Will govt blame god, asks Cong as India's Covid tally crosses 50 lakh

As India's coronavirus case tally topped 50 lakh on Wednesday, the Congress asked the government to tell the nation how the pandemic will be controlled and if it will blame god to evade accountability.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also compared the battle against COVID-19 to the Mahabharata.

"Mahabharata of coronavirus pandemic is on, but the Modi government is missing," he alleged.

The total number of coronavirus cases mounted to 50,20,359, just 11 days after it crossed 40 lakh, while the death toll climbed to 82,066 with 1,290 people succumbing to the disease in 24 hours, according to Union health ministry data on Wednesday.

In a series of tweets in Hindi, Surjewala asked, "Facts about COVID-19, will the PM answer-: 1. In coronavirus infections per day - India at number 1 in the world (90,123 infections). 2. Coronavirus mortality rate per day - India ranks first in the world (1,290 deaths) 3. Coronavirus infection rate doubling - India at number 1 in the world (double in 31 days) 4. In total coronavirus cases - India ranks second in the world."

He added that India ranks second in the world in terms of active cases (9,95,933 infections), while in terms of deaths it ranks third in the world (82,066 deaths).

Demanding that the government tell the country how the coronavirus pandemic will be controlled, he asked, “Or will the government blame god to evade accountability?” It was an apparent reference to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's 'Act of God' remark while talking about the economy.

Sitharaman had said the economy has been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is an ''Act of God'', and it will see a contraction in the current fiscal.