The holding of the Kumbh Mela, Election Rallies, Holi celebrations & IPL matches involving over 390 million people, despite the arrival of the second wave was a criminal negligence by Modi regime. Knowingly they put the lives of millions of people in harm’s way in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Modi regime is responsible for turning this pandemic into a humanitarian crisis. This is a decision that will also cripple the already wounded economy to an unknown degree and increase poverty and unemployment. The mishandling of first Covid wave resulted in GDP contracting by 23.9 per cent in the 2nd quarter of 2020.  By some estimates, more than 100 million l people lost their jobs. These are “official figures”, issued by a regime notorious for fudging figures to hide the truth, and spread lies. 

If India survives at all, it will be due entirely to the civic commitment of its front-line workers, religious organizations and ordinary citizens, who have stepped in to do the duties of a government that has abandoned its people. This humanitarian crisis is a direct result of the Modi regime’s, arrogance, complacency, lack of preparation, bureaucratic incompetence, fake nationalism and the criminal neglect of its constitutional duties.

An Assembly line of death & misery due to Covid on an insurmountable scale at crematorium and burial grounds of India has shocked the entire world. India has descended into a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. There is not a town in India where the crematoriums and burial grounds don’t have lines and wait times of 14-24 hours. Burial grounds and crematories are so full of bodies, it’s as if a war just happened. Some have buried their dead in their gardens.

India with majority Hindu population vs minority Muslims and Christians is witnessing more cremations.Parks, pavements and car parks are being turned into cremation grounds with makeshift pyres.  Fires burn round the clock in crematories and there is a shortage of even wood to cremate the dead. Many places are holding mass cremations, dozens at a time, and at night, the sky glows. Unfortunately, it reminds Modi’s infamous words at anelections rally in 2017, “If a kabristan is built in a village, a shamshan should also be constructed there,” “Shamshan! Shamshan!” the mesmerized, adoring crowd echoed back. Only Modi can tell whether he is elated to see the overflowingcrematoriums, or he is repenting for those infamous words. He could have ordered to convert temporarily the BJP office spread over about 2,00,000 square feet in Delhi into a Covid hospital under Indian Army to repurpose it in record time and make it functional.Like

1,8 00,000 square feet Javits Center in NY, in March-April 2020 was turned into a 2,500-bed emergency medical facility for COVID patients in 17 days by the U.S. Army and run by them.This could save thousands of lives. At least this way Modi can atone for his criminal culpability that has seen hundreds of thousands of  Indians dead and continuing to die. It looks like Modi is unmoved by the innocent deaths.

Each funeral and burial is a story of personal loss, misery, indignity and national shame.Hardly anybody knows anyone who has not been ravaged by this humanitarian crisis. Those who died at home or in cars, waiting outside the hospitals without a test or treatment or in the rural areas, Modi regime is not counting those as Covid deaths. This regime is notorious for its undercount of the number of infections and deaths. That is how there is a vast difference between the figures put out by the government and the foreign health experts and media,

Modi’s own arrogance, fakeHinduism and nationalism, bureaucratic incompetence and criminal negligence have combined to create humanitarian crisis of epic proportions in India.This is a catastrophe, and we are witnessing a crime against humanity. Modi and all those responsible for culpable homicide of thousands upon thousands of children, young men and young women, old men and old women of India, should be tried and prosecuted under a Nuremberg style Court trial. Will justice be done by Indian Courts or all of them should be tried in the International Courts?

Atul Kohli, Political Scientist at Princeton University, calls  India a “two-track democracy,” where “common people are only needed at the time of elections, and then it is best that they all go home, forget politics, and let the ‘rational’ elite quietly run a pro-business show.”

MODI REGIME CREATED OXYGEN & HOSPITAL BEDS CRISIS

People are not getting oxygen and dying like animals. It is not the virus but acute shortage of Oxygen,which is the main killer across the country, against the fact that several projects for installing the oxygen are still pending with the Union government for clearance, but no heed was given to such an important need by the Modi government. In the capital Delhi with world class medical facilities and doctors, large number of people have died because of the shortage of Oxygen in prestigious private hospitals like Sir Ganga Ram, Jaipur Golden& Batra. One can imagine the state of affairs in state, district, municipal and small private hospitals, and rural India practically with no hospitals.

