire world believed that the way India fought the pandemic under Mr. Modi’s leadership was an example for others, and “it is very sad to do politics over death figures”. India dealt with the disease better than many developed countries. India fought as one against the pandemic without any distinction between the BJP-ruled States or those ruled by Opposition parties, he claimed.
The WHO’s data was incorrect. Even the global body had acknowledged its sources were not verified. India had made it clear from time to time that it did not believe in the mathematical model of the organisation, he added.
