India is ready to challenge the World Health Organization (WHO) report on excess mortality count due to Covid, focussing on the anomalies in the numbers, said sources.

The Union Health Ministry has objected to the WHO’s sourcing of data, methodology for collecting data and the mathematical model that has been used for arriving at the final figures. Objections have also been raised regarding the fact that India is being listed in Tier-2 countries, despite it being open to sharing of all data with the WHO. “India is ready to challenge the report, and rightly so,” the source told BusinessLine.

Meanwhile, the ruling BJP and the Opposition parties have engaged in a war-of-words over the report. While the BJP said the Opposition is politicising the issue and questioned the authenticity of the WHO’s numbers, the Opposition parties said the Centre lied to people on the death count.

India’s objections

“WHO has released the excess mortality estimates without adequately addressing India’s concerns,” a government statement released on Thursday said.

The statement by the Ministry said India had informed WHO that in view of the availability of authentic data published through Civil Registration System (CRS) by Registrar General of India (RGI), mathematical models should not be used for projecting excess mortality numbers.

India has also questioned the WHO’s use of data for 17 States, obtained from some websites and media reports, which was used in the mathematical model. “This reflects a statistically unsound and scientifically questionable methodology of data collection for making excess mortality projections in case of India,” said its statement, adding that: “WHO has projected different excess mortality figures for India citing multiple models, which itself raises questions on the validity and robustness of the models used.”

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said 47 lakh Indians died due to the Covid pandemic, not 4.8 lakh, as claimed by the Centre. “Science doesn’t lie. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi does,” he said on Twitter.

Congress spokesman Gourav Vallabh alleged that Modi has let India down on the world stage. “Even if we keep the numbers aside, the government, in its Civil Registration System Report, has accepted that 45 per cent of people who died in 2020 didn’t get any medical attention at the time of the death. All facts are stacked against the government. They can’t simply refute the claims of expert panels without providing any empirical data or logic,” he said.

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the figures are damning. “Pay the mandatory compensation to the agonised families who lost their loved ones,” he wrote on Twitter.

Defending the government, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said WHO’s methodology was flawed and imaginary. “The WHO’s data and the Congress beta (referring to Rahul Gandhi) are wrong,” he said, adding that the India has often questioned WHO’s mathematical models.