In so called big city hospitals across India; there is no oxygen, ventilators, plasma, medicines, beds and ambulances. Some Hospitals are admitting patients that have their own Oxygen cylinders. For every 200 patients there is only1 doctor available. This time it is the young who are filling the intensive care units. When the young people die, the older dependents, spouse and their children are devastated, and some lose their will to live.

Kevadia a famous tourist location, for “Statue of Unity”town in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, has no hospital. Here no death will be registered in the official Covid count because the individuals die at home. This statue was conceived and inaugurated by Modi in 2018. This was built at a cost Rs. 3,000 crores ($400 million) and additional Rs 2.63 crores was spent on its advertisement. It was touted by Modi to be the tallest statue of the world! The fact is wonder of the world Eiffel Tower, standing tall at 324 meters till the tip, is 142 meters taller than the 182-meter-tall Sardar Patel statue.

Unfortunately, rural India has been hit very hard this time. In rural India, where people die of easily treatable diseases like diarrhea, infection and tuberculosis. How they can cope with Covid, when Covid tests or Hospitals or doctors or oxygen is not available to them? The first lockdown was the strictest lockdown of the world with a 4hours’ notice.  Millions of migrant workers stranded in cities with no work, no money to pay their rent, no food and no transport. Millions of them had to walk hundreds of miles in some cases 1,500-1,700 miles to their homes in far-flung villages. Hundreds died on the way. That exodus resulted in a different kind of chaos: there were no quarantine centers for them to stay in or Covid Test Centers, before they enter their village homes. There was not evena meagre pretense by Modi regime of trying to protect the countryside from the city virus. Now their criminal neglect has resulted in a massive outbreak of 2^nd Covid wave in the countryside.

October 2020, the Standing Committee of Parliament for Health. had issued warnings of a more contagious Covid second wave and possibility of a dire shortage of oxygen.Central Medical Services Society (CMSS) an agency under the Union Health Ministry Dr. Harshvardhan was given the charge of commissioning the oxygen plants. CMSSfloated a tender on October 21, 2020, inviting bids for the installation of 162 PSA oxygen plants across 14 states with a combined capacity of 154 metric tons daily. The final contracts were given in December 2020 with a stipulation in the purchase order that vendor will install the plant within 45 days. This means the actual work on installing the plants could only start ten months into the pandemic. The entire cost of Rs. 201.58 was fully funded from PM-Carescontrolled by PMO. This works out to an average of Rs 1.25 crore per plant. A plant with the capacity of 1,000 liters of oxygen per minute can simultaneously cater to 100-160 patients on oxygen support. However, four months after the contracts were given, only 33 of the 162 O2 plants have been installed. UP out of 14, none, Delhi out of 8, none and MP that has no oxygen production facility of its own placed an order for 13 plants on April 14, 2021.

A very disturbing question arises, why private hospitals across India, especially 5 metro cities that are famous for world class facilities catering to medical tourism don’t have their own oxygen-generating plants?Then, why the State & local governments did nothing to mitigate the future oxygen shortage?

India’s daily oxygen production capacity is 7,200 metric tons and the medical oxygen requirement as of April 21 was 8,000 metric tons, according to a submission made by a central government official in Delhi High Court. This means even if the country uses up its entire oxygen production for medical use, as the government has now decided to do by banning use of oxygen for industrial purposes, India will still face a shortfall of 800 metric tons.

The grossly underestimated planned 162 PSA oxygen plants with no oversight.

If they were all operational with a combined daily capacity of 154 metric tons, it was a minuscule compared to the current shortfall of 800 metric tons. If India had installed oxygen plants on a war footing, the situation would have been different. For an outlay of Rs 2,000 crore, India could have added 1,540 metric tons of additional daily medical oxygen capacity. Significantly, by adding on-site oxygen manufacturing capacity, India could have reduced the need for the massive logistical exercise currently underway to move liquid oxygen in tankers from surplus states by road, airlifting tankers by Air Force and even import it from other countries.

On top of that according to Modi regime’s own data amid the pandemic, India exported over 9,000 metric tons of oxygen, a staggering increase of 734 percent in January 2021. India, one timeworld’s largest producers of medical oxygen, is being forced to import 50,000 metric tons of liquid medical oxygen using special India Air Force flights.

