Thread, on holding India's MOST influential, powerful person + party accountable for his/their hubris, arrogance and misdeeds. Much of this is from international media that BJP cannot control (advertising/coercion), but some Indian media as well.

"Last year, in televised appearances, a harsh lockdown was prefaced with messages of a united national resolve against the disease. This time around, there has been no explicit communication from him, instead a series of spirited election rallies where the crowds are large"

"the current situation does highlight a clear policy failure on varied counts" —a "policy failure" that comes at the COST of lives of Indians.

"Asking citizens to be responsible is crucial, but this carries far more credibility when the political leadership itself is responsible and does not engage in reckless political rallies and enables large and potentially dangerous religious congregations"

"This was the Empowered Group-VI (EG-VI) tasked to coordinate with the “Private Sector, NGOs & International Organizations for response related activities.” In its second meeting, held on April 1 last year, it red-flagged oxygen shortage" https://bit.ly/32CMedh 

"Boosterism (like Modi’s around India’s vaccine production) and the encouragement of normalcy bias (which leads people to minimise threats when confronted by serious risks) have real impacts in public health emergencies that rely on encouraging people to be careful."

"Worse still was the government’s seeming indifference to the mounting tragedy. Even as the scale of India’s second wave grew obvious, Mr Modi and his top ministers actually encouraged vast gatherings, both at their own giant election rallies and at the Kumbh Mela"

"Politicians addressed tens of thousands at election rallies. 'The dominating factor to me is the social events, economic activities and carelessness of religious activities,' said Rakesh Mishra, director of the CSIR Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology."

What a monumentally callous signal for complacency! Here's arguably India's most influential man flagging off an event that is known for MASSIVE crowds, during a pandemic - if that isn't a signal (+ election rallies) for people to drop their guard, what is?

Covid-19: Is this a political turning point? If it does not become a turning point, it only means we Indians need more salt in our food to regain our sense of... as we say in Tamil, "சூடு சொரணை" (roughly: self-respect).

"After successfully tackling first wave of Corona, a fatal misconception I deluded myself into and hence went to town calling millions of fellow Indians to the Mahakumbh and to election rallies..." would be the real 'mann ki baat' (a.k.a unvarnished mind-voice).

He has been distressed, pained, saddened over lives lost to man-made and natural causes in India and globally, before and after becoming PM.

His reaction to THE WORST CALAMITY IN INDIA, that he also fanned due to complacency, under his RULE, with 192,000+ deaths?

Just last month, even as infections surged, Harsh Vardhan, the health minister lauded Modi as a “vaccine guru” and “example to the world”. —Modi leads India out of lockdown and into a Covid apocalypse https://bit.ly/3sNusio 

"Whether it’s complacency, lack of preparedness or bureaucratic failure, there must be a full introspection into what went wrong. With funeral pyres burning over several cities, patients dying as oxygen supplies run out, there must be answers & accountability for this calamity"

"The clamour for decentralisation revolved around providing states greater flexibility in the rollout of the vaccination drive. It was not to create 28 separate state entities negotiating with a private manufacturer for a public good."

"Modi and his Govt have been criticised for failing to prepare health systems. The Govt is also accused of exacerbating the crisis by holding mass election rallies and allowing a giant religious festival to go ahead long after it was clear the virus was out of control."

"Narendra Modi, the prime minister, has been condemned for the failure to prepare for a second wave, instead encouraging huge political and religious gatherings earlier in the year when cases dropped below 10,000 a day."

"The government was slow to respond, even when the size of the second wave became clear. On April 17, Mr. Modi congratulated a mass gathering of people at an election rally in West Bengal for turning up in large numbers."

In other parts of the world, there are semblances of holding the powerful accountable. In India, most media (that get HUGE advertising money from the BJP) won't even vaguely name the actually-accountable and pussyfoot around 'system', 'state subject', 'Joe Biden' etc.

"the Indian leadership was so focussed on patting itself on the back for conquering the virus" —Brutally blunt editorial that holds India's MOST powerful directly responsible, as media houses should.

"The government of Narendra Modi, the prime minister, is desperate to deflect the growing storm of public fury now aimed at him. The scale of the crisis has shaken his air of dominance, as each day brings further catastrophe and his government flounders."

"Like populists elsewhere, Modi will be reluctant to take actions that might imply his government’s earlier mistakes fuelled today’s outbreak. Unless he does, more funeral pyres will burn across his nation." https://on.ft.com/3vmXOWt 

"the Modi government has made some distinctive and disastrous errors. Having centralised power for many years, he now seems to be shifting the burden of responsibility for dealing with Covid-19 on to state governments." https://on.ft.com/3xpln2B 

"India had largely relaxed its social distancing and quarantine measures by March – now viewed as a profound political misjudgment. Taking the cue from their leaders, many Indians abandoned these measures in February and March, returning to restaurants, salons and malls."

Devastatingly blunt editorial:
"it’s the Centre where, amid climbing distress, the evidence of fiddling is starker".
"Centre must take stock of its inattention and failures — because it was in charge and because it still is"

"one could say that this government... simply took the pandemic as an extremely useful tool gifted to it by the gods, a tool it could use to further its agenda — to stifle dissent, to topple Opposition state governments, to ‘win’ elections" https://bit.ly/2QZdikx 

"India’s evolving coronavirus crisis has also been driven by other factors, including its low vaccination rate and limited hospital capacity, as well as decisions made by leaders such as Narendra Modi, and the tolerance of large political and religious gatherings"

"Premier Narendra Modi’s government, in a triumphalist mode thinking it had won over the first wave, has been slammed for having misread the situation and coming up with a late and callous response. State election rallies and the mammoth weeks-long Kumbh festival were allowed."

"The World Health Organization has said India’s deadly Covid19 second wave was caused by a “perfect storm” of mass gatherings, low vaccination rates and more contagious variants"
"there are other factors such as recent large gatherings that may have contributed to the rise"