Is Modi govt under-reporting Covid-19 deaths? Donald Trump hints so

Notwithstanding his bonhomie with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that the Indian government is not making public the actual Covid-19 toll in the country.

“When you talk about numbers you don't know how many people died in China, you don't know how many people died (of Covid-19) in Russia, you don't know how many people died in India,” Trump said at the first debate with his rival Joe Biden ahead of the US presidential polls. “They don't exactly give you a straight count.”

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Trump, who is seeking a second term in the White House, made the comment when Democratic Party’s candidate for the presidential elections pointed out that seven million people had been infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the US.

“The President has no plan,” Biden, the former Vice President of the US, said and asked the audience: “How many of you got up this morning and had an empty chair at the kitchen table because someone died of Covid (Covid-19)?”.

Trump blamed China for the Covid-19 pandemic and claimed that millions could have died had his administration not acted to contain the outbreak. He then insinuated that many more might have already died of the Covid-19 in Russia and India than the governments of the two countries had acknowledged.

His comment suggesting that the Modi government is hiding the actual number of deaths caused by the Covid-19 is just the latest in a series of typical “Trump Talks” that put New Delhi in a tight spot and embarrassed the Prime Minister, notwithstanding the “bromance” the two leaders displayed in public – be it at the “Howdy! Modi” conclave in Houston on September 22 or at its sequel, the “Namaste Trump” conclave, in Ahmedabad on February 24 this year.

Trump had in July 2019 claimed that Modi had requested him to mediate between India and Pakistan to help them settle the dispute of Kashmir. New Delhi had immediately refuted the claim. Trump, however, had continued to offer his service as a mediator between India and Pakistan. He also offered to help resolve the current India-China border stand-off, despite getting the cold shoulder from New Delhi.

In April, he warned of “retaliation” against New Delhi if the Modi Government does not allow the US to import Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) drug from India for the Covid-19 patients. New Delhi eventually allowed export of the drug to the US.

Trump had earlier publicly ridiculed Modi for the high tariff India had imposed on Harley Davidson motorcycles imported from the US. “When they (Harley Davidson) send a motorcycle to India, as an example, they have to pay 100 per cent tax, 100 per cent,” he had said in February 2018.

“Now, the Prime Minister (Modi), who I think is a fantastic man, called me the other day and said we are lowering it to 50 per cent. I said okay, but so far we’re getting nothing. So we get nothing. He gets 50 (per cent), and they think we’re doing like they’re doing us a favour. That’s not a favour."

The US President had also mocked at India's role in Afghanistan.