The Congress on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi be investigated for criminal culpability for misleading the nation on the Covid situation that left the states, hospitals and citizens unprepared for the deadly second wave.

Citing news reports that quoted scientists and doctors saying that data were manipulated and studies warning of a severe second wave suppressed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to please politicians eager to take credit for defeating Covid, Congress general secretary Ajay Maken said: “There should be an investigation for criminal culpability against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then health minister Harsh Vardhan and the ICMR bosses. They are responsible for the havoc the second wave played with the people.”

Maken said such a probe should be monitored by a sitting Supreme Court judge.

“The truth is now coming out. Scientists have started talking about the manipulation of data that led to wrong strategies and lowering of guard before the second wave struck, which is a criminal act. Pressure was mounted on scientists, they were scolded and silenced when they highlighted facts. There are at least four of them who have spoken out — Anup Agarwal, Naman Shah, Shahid Jameel and Somdatta Sinha,” the Congress leader said.

Maken claimed that such measures had caused the deaths of lakhs of people.

Rahul Gandhi consoles a bereaved family member of veteran Congress leader and former Union minister Oscar Fernandes in Bangalore on Thursday. Fernandes passed away on Monday. PTI Photo

“The Economist has given out the latest estimates of Covid deaths, putting the number of casualties in India between 43 lakh and 68 lakh. The government admits to only 4.43 lakh deaths. But several studies have indicated the (actual) number is very high, around 40 lakh or more. We saw how people were left to fend for themselves amidst a severe crisis of oxygen, hospital beds and medicine,” he said.

“In June 2020, a study commissioned by the ICMR concluded that the lockdown had slowed, but would not stop, the virus’s spread. Within days, the authors withdrew it. The ICMR tweeted the withdrawal. Some of the scientists now say they were forced to withdraw the report. In July 2020, ICMR director-general Balram Bhargava forced scientists to withhold data, based on serological studies, which suggested that the virus was spreading in 10 cities. This deliberate blunder led to the loss of lakhs of lives,” the Congress leader added.

He went on: “In September 2020, eight months before the deadly Covid-19 second wave, a managed and faulty report by the government downplayed the possibility of a new wave or outbreak. They credited Modi (and cited) early lockdown efforts as the reason. When some scientists, including Dr Agarwal, pointed out serious lapses in the report, they were reprimanded. Ultimately, Agarwal had to resign from the ICMR and leave India. Scientists have also alleged that the ICMR released wrong data to suggest that the coronavirus was not spreading in India as virulently as the rest of the countries.

“The ICMR approved a wrong ‘super model study’ and released it indicating that Covid would almost end by mid-February. It also wrongly said that India had achieved herd immunity. The study was not founded upon any scientific parameter and whenever the Covid curve changed, they changed the parameter.

“‘They had parameters which can’t be measured and whenever the curve was not matching, they changed that parameter,’ said Sinha, a retired scientist who studies infectious disease models and who wrote a rebuttal.”

Maken also recalled how a study published in the journal Nature in January 2021 predicted the second wave and called for more testing.

“The ICMR made the author (a council scientist) remove his affiliation with it from the paper. Such narratives, contrary to the data and science, created a sense of false confidence amongst the people, who got careless and negligent of the impending second wave. In January 2021, Modi declared that India had saved humanity from a huge disaster by defeating corona, and then health minister Harsh Vardhan predicted the end of Covid-19,” the Congress leader said.