W.H.O. Report Claiming India Undercounted Coronavirus Victims Sets Off Political Firestorm

India’s largest opposition party on Friday called for a dramatic increase in government compensation for the families of coronavirus victims after the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) released a report that accused India of radically understating how many deaths were caused by the pandemic.

“Science doesn’t lie. Modi does! Respect families who have lost loved ones,” declared Rahul Gandhi, currently the number-two leader of the Indian National Congress (INC) party: 

47 lakh Indians died due to the Covid pandemic. NOT 4.8 lakh as claimed by the Govt.

Science doesn't LIE. Modi does.

Respect families who've lost loved ones. Support them with the mandated ₹4 lakh compensation. pic.twitter.com/p9y1VdVFsA

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 6, 2022

Gandhi demanded compensation for the victims of Chinese coronavirus be increased to 400,000 rupees (about $5200) from the current award of 50,000 rupees. Given that the W.H.O. report he cited found 4.7 million coronavirus deaths in India, while the official government tally was only 524,000, this would represent an enormous increase in spending for pandemic compensation.

“The government must immediately form a Covid-19 [Chinese coronavirus] commission with members from all parties to analyze the deaths that happened due to unavailability of oxygen, broken supply chain in case of vaccines and medicines, and plan for better management during such pandemics,” said INC spokesman Gourav Vallabh at a Friday press conference.

“The nation saw people gasping for oxygen during the second wave. The world saw the Modi management style when thousands of bodies were floating in Maa Ganga. India was shamed at the world stage when pictures of the bodies floating were circulated in the international media,” Vallabh said, referring to the corpses dislodged from shallow graves by monsoon flooding in the summer of 2021.

“In short, while the Modi government has been chest thumping for its Covid-19 management, the reality is far harsher than what the government wants us to believe,” he concluded.

The administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejected the W.H.O. report, questioning the “validity and robustness of the models used and methodology of data collection.”

Modi’s BJP Party accused Gandhi of playing politics with coronavirus deaths based on the “flawed” W.H.O. report.

W.H.O. walked its conclusions back a little after the report dropped, stating the Indian government provided new data that was not analyzed before the report was prepared.

On the other hand, some Indian state governments are proceeding with increased compensation payouts that roughly follow the W.H.O. estimate of eight times as many pandemic deaths as the central government has acknowledged.

The W.H.O. report was billed as the most comprehensive analysis of coronavirus deaths to date. It counted 14.9 million “excess deaths associated with Covid-19” worldwide by the end of 2021, which is about three times the official international count of 5.4 million. 

These “excess deaths” were not only people who indisputably died from coronavirus infections but also people who died because the pandemic overloaded their local health care system, preventing them from receiving treatment. Such deaths were mentioned in the angry charges INC members lobbed at the Modi administration on Friday.

W.H.O. found that almost half of unreported coronavirus deaths came from India. Other analysts have accused the Indian government of undercounting Chinese coronavirus deaths, but W.H.O.’s figure is one of the highest suggested to date.

According to the report, assertions that the United States had the most coronavirus deaths would be inaccurate — India, Russia, and Indonesia all experienced more total fatalities, and seven other countries had more deaths per 100,000 population than the United States. 

W.H.O. researchers said the U.S. was also fairly accurate in reporting its coronavirus fatalities, after getting past some “early problems that occurred with nursing home deaths being missed.”