MODI REGIME CREATED VACCINE CRISIS

By the end of March2020, practically every health expert advised that it is the “Race between the vaccine and the virus.” Rapid vaccination of all eligible humans is the only way to fight Covid. This infection has no boundaries and there will be a 2nd and a 3rd wavethat will be more lethal and contagious than the present one.Experts have been proved right, the encouraging trend of declining daily infections and deaths shows; in the race between vaccines and variants in the USA—vaccines are winning.

As of May 5, 32.7% or 107.3 Million Americans are fully vaccinated, 44.3% or 148.6 million are partially vaccinated. US FDA by next week will approve Pfizer for 12-15 years old and by Sep 2021 Pfizer plans to submit two new emergency use authorization requests, one request covering children from 5 to 11 years old and a second applying to ages 2 to 5. A separate batch of results and a possible request, for children who are from 6 months to 2 years old, are expected in the fourth quarter of 2021.Researchers have estimated that around 70% to 85% of the country needs to be vaccinated for COVID herd immunity or to stop it from spreading through communities and peter out.

In April-May 2020, USA under “Operation Warp Speed” advanced $6 Billion to various Pharma companies to develop a vaccine by invoking Defense Act. In May 2020, Europeans mobilized $8 billion for Covid Vaccine research.  They wanted to rope in India also for being the world’s biggest producer of vaccines. False pride, confused nationalism &fake self-reliant slogan stopped the arrogant and incompetent Modi regime from joining the consortium. By Aug 2020, US, UK & EU with a combined population of 800 million had placed orders for 850 million doses of vaccine. USA and the China are now manufacturing more Covid-19 vaccines than India.

In contrast, in India with almost 1,400 million people, Modi regime placed its first order of 16.5 million doses in Jan. 2021 and later, 100 million to the domestic producer Serum Institute of India.

A control-freak instinct took over Modi and he announced only Center would buy the vaccines. There will be no private buying, in other words he “Nationalized” the vaccines.Later, Modi regime used vaccines as a political tool to deny adequate quantities of vaccines to non-BJP ruled states like Punjab, Kerala, Maharashtra and Delhi.

In fact, Modi Regime, botched India’s inoculation drive by failing to order a sufficient number of doses in advance or investing in vaccine plants in India. Thenfrom May 1, 2021, Modi regime allowed the states to buy/import vaccine directly. In fact, it has passed the responsibility of vaccinating Indians to financially strapped state governments. Now they must negotiate prices and purchase vaccines in the open market and most Indian states are not in a position to execute the task. There’s a scarcity of lifesaving vaccines in a country that used to be the world’s largest vaccine-maker till 2020.

Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin is based on the SARS-CoV-2 strain, which was isolated in the National Institute of Virology under ICMR in Pune. The ICMR then transferred this strain to Bharat Biotech for developmentto manufacturevaccine for sale to public. As such, one is unable to calculate the share of public investment in the total amount spent on design, and developmentby ICMR.  Bharat Biotech has to pay no royalty to anyone. Presently, the company manufactures 20 million doses per month of Covaxin. On April 24th, 2021, the company tweeted, “Following the Govt of India directives, we announce the prices of COVAXIN vaccines – Rs 600 per dose for state hospitals and Rs 1,200 per dose for private hospitals”.

The largest vaccine manufacturer in the world till 2020, Serum Institute of India (SII) the maker of Covisheild under license from Swedish AstraZeneca is producing 70 million doses per month. SII invested Rs 2,000.00 crore of its own and got Rs 2,200.00 crore from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  SII has to pay royalty and they are under contractual obligationto supply an initial 200 million doses to WHObacked Covax vaccine sharing program to ensure availability to low- and middle-income countries. SII was expected to deliver the first 100 million doses between February-May 2021. Indian government data shows that it has so far delivered only 30 million, which includes 10 million set aside for India itself under WHO-Covax.SII has also made legally binding bilateral commercial deals to supply more than 900 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, and 145 million doses of Novavax, according to UN data. SII recently confirmed that it had been sent a legal notice by AstraZeneca, concerning its obligations to supply vaccines.

On Sep. 6, 2020 SSI CEO Adar Ponawala, Tweeted to PMO & Ministry of Healthto highlight challenges in vaccine production and distribution. In his “quick question” to the government he asked if the Health Ministry had Rs. 80,000 crore available over the next 12 months to buy and distribute the vaccine to everyone.“I ask this question, because we need to plan and guide, vaccine manufacturers both in India and overseas to service the needs of our country in terms of procurement and distribution.”

