Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday targeted the BJP government in Gujarat over the high COVID-19 mortality rate in the State and said that the “Gujarat model has been exposed”.
“Covid-19 mortality rate: Gujarat: 6.25 per cent, Maharashtra: 3.73 per cent, Rajasthan: 2.32 per cent, Punjab: 2.17 per cent, Puducherry: 1.98 per cent, Jharkhand: 0.5 per cent, Chhattisgarh: 0.35 per cent. Gujarat Model exposed,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted, comparing the mortality rate of Gujarat with Congress-ruled States or States where the party is part of the ruling alliance.
The Congress also tagged a news report that analysed the high death rate in Gujarat. With 24,055 positive COVID-19 case and 1,505 deaths until June 15, the State now has the fourth highest rate of infections in the country.
Mr. Gandhi has been attacking the BJP over the handling of the COVID pandemic and quoted renowned physicist Albert Einstein to say that “the only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance”. He also shared a graph that showed how the four phases of lockdown have flattened the curve of the economy instead of COVID-19 deaths.
Separately, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel accused the Gujarat government of “drastically reducing” its healthcare expenditure over the years. “In 20 years, Gujarat is one of the handful of States where immunisation coverage has declined. Before 2000, Gujarat was spending 4.3 per cent of its expenditure on healthcare, in 2018 it was roughly 0.72 per cent. The entire State is paying a price for a flawed model,” Mr. Patel tweeted with data published in a leading think tank. The data claims that Gujarat ranks 33rd out of total 36 States and UTs in achieving full immunisation.
Earlier, Mr. Patel had questioned the higher COVID-19 testing charges of private laboratories in Ahmedabad compared with Mumbai.
