Congress slams Covid death underreporting

New Delhi

 The Congress party has launched a scathing attack on the Central government, accusing it of gross underreporting of COVID-19 deaths during the deadly Delta wave of 2021. Referring to new Civil Registration System (CRS) data, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed that nearly 21 lakh additional deaths were registered in 2021 compared to 2020, a figure vastly exceeding the official COVID death toll of 3.3 lakh.

“This is not just a statistical error—this is an act of depravity,” said Ramesh in a post on social media platform X. He alleged that India witnessed devastation on a scale unseen in a century, worsened by the Modi government’s “tone-deaf” decisions, from the migrant crisis to vaccine shortages and political campaigning during peak infections. Citing the CRS data, Ramesh claimed that most of the 21 lakh excess deaths were linked to the pandemic. He further criticized Gujarat, the Prime Minister’s home state, for underreporting fatalities at an alarming rate—claiming 33 times more deaths occurred than were officially acknowledged.

While government sources recently claimed that India’s excess mortality for 2020–2021 was only 9.3% above expected levels—lower than the U.S., Italy, or Russia—experts argue the sharp rise in CRS figures reveals serious flaws in official reporting. Ramesh concluded that though the government may never express remorse, “history will record this betrayal of truth and humanity.”