The government hit back after Adar’s tweet, saying that it did not agree with the Rs. 80,000.00 crore figure and that it had sufficient funds to procure and distribute the vaccine. The government did not, however, specify the amount that it had set aside for this purpose. If one looks at $6 billion (Rs 44,000.00 crore) allocated by USA for vaccines for its 330 Million citizens for vaccines; Adar’s suggestion of Rs 80,000.00 crore for 1,400 Million Indians, was very reasonable.

Even the Doctors/medical experts have warned that GOI’s goal of vaccinating 300 million people every quartercosts are going to mount. Doctors said it may take two years to vaccinate the entire population, especially when it is a “Race between the vaccine and Covid” to stop Covid from becoming a pandemic or humanitarian crisiswith the expected 2nd and 3rd surge. Still PMO & MHO remained unmoved.

HLL Biotech Ltd (HBL), a state-of-the-art Integrated Vaccine Complex in 100 acres near Chennai, was approvedby the UPA government in 2012. The goal was to effectively fight the potential public health hazards that hit India from time to time. It was set up as a nodal center for manufacturing, research, and supply of vaccines at affordable prices under the Universal ImmunizationProgram of the GOI. It has a capacity to produce 585million vaccines for rabies, measles, Japanese Encephalitis, and Hepatitis B among other diseases. It was to replace three existing vaccine units which were set up decades ago-Pasteur Institute of India, Coonoor, BCG Vaccine Laboratory, Chennai, and Central Research Institute in Kasauli.

With the regime change at theCenter in 2014, it was starved for fundsand, only in 2017, escalated cost of Rs 710 crore was approved. In 2019 the Health Ministry denied project escalation cost of Rs 904 crore, expressing concerns about its “non-profitability”.

There are six production lines for vaccine manufacturing, but they are not currently functional. It needs Rs 150 crore or so to make it fully functional. HBL official says, “there is no vision in establishing the firm as the government could have easily upgraded the existing vaccine units to make Covid vaccines.

HBL has written to the Union Health Ministry and NITI Ayog for the additional sum but was denied. “But the government is profit-motivated, they think ‘what is the use of having this complex.” He further said:“The Centre can announce it as ‘Pandemic Research Centre” or it can run it on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. But the policies of the present government are against public sector undertakings. In the middle of a pandemic, a facility which was declared a “Project of National Importance” has not only been non-functional, but only contributed to the national effort against Covid-19 by manufacturing hand sanitizers and alcohol-based disinfectants for hospitals treating Covid-19 patients.

Besides disinfectants, HBL also has the capability to produce Viral Transport Medium (VTM) kitsused for transporting Covid-19 clinical samples of suspected patients for virus detection testing.With the rising number of infectionsthere is a need for collection of more clinical samples to increase the number of tests. HBL can develop such kits on a massive scale at an affordable/ competitive price. This required manufacturing license from the state and the Centre, HBL’s application is pending, and has not been granted as of May 5, 2021.

Modi perhaps does not want to see anything up and working that can even remotely be seen connected to Nehru, Gandhi, PM Singh of the UPA government even if it cost human lives in lacs.That is the reason he changed the names of all schemes started by his predecessors including BJP’s AB Vajpayee’s government. This is yet another example of Modi style of governance where it lets people die. But Modi does not stop there.He has put up HLL Biotechin Jan 2021 for sale leaving the brand-new plant to rust and there are no buyers yet. That is exactly how an elected autocrat works. That is exactly how arrogant rulers govern. (The Print & The Federal.com).

UNDER ITS WATCH, MODI REGIME ALLOWED THE DOUBLE MUTANT STRAIN OF CORONA VIRUS B.1.617 TO SPREAD

The Indian origin home grown virus was first detected on 5th Oct. 2020. That is the main cause of deaths in current Second wave. According to Indian Express only in Jan 2021 a Covid Genomic consortium, a network of 10 labs was formed with a budget of Rs115 crore for further research.The Health Ministry never gave Rs 115 crore to the Dept of Biotechnology. The dept was told to find the money on its own. They were able to allocate first tranche of 80 crore on 31 March 2021 that is after 6 months of detecting B.1.617, and,by that time the Second wave was already spreading exponentially, and death rate was going up rapidly.

