Geeta Pandey - Varanasi: Anger rises as coronavirus rages in Modi's constituency

By Dilip -

Residents have watched as their MP made 17 trips to the key political state of West Bengal between February and April, to campaign for the assembly elections there, which he lost badly on the weekend. An angry restaurant owner described Mr Modi's review meeting to discuss the Covid crisis in Varanasi on 17 April - a day before the village council elections - as a "farce". "The prime minister and the chief minister have gone into hiding, abandoning Varanasi and its people to their own fate," the restaurant owner said. "The local BJP leaders are in hiding too. They have switched off their phones. This is the time people need them to help with a hospital bed or an oxygen cylinder but it's total anarchy here. People are so angry."..

Anger rises as coronavirus rages in Modi's constituency

The region around Varanasi, one of the holiest cities in the world for Hindus, is among the worst affected by the second wave of coronavirus sweeping India. Many angry citizens of the region, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, are now asking where their MP, Narendra Modi - India's prime minister - is in their hour of need. India's devastating second wave has pushed the country's total number of infections to 20 million and the death toll to more than 220,000. In Varanasi, with the health infrastructure swamped, patients can no longer find hospital beds, oxygen, or ambulances, and getting a Covid test can take up to a week. In the past 10 days, most pharmacies have run out of basic medicines like vitamins, zinc and paracetamol.

Covid hits rural India: cases and deaths quadruple

"We are inundated with calls saying help us get a bed or oxygen," said a local medical professional, who did not want to be named. "With the most basic medicines in short supply, people are even taking expired drugs," he said. "They say it's a little less effective, but at least it's something." What caused the virus spread? City residents say the first signs of trouble became visible in March. As cases spiked in Delhi and Mumbai and authorities there began imposing restrictions, migrant workers began returning home to their villages in and around Varanasi on overcrowded trains, buses and trucks.

Many came home for the Holi festival on 29 March or to vote in the village council elections on 18 April - held against advice from experts. Reports say more than 700 teachers on poll duty died in the state and the elections helped spread the virus....

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56969283

How India descended into Covid-19 chaos

Suhas Palshikar: A monumental failure of governance // ‘There should be no clampdown on information, people can voice grievances on social media’: Supreme Court

Mukul Kesavan - Kumbh vs Corona The logic of Hindu nationalism / Milind Murugkar: The political project of Hindutva is up against many contradictions

Ramachandra Guha: The unmaking of India

Sunita Viswanath - I refuse to cede Hinduism to those who want to make India a Hindu rashtra

Public Appeal by Hindus for Human Rights, USA

Swati Chaturvedi: It Was BJP Who Made It Mamata vs Modi. Too Far

Bharat Bhushan - Covid-19 drugs: Eager beavers of BJP play God

The Hindu priest struggling to cremate India’s Covid dead – video

Nandini Sen Mehra: And night has come upon my land

Nine Things BJP Leaders Said Recently About the Pandemic / Sakshi Joshi: Oxygen tanker ड्राइवर ने खोल दी पोल, किसानों के ख़िलाफ़ दुष्प्रचार

Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The ruthless politics of the Centre’s vaccine strategy

Pragya Akhilesh - The pandemic has exposed India’s dirty truth: a broken sanitation system

Election Commission responsible for spreading Covid-19, should probably be booked for murder: Madras HC // Bharat Bhushan on the departing CJI: Good riddance

Dipankar Ghose: In the mining villages of Raniganj, broken roads, homes - and system / Vidya Krishnan: India's moral failure


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