Just shut up already about the photos/videos of dead bodies & burning pyres being “offensive”.
Who is this coverage offending, after all? Only those who want to proclaim “All is well” when nothing clearly is.
Yes, cremations & funerals are somber & pious affairs. They aren’t +

+essentially private. Cremation processions are taken across the city to announce the demise and seek blessings for the departed soul. So shut up about privacy.
Now, you are upset about the pyre visuals? Have you forgotten that the leitmotif of Kashi, one of the holiest Hindu+

+cities is cremation: the process initiating the freedom of the soul from worldly connections. Cremation is a part of life there, with the city’s economy tied to the last rites. Nobody finds pyres “disturbing”; most people say a silent prayer. Yeah, even “Westerners”.
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+So, why don’t we cut the bullshit and address the real issue? Are you upset that the works can now see how Indians, Hindus in crematoria & Muslims in graveyards, are dropping dead in hordes because the government didn’t make plans to keep them alive despite sufficient warning?
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+Now that’s the hurt I can get behind. Yes, it’s embarrassing to admit that we have a dysfunctional State. However, please understand that it’s NOT YOUR SHAME. Nobody expects their government—however lousy—to let people die & do nothing!
Let’s stop making excuses for our +

+corrupt bureaucracy and absent government. It’s not on any of us, really, even if we personally voted them in.
What IS on us is demanding accountability. Let’s not make this about “Hinduism insulted” as usual. We all saw similarly horrific visuals from Italy, Spain, US in 2020
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Dead bodies piling; body bags stacked one upon another; coffins lining roads; patients out on the streets breathing their last et al. & that’s what scared us all.
BUT it didn’t scare the Indian State enough to prepare for a similar situation here. Too self-congratulatory &
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+delusional about not just our “measures” but also grand civilisational values & habits that were protecting us. Oh the great Indian exceptionalism!
We were happy consuming visuals of grief & horror from across the world, falsely ensconced in the safety of our Kaadha & tulsi.
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There’s no point calling the western media “vultures” et al. They may have gotten a million things wrong in covering India, this ain’t one of them. State obfuscation of facts is unconstitutional & criminal and all efforts to highlight this practice need to be hailed.
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