MODI REGIME DID NO PLANNING FOR 1YEAR TO FIGHT THE EXPECTED 2nd COVID WAVE

Although the emerging pandemic gave Modi over a year which he could have spent preparing for the second wave, rather than deploying resources in healthcare & vaccines; he was busy in promoting himself, superstitions, quackery and mythology for Covid treatment like banging  bells, plates, clapping, lighting  earthen lamps (diya) or candles, Cow urine, Cow Dung, Quack Ramdev’s Coronil, his own minister Arjun Ram Meghwal’s Bhabhiji Pappad and showering flower petals from  helicopters on healthcare workers. Swami Chakrapani Maharaj, president of the Hindu Mahasabha declared that “consuming cow urine and cow dung will stop the effect of infectious coronavirus.” The swami added that a “person who chants ‘om namah shivay’ a salutation to Shiva, a Hindu deity, and applies cow dung on his body will be saved.”

According to WSJ Feb 10, 2020, PM Modi wrote to Xi Jinping, offering the Chinese leader help in tackling the Wuhan coronavirus. Details of the assistance aren’t public, but Mr. Modi’s offer probably didn’t include supplies for a “treatment that a senior Hindu fundamentalist advocated recently”. In fact, WSJ was referring to Cow urine and Cow dung treatment.

Unfortunately India’s most popular news media, co-opted early on by Modi, rich & famous celebrities like Amitabh Bachan, Virat Kohli, Priyanka Chopra and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani etc., theyall supported Modi and his team mate’s superstitions, quackery and mythology for Covid treatment.

Modi started laying symbolic foundations for the “Hindu Nation” as per the bonehead idea of theRSS. He was busy in the planning, designing and finally to be the Master of groundbreaking ceremony for Ram Mandir on Aug. 5, 2020 in the middle of raging Covid pandemic.

Prof. Ashok Swain,Peace and conflict researcher wrote, “Modi does not anymore pretend even as the leader of a secular country. He sees himself and overtly acts like a king of a Hindu Kingdom.”

October was wasted by Boeing that spanned the deliveries of Modi’s 2 personal toys costing Rs. 8,450.00 for his personal travel and for namesake President & VP travel also!One was delivered on Oct 1st and the 2nd,on Oct. 24, 2021. These Boeing 777-300 ER have state-of-the-art missile defense systems called Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) and Self-Protection Suites (SPS), whichare capable of countering missile threats from an enemy and on par with the US President’s Air Force One in terms of security measures. US economy was $21 Trillion vs. India’s 3.2 Trillion in 2020. After waiting for 5 months, the world-famousGlobetrotting PM made his maiden flight on March 26, 2021 to Bangladesh in VVIP “India’s Air Force 1” to influence voters of West Bengal.

Much of the Oct and entire Nov 2020 Modi and his entire government was busy campaigning for 3 phase Bihar Electionsending on 29th Nov, when barring China all major economies of the world were reeling under the brutal attack of the 2nd Covid wave with mounting infections and deaths.  Just a glance at what is happening in the US and Europe should have opened their eyes to the catastrophes of the pandemic.

On Dec. 10, 2020, again, Modi was the Master of the groundbreaking ceremony of Central Vista (est. cost Rs 20,000.00 crore) with New Parliament and new home for himself. Presently he lives in 17 acres with 5 bungalows; that is the largest & most expansive real estate in the world for a head of the state.

 British sculptor Anish Kapoor wrote that Architecture as propaganda, is often used “to give a good face to a fascist regime.” “This is not the redesign of buildings; it is instead Modi’s way of placing himself at the center and cementing his legacy as the maker of a new Hindu India.”

In January 2021, citing Covid, UP Panchayat Elections were postponed to April to coincide with the Kumbh Mela-the world’s largest religious gatheringthat normally convenes every 12 years. It was last held in 2010.Modi regime fraudulently brought it forward by a year against the protest by a large section of Hindu priests, by saying 2021 is an auspicious year for it. To start on March 11 and to end on April 27, 2021.

On Jan. 28, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared victory against COVID-19 while addressing the virtual summit of World Economic Forum at Davos. February 21, BJP passed a resolution praising Modi’s “leadership for introducing India to the world as a proud and victorious nation in the fight against Covid-. “It can be said with pride, that India “defeated Covid-19 under the able, sensitive, committed, and visionary leadership of PM Modi.” That ebullient mood was communicated across the country.  It is not that they wanted to get the economy going but wanted to get back to campaigning.

