New Delhi: India’s mainstream media appears to have somewhat salvaged its reputation by doing what it is meant to do – calling out the federal government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its inability to anticipate and manage the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that has wreaked havoc across the country.
Mainstream magazines led by Outlook, followed by India Today and the staid Frontline have come out with hard-hitting covers. For the first time, each publication has directly blamed the Modi government in the context of the Covid crisis that has seen millions of Indians struggling in vain to get treated for the deadly disease.
What shocked the country was the utter chaos that the Indian capital New Delhi experienced in the wake of an exponential rise in Covid-19 cases leading to shortages of bed, oxygen and crucial life-saving treatment, which resulted in thousands of deaths. The crisis continued with no space in cemeteries and crematoriums resulting in long lines, traumatising bereaved families.
Until now, in both waves totalled, there have been 1.4 million Covid-19 cases in Delhi while across India including the major cities of Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai, at least 26 million cases were recorded – figures that indicate the enormity of the pandemic. At the height of the second wave on May 4, India registered 46 percent of the world’s coronavirus cases and at least a quarter of its deaths.
The pandemic has been unsparing of normally well-insulated middle-class families and the elite. The ensuing horror, anger, sadness and frustration particularly in Delhi led people to conclude that the chaos could have been prevented had the government anticipated the second wave. On the contrary, the Modi-led government a couple of months earlier had crowed over how successful it had been in thwarting the pandemic and that India was safe from the marauding virus. Web Desk
