On 17th April 2021, ahead of a state election, a maskless Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi boasted to a crow of cheering supporters. India was on the edge of a humanitarian crisis. That day, the country reported over two lac and sixty-one thousand new COVID-19 cases – greater than several countries reported during the whole pandemic.
Great cooperation between the Asian giants!
China 🇨🇳 has supplied 5,000 ventilators, 21,569 oxygen generators, 21.48 mln masks and 3,800 tons of medicines to India 🇮🇳 during April corona spike. Statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China pic.twitter.com/XsfPJqQx9p— Erik Solheim (@ErikSolheim) May 1, 2021
Since 22nd April, each day, the nation reported over three lac new COVID-19 cases – at times, almost half of the daily new cases reported globally. New Delhi, the capital of the country, is now running out of wood for burnings their dead bodies. Hospitals are full of patients but lacking oxygen. On the other side, only two percent of the Indian population received full vaccination.
Large Share of Recent Cases in India
As the daily count of new coronavirus cases in the world is falling, India’s cases are also surging. Furthermore, during the last fourteen days, over eleven million new cases reported all over the world – more than a 3rd recorded in India.
Daily Reported Cases (seven-day moving Average)
Source: Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science & Engineering
Narendra Taneja, the spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told CNN this week that responsibility for the second wave of India belonged first & foremost to the government; he maintained the coronavirus crisis could not foresee – in spite of many nations battered by 2nd waves as new COVID-19 variants emerged globally.
Others in the Indian Prime Minister’s circle argued state governments to blame for not imposing regional lockdowns and mishandling their health care systems. Last weekend, Harsh Vardhan, the Health Minister, said that oxygen shortages at hospitals were a serious issue not of supply but distribution, which he claimed the responsibility of state governments.
However, many people in India believe responsibility lies with Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist administration, which not didn’t ready for a 2nd wave but also provoked mass gatherings at political rallies in battleground states and Hindu festivals gatherings.
The general secretary of the opposition party Indian National Congress, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, tweeted that the government failed the whole country. Even those people who oppose and fight them couldn’t forecast a complete resignation of the country’s administration and governance at a time as devastating as this.
Against all odds, we shall overcome.
Out of the darkness that surrounds us, we will emerge into the light once again.
– Smt. @priyankagandhi writes to all Indians pic.twitter.com/h5mxEyDtR2
— Congress (@INCIndia) April 27, 2021
COVID-19 PR Moves of Modi
Narendra Modi keen to tie himself to positive features of the pandemic responses of India. Vaccinated citizens of India receive a certificate with their face photo on it. The coronavirus relief fund, the aid trust, collect voluntary aids to support affected people, named Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance & relief in Emergency Situations Fund.
Indian Prime Minister boasted at the World Economic Forum on 28th January that India saved the world, whole humanity, from a huge tragedy by efficiently controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, many people in India felt that the outbreak was over. The administration slowly take-up of vaccines than expected. Around three hundred million of India’s overall 1.3 billion population are illiterate.
Despite the dramatic surge in reported COVID-19 cases from mid-March, Indian officials insistently downplayed the risks of pandemic spread. However, the outbreak was far from over. By the month of February, cases were starting to rise again, but the BJP party still claimed that India defeated coronavirus under the able, committed, sensitive and visionary leadership of Modi.
Source: Johns Hopkin University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, World Economic Forum, Uttarakhand Minister for Urban Development and Housing, NDTV, Republic World
On 7th March, when the nation reported around eighteen thousand new daily COVID-19 cases, Vardhan stated that India is proceeding in the end game of the pandemic. Likewise, on 30th March, one day before the authorities reported over eighty thousand cases in a day, the health minister said: the health situation of the country is under control.
Read Also: Coronavirus Cases and Deaths in India are going Unreported
