*Trigger Warning: Covid Death*
Our nation is on a ventilator, under the clutches of the coronavirus’ second wave, and it’s clearly caused by the complacency of the Modi Government.
The government got blinded with the global praise on handling the coronavirus wreaking havoc in its first wave that it nearly forgot that we could encounter a second wave or mutants and variants of the deadly virus like the other countries did.
In spite of learning from the mishandling in the first wave, the Modi government took hubris in getting applauded by other countries as to how India dealt with Covid and how they had been back to the normal conditions. As all of this was happening, India witnessed a spike in Covid cases in the states like Maharashtra, West Bengal and Kerala. In no time, we heard that cases went on their peak and we were witnessing the second wave in the country.
“Have never ever seen such huge crowds at a rally”: PM Modi in Asansol #WestBengalPolls #ElectionsWithNDTV pic.twitter.com/5SOspgdJKZ
— NDTV (@ndtv) April 17, 2021
Meanwhile, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our Home Minister Amit Shah with several other ministers were campaigning for elections, were doing rallies with absolutely no social distancing and no masks and all of this was shamelessly showcased on their Twitter and Facebook handles with the captions, “Never witnessed such huge crowd”.
Can anyone imagine that they were doing all of this when people were dying from the deadly virus, due to the lack of medical facilities? But yes this happened in India. Our Prime Minister didn’t even bother to take charge of the situation as he was busy with the Bengal elections.
It was polls over people for him, he didn’t realise the gravity of the situation until the opposition countered him on the same and people made twitter trends go viral against the irresponsibility of the government. Modi got into action, came back to Delhi, held a meeting with all the top officials on the current situation.
And in between all this, there comes a tweet from our Prime Minister calling out more and more people to cast their votes in the by-polls taking place in different parts of the country and to “strengthen the festival of democracy”. Nothing can get more sickening than this for us as the citizens of India.
The second wave of the coronavirus in India is devastating and eye-opening at the same time. This time there are more people who have succumbed to this virus and more people who are on a ventilator. The conditions are so grave that people are booking slots in the crematoriums for the dead bodies to get cremated. It’s a complete horror and a Modi made disaster.
During the first wave, our healthcare system collapsed. By that time we knew where we needed to invest and what is more important. Since September 2020, cases started dropping but it was anticipated by many doctors and scientists that we could witness a more dangerous second wave of the virus.
Still, the government wasn’t preparing for this. What they were preparing for was super spreader events like the election rallies and organising the Kumbh Mela.
In between the first and the second wave we could have had proper medical facilities, beds in hospitals, oxygen and drugs required for the treatment. But our government failed us in that. So, clearly, we have not learned our lessons from the pandemic last year, when a lockdown was announced and there was a migrant exodus.
The situation in India right now is apocalyptic because the visuals are searing. People are dying on the roads and the worst part is this government doesn’t let the exact figures of death come out. If we look at the official number of deaths and the pictures coming in from the different parts of the country, we can clearly understand that the official number coming to us is extremely understated.
This country is breathless while mainstream media doesn’t question the government for the same. But we see some independent journalists and global media flagging up the crisis in India. The Times, in a recent opinion piece written by Phillip Sherwell, published a scathing picture of the country’s COVID-19 response with a headline that read, Modi leads India into viral apocalypse.
This time our Prime Minister decentralised his duties and made states responsible for any step that is to be taken for controlling the situation. In his sombre speech, while addressing the nation, he asked states to keep lockdown as their last resort.
By this decentralisation, it’s been a huge mess for the people to clearly understand whether the government is with us or not or is it just the responsibility of the citizens of this country to get through these unprecedented times all by themselves.