Spokespersons: Shri P. Chidambaram and Shri Shaktisinh Gohil: Shri P. Chidambaram said-On 14th May, ‘Divya Bhaskar’, a Gujarati language newspaper published a news story that sent shock waves throughout Gujarat and the country. The thrust of the story was that during the period March 1 to May 10 of this year (2021), Gujarat issued about 1,23,000 death certificates as against about 58,000 death certificates issued during the same period last year (2020). The increase was an alarming number of about 65,000 death certificates. This increase cannot be explained as a natural annual increase in the number of deaths. It can only be attributed to a pandemic or any other natural disaster.

We have independently verified the two numbers referred to above for the period of 71 days. We have collected the numbers from 33 districts (including the cities). The sum of the number of the death certificates nearly tallies with the numbers published by ‘Divya Bhaskar’: 1,23,873 in 2021 vs 58,068 in 2020.

During the period March 1, 2021, to May 10, 2021, the government of Gujarat has officially admitted to only 4,218 COVID-related deaths.

The difference between the increase in the number of death certificates (65,805) and the official COVID-related deaths (4,218) must be explained. We have a strong suspicion that the bulk of the increased number of deaths is due to COVID and the state government is suppressing the true number of COVID-related deaths.

Our suspicions are confirmed by the fact that hundreds of unidentified bodies have been found floating on the River Ganga and nearly 2000 unidentified bodies have been found buried on the sands along the River Ganga.

We have a strong suspicion that the Government of India, in conjunction with some state governments, is suppressing the true numbers of new infections and COVID-related deaths. If our suspicions are true, this is a grave misdeed apart from being a national shame and a national tragedy.

The Government of India and the Government of Gujarat owe an explanation to the people of India. We demand answers and an explanation. Saturday, May 15, 2021