'Pakistan, Afghanistan handled COVID-19 better than India': Rahul Gandhi attacks Centre

Lambasting the Centre over COVID-19 pandemic management in India and the recent projections by the IMF, Congress leader and MP from Kerala's Wayanad Rahul Gandhi said that even nations like Pakistan and Afghanistan handled the coronavirus crisis better than India.

The Congress leader tweeted, "Another solid achievement by the BJP government. Even Pakistan and Afghanistan handled Covid better than India." He also shared a chart that showed IMF's GDP projections for 2020-21 for countries like Bangladesh, China, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka besides India.  

The Indian economy is set to shrink by a colossal 10.3 per cent this year, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook report titled 'A Long and Difficult Ascent'. This projection by the IMF is substantially worse than the 4.5% per cent growth it predicted in June.

However, the international financial institution said that India is expected to bounce back with a growth rate of 8.8 per cent and is expected to surpass China's expected growth rate of 8.2 per cent, thus regaining its spot as the fastest growing emerging economy.

IMF's chief economist, Gita Gopinath has said that India needs to provide more direct funding to the urban poor and migrant workers to ensure steadfast economic recovery.

As of Friday, India's COVID-19 tally has surpassed 73 lakh and currently stands at 73,70,468. Out of these cases, 8,04,528 are active COVID-19 cases whereas 64,53,779 people have recovered. 1,12,161 people have succumbed to novel coronavirus, according to the Union Health Ministry's COVID-19 dashboard.

(Edited with agency inputs by Mehak Agarwal)

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