On February 24, the world’s biggest, Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium was inaugurated in Ahmedabad, remodeling and renaming Sardar Patel stadium by President Kovid in the company of Home Minister Shah & his Zero qualification son Jay Shah, Secretary of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the President of Asian Cricket Council (ACC). The occasion was the start of the world’s biggest cricket tournament ending on May 30, the Indian Premier League (IPL).

55,000 people, mostly maskless, came to cheer India play against England for the pink-ball Test.Modi’s main campaign financiers/handlers, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani were also honored with their names emblazoned on the new Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium, where overs are bowled alternatively from the Adani and Ambani ends! By having a sports stadium named after himself within his lifetime, Modi has put himself in the worst possible company, including Kim Il Sung and Saddam Hussein. Moreover,Modi’s desire to look taller than one of the founding fathersof India, Iron ManSardar Patel,the unifier of Princely states under Modern India, isdisgusting, repulsive and an insult to the great Sardar Patel.

In the wake of the pandemic, a “Covid task force” of scientific experts had been constituted, yet there was no meeting of the body through February and March 2021. But 5 State Assembly Elections involving 150 million voters with totally unnecessary eight rounds of polling in West Bengal were declared on Feb 27, starting on March 27 and finishing on April 29, 2021. UP Panchayat Polls were also announced in 4 phases, April 15 to April 29 involving 85 million voters.

 Every election was to be held around preponed Kumbh Mela that was estimated to attract over 150million Hindupilgrims, to influence Hindu voters in state and panchayat elections. There were 4 main days of Kumbh Mela (March 11-April 27) called Shahi Snan (Royal bath) on 11 March April 12,14, and 27. On these auspicious days it is believed that a dip in the holy water of Ganga will acquit the person of all sins.As many as 5 million visitors came to Haridwar on April 12 and went to the banks of river Ganga to take the holy dip (Shahi Snan). According to a Senior Police Officer Mukesh Thakur, throughout the day, there was an estimated 11,000 to 18,000 people in the water at any time, spread across the 15 main riverbanks.

Uttarkhand’s CM Rawat (BJP), an RSS stalwart, like PM Modi,  when asked on Covid concerns by Media,  said that, “Kumbh is at the bank of the River Ganga. Maa (Mother) Ganga’s blessings are there in the flow. So, there should be no corona.” Haridwar where the Mela was being organized is in the state of Uttrakhand.

In contrast to all the above, the decision to postpone the crucial Class XII exams is beyond any sane person’s comprehension.  The outcome is that millions of children, parents and teachers have been plunged into emotional, mental and financial turmoil.

On April 04, 2021 the Covid task force finally met, after it was clear that a second wave had hit India. Modi regime still remained focused on the state elections, mainly WB. In one of the rallies Modi told the cheering crowd that by taking Cow Urine, Corona will not touch them!On April 17, Modiproclaimed at a rally in his favorite language Hindi, in Asansol (WB), “Maine aisi sabha pehli baar dekhi hai” (“I have never seen such big crowds at a rally”).That day India was on the brink of a humanitarian crisis for recording more than 261,000 new Covid cases and 1,501 deaths. In response, state minister Moloy Ghatak tweeted, “When dead bodies were burning, Nero was busy doing election rallies.” Ghatak’s tweet was censored by Twitter.

The holding of the Kumbh Mela, Election Rallies, Holi celebrations & IPL matches involving over 390 million people, despite the arrival of the second wave was a criminalnegligence by Modi regime. Knowingly they put the lives of millions of people in harm’s way in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Modi regime is responsible for turning this pandemic into a humanitarian crisis. This is a decision that will also cripple the already wounded economy to an unknown degree and increase poverty and unemployment.The mishandling of first Covid waveresulted in GDP contractingby 23.9 per cent in the 2^ndquarter of 2020.By some estimates, more than 100 million l people lost their jobs. These are “official figures”, issued by a regime notorious for fudging figures to hide the truth, and spread lies.

