When the Ganga Wept

When the Prime Minister first came to Varanasi in 2014, he declared that he had been called there by ‘Ma Ganga’ herself. 7 years later he has repaid her love by floating the dead bodies of her abandoned children on her lap. Never in the 73 years since independence has India seen a more tragic and ghastly sight. The horrific sight of abandoned corpses floating down the Ganga, buried in her banks and being picked at by dogs, vultures and crows will forever represent the state to which this anti-national, criminal and evil regime has reduced India and its people.

Let us be very clear. Narendra Modi is personally responsible for bringing the Country to this condition. In a rush to anoint himself as the ‘Conqueror of Covid’ and ‘Saviour of India’, he declared victory over the virus and fooled people into thinking they were safe. He ignored warnings by experts about the need to build up critical infrastructure to deal with the next wave. When the wave began and the tragedy that was to come became clear, instead of focusing on the way to deal with the pandemic, he and his cabinet were busy with their election strategy. When people were gasping for oxygen and dying, he was busy addressing super-spreader rallies.

Our Prime Minister has been shamelessly proving that the lives of the Indian people mean nothing to him. Over 50,000 people have died officially in the last month, the unofficial and actual numbers are no doubt far higher. What is Modi’s government busy with? It is busy with building the ‘Central Vista’ project. It is busy with using the CBI to destabilize the newly elected government in West Bengal. It is busy in raising the prices of petrol, diesel and fertilizers. It is busy in propagating dangerous and unscientific thinking and defending and enriching fraud Godmen like Baba Ramdev. It is busy slapping cases against anyone who dares to raise questions against them. All Modi Ji has time for are a few photo-op ‘review meetings’ and crocodile tears that no longer mean anything.

There is consensus that the only way to prevent a disastrous third wave is to vaccinate a large portion of our Country before the virus spreads once more. But here again, we have nothing but betrayal. The Country’s vaccine production capacity was just another PR opportunity for the Prime Minister. He did photoshoots of himself at vaccine factories. He bartered away India’s precious vaccines in exchange for PR exercises with foreign leaders. He was brazen enough to put his own photo on the vaccine certificate without having spent a single moment thinking about how to vaccinate the nation. The result is a FAILED VACCINE STRATEGY that will leave India’s most vulnerable lot completely exposed. There are no supplies of vaccines. The little vaccine that is available is accessible only from a website thus excluding those who have no access to internet. The website is in English excluding all those who cannot speak the language. There is indecisiveness regarding gap between two doses of vaccine. There is no clarity as to who is eligible to get vaccinated and when. Many vaccine centres have shut because of the lack of supply and those that are still open are giving dates many months away. Finally, Modi Ji has done what he is an expert at, shifted the responsibility and blame to the states while not giving them a single ‘Paisa’ to do anything. What is to become of the children, the poor, the distant and the destitute? The next chapter of this disaster, the economic collapse that comes after the lockdown is just around the corner. As usual, there is no word on how the government will handle it.

Meanwhile like the Ganga, the country weeps. Jai Hind. Jai Jagat. Jai Congress.