Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Tuesday there was no point in counting the number of people who had died of Covid-19 because that would not bring the dead back, amid concern that several states were under reporting the number of infections and deaths from the virus.

“Those who have died will not come back by creating a furore over it,” Khattar said, arguing that there was no point in getting into a debate on whether the official number of deaths was correct.

While crematoriums and burial grounds are overflowing in many states, the official death count does not reflect that.

The Opposition Congress hit out at Khattar, with party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala saying: “These can only be the words of a merciless ruler.”

He continued: “There is a need to make a noise over every death which is the result of the government’s inefficiency.”

Those who have died will not come back by creating a furore

Haryana CM

Bodies lined up for cremation at Subhash Nagar Crematorium in New Delhi on Tuesday. In neighbouring Haryana, chief minister and BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar had said on Monday: “The kind of difficult situation we are going through, we don’t have to play with data. Our entire focus should be on how people will recover and how we can provide them relief.... And those who have died will not come back by creating a furore over it.” PTI

Apna dead body uthao aur udhar line mein ja ke khade ho jao (Pick up your dead body and go stand in line)

Crematorium handler

Adampur MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi condemned the chief minister’s statement as “shameful”.

Khattar said: “We will do everything possible so that lives are saved. Whether the deaths are less or more, there is no point getting into this debate… We are setting the systems in place.”

The BJP leader admitted that the government had not prepared for the surge in which countless lives have been lost for the lack of something as basic as oxygen.

“Who knew this pandemic will come, neither you knew nor we,” Khattar said.

But the second surge should have been no surprise, given that other countries in the world had already gone through it. India had a year to prepare for it.