Modi has been good only for a few businessmen since 2014. During the pandemic, even as tens of millions of Indians lost their jobs, a handful of billionaires made windfall gains. Top on the list are Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, with Ambani’s net worth zooming to $84 Billion from $23.6 Billion in 2014. Modi’s mentor, Gautam Adani’s net worth zoomed to over $55.7 Billion from $1.9 Billion in May 2014. In fact, it has grown from under $200 million when Adani installed Modi as CM of Gujarat.

INDIA BECAME A NET EXPORTER OF COVID VACCINES

Dr Navjot Dahiya, the national VP of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has called PM Modi a ‘super spreader’ and blamed him for the second wave of Covid-19.“While the medical fraternity is trying hard to make people understand mandatory Covid norms, PM Modi did not hesitate to address big political rallies tossing all Covid norms in the air.”

Despite the severity of the health crisis, election rallies and religious congregations like the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar continued, raising questions over the seriousness of Modi-led Union government to tackle the spread of the deadly virus. “The scarcity of medical oxygen has become the reason for the death of many patients in every part of the country against the fact that several projects for installing the oxygen are still pending with the Union government for clearance, but no heed was given to such an important need by the Modi government.”Hitting out at the prime minister for passing the buck of its failure on the private medical sector and state governments, Dr Dahiya told the daily: “Even on the issue of farmers’ agitation against farm laws, PM Modi did not act in a responsible manner and let the presence of huge gathering of farmers allowed without solving their issues, causing a serious threat of COVID spread.(The Tribune April 27, 2021)

The Australian reported on 25 April.  “Arrogance, hyper-nationalism and bureaucratic incompetence have combined to create a crisis of epic proportions in India, with its crowd-loving PM basking while citizens suffocate.”

Madras HC Chief Justice Banerjee on April 26, 2021, said, “You [the Election Commission] are the only institution that is responsible for the situation today. No action against political parties taking rallies… Your election commission should be put up on murder charges probably!” 

 Kapil Komireddi, the author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of the New India, wrote on April 30, 2021 in Foreign Policy Journal “Modi Fiddles While India Burns” “India might have been spared this humanitarian crisis had Modi not neglected his duties and vilified those who offered him constructive counsel. He had the time, means, and access to expertise to proof the country against this inferno. It is no longer tenable to measure Modi against the performance of previous prime ministers: He has broken into the malign ranks of India’s British colonial overlords who went hunting while Indians starved in mass famines.

Lt Gen Prakash Menon (retd), Decan Herald, APR 30, 2021,“The blind faith of Indians in God is now accompanied by blind faith in India’s most popular leader of contemporary times “Narendra Modi” has pushed India into Humanitarian Crises.”

A two judges-benchof UP HC, comprising justices Siddharth Verma and Justice Ajit Kumar on May 4, 2021, observed that the death of COVID-19 patients just for non-supply of oxygen to hospitals is “a criminal act, not less than a genocide” by state authorities’failure to supply adequate oxygen to hospitals.The bench asked an advocate, Anuj Singh, to call up the Covid helpline number. “Singh dialed the number again and again and the line was showing busy. However, ultimately, he was able to connect, and the reply was that there was no Level-2 (or) Level-3 bed available, whereas the online portal, was showing that there were vacant positions of beds in both Level-2 and Level-3 category.” Level 2 beds are for moderately symptomatic Covid patients; Level 3 beds are for serious patients. “Similarly, King George’s M U Hospital where portal showed 3 ICU beds to be vacant (on Sunday) and when the hospital was contacted, it informed that there were no vacant ICU beds. The high court observed, according to records of the proceedingshas shredded the CM Yogi’s steadfast denial of any oxygen and hospital bed crisis in UP.The bench also sought a clarification on allegations that a sitting high court judge, Justice V.K. Srivastava, who had died last week in Lucknow, had not received proper treatment.

Probably Justice Banerjee, Sidharth Verma and Ajit Kumar were afraid to name PM Modi aka his regime that has forced EC to be an extension of their regime, and that also failed to prepare for second Covid wave. According to Constitutional Scholars, “institutions that speak the language of the executive, and have become indistinguishable from the executive, can never protect democracy.

Supreme Court has badly let down India in recent times, through a combination of avoidance, mendacity, and a lack of zeal on behalf of political liberty. Yet it has not uttered a word against Modi regime’s appalling criminal mishandling of the pandemic and turning it into Humanitarian Crisis of epic proportions.

