As COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Gujarat, the Congress has come down heavily on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and alleged that the state government is downplaying numbers to hide its failures.
For over a week, the BJP’s newly appointed state president C.R. Patil has been under severe criticism from various quarters for organising rallies and meetings in Saurashtra and North Gujarat. Patil test positive for COVID-19, along with a host of other BJP leaders who have also confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus.
Patil has been discharged after receiving treatment and a negative test report. However, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Abhay Bhardwaj, who had tested COVID-19 positive on August 31 after attending Patil’s rally in Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s hometown Rajkot, is on ventilator support.
The Gujarat government had airlifted teams of experts from Ahmedabad to Rajkot for Bhardwaj’s treatment.
Ever since COVID-19 cases were reported in Gujarat from March this year, Ahmedabad and Surat have remained hotspots. Rajkot has now joined the list following the mega rally organised by Patil. Rajkot Collector Remya Mohan, too, has tested positive and is under quarantine.
In response to a suo moto PIL, the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday expressed displeasure at people and politicians who flout COVID-19 rules and do not cooperate with authorities that put in hard work to curb the spread of the virus.
The HC also took note of political gatherings and rallies organised by politicians, and observed that leaders are expected to lead their masses and not flout the norms set to fight COVID-19 themselves.
In the last 24 hours (as of 8am on Thursday), 29 people lost the battle against COVID-19 in Rajkot Municipal Corporation area. The day before, the figure stood at 20.
However, in sharp contrast to the figures shared by the RMC, local newspapers in Saurashtra region have published articles about the high number of deaths and positive cases that are on official records.
Former Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhwadia has criticised the state government and alleged that instead of stopping rallies organised by Patil, it has allowed him to play the role of a “super spreader”. Modhwadia stated that the high number of cases in Saurashtra and North Gujarat regions are due to the rallies held by Patil.
He also alleged that the death audit committee set up by the state government to differentiate between deaths of COVID-19 positive patients with and without comorbidities is a scam. Modhwadia said that this is being done just to bring down the figures.
Various organisations and rights groups working in these cities have also claimed that the number of deaths on paper are much less as compared to the last rites done with full COVID-19 protocols in crematoriums, which have shown long waiting periods.
Presenting the figures from May when COVID-19 was at its peak, Modhwadia said that 6,147 deaths were reported in the books of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, out of which only 686 were due to the virus. He also gave comparative figures from March and said that 2,685 deaths were reported in the municipal limits, out of which only three were due to COVID-19. How does one justify the high number of deaths in May, he asked.
With regard to Rajkot, Modhwadia said that while officials say that 92 deaths have been reported in the last six months, 798 victims have been cremated or buried at different places in the city.
Interestingly, no one in the state government or the BJP have denied the allegations so far.
As of Wednesday, a total number of 1,364 new cases were reported, taking the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the state to 117,709.
The death toll in Gujarat stands at 3,259.