Once upon a time this very SC, aired harsh criticisms of Modi. In 2004, the Court labelled Modi a modern-day Nero.The Court observed that Modiwas “looking elsewhere when… innocent children and helpless women were burning” in the carnage that erupted days after Modi was appointed CM of Gujarat in 2002.His own State MinisterHaren Pandya gave sworn testimony about the riots, that Modi sanctioned the three days of anti-Muslim violence which is today known to many as the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom.In 2003, Pandya was assassinated,his wife and father both termed it “a political murder.”

As India gasps for air, however, countless innocent lives are paying a price forced upon them by a Modi regime that values its iron grip on power and its image over the lives of the people and basic human rights.

Despite the pandemic turning into humanitarian crises, Modi’s image builders are still desperately trying to present the current situation as an example of positive Indian exceptionalism. They accuse anyone critical of the Modi regime of “spreading negativity and being anti-National.” Anyone daring to point out the murderous and criminal mishandling of the pandemic is called a “vulture” conspiring to defame India on the world stage–and as Hinduphobic, self-hating Indians.

Not to be left behind, RSS’s 2^ndin Command Dattatreya Hosabale said as India suffers the world’s worst Covid-19 crisis. “Destructive and anti-Bharat (India) forces in the society can take advantage of these circumstances to create an atmosphere of negativity and mistrust in the country.”He should have, instead pulled the Modi regime for its intentional unpreparedness, incompetence and criminal neglect.

UP CM Yogi (BJP), a known communalist and criminalcondemned people who report shortages of oxygen as “anti-social elementswho spoil the atmosphere.”Yogi declared that there was no shortage of oxygen or beds or doctors in any hospital. He threatened to use the National Security Act to seize the property of the individuals who try to “spoil the atmosphere.”

Haryana CM Khattar (BJP),  another RSS stalwart and roommate of PM Modi, when he was accused of under reporting Covid deaths,  said, “it was useless to debate Covid toll as the dead won’t come back to life.”

Union Minister Prahlad Patel (BJP) when approached by a supplicant citizen, begging for oxygen, threatened to slap him.

Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat while visiting a hospital in Jodhpur told a Covid patient’s family, “You offer coconut to Balaji, everything will be alright”.

Karnataka’ BJP government Instead of arranging Oxygen, medicines & hospital beds Tweeted that they have allocated 230 acres of land on the outskirts of Bangaluru for a temporary crematorium.

Foreign Minister Jaishankar had instructed Indian Diplomats around the world to counter “one sided” world media narrative on government’s pandemic response failure.  Back home, his own colleague, Ambassador to 5 countries; Ashok Amrohi died a very painful death in the parking lot of Medanta Hospital after waiting for 5 hours to be admitted in a Gurgaon hospital on April 27, 2021.

 Modi regime’s ever-tightening hold on the Internet puts the social media companies against their own foundational values of free expression. It looks like they don’t want to risk a lucrative market like India with a 350 million middle class by not removing post that is critical of Modi regime’s functioning and its response to the pandemic that has turned into humanitarian crisis. These companies by towing the line of Modi, are doing a great harm to India by restricting the free flow of information, when India is teetering toward authoritarianism and religious majoritarianism under Modi and is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

What the Modi regime calls “misusing social media to create panic” in society, to an impartial observer, looks more like criticizing those in power.  The content in question included indictments from the opposition, activists, experts and general public as well as calls for Modi to resign. More than 400,000 new infections and 4,000 deaths every day, although grossly under reported, is a harrowing situation and should cause alarm. Modi regime appears to be using the pretext of public health, not to protect its citizens from harm, but to protect itself from embarrassment and exposures.

Every major economy as well as small countries of the world, big corporations, organizations and celebrities are donating funds or sending critical medical supplies, Oxygen Plants, Oxygen cylinders, ventilators & vaccines to India. India’s crisis has become a global crisis.

As usual India’s world famous rich and celebrities are in MIA list or giving token donations to insult the Indians. At the same time, work done by Sikh Gurudwaras & organizations, various Hindu Temples and organizations, Muslim Organizations, Christian Organizations and individuals have lifted the human spirits of India. They are the shining light in these hours of darkness. If India survives at all, it will be due entirely to the civic commitment of its front-line workers, religious organizationsand ordinary citizens, who have stepped in to do the duties of a government that has abandoned its people.

(Compiled & Edited byDave Makkar.  davemakkar@yahoo.com)