I normally don't use Twitter much these days, forget early in the morning like now, but here goes.

The news coming out of India is thoroughly depressing. How did this country go from being a medical success story to a catastrophe of unprecedented proportions?

Thread.

1. 1974: India was hit by a smallpox epidemic that ravaged east India. Then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi started Operation "Target Zero" to eliminate the disease.

That decade, India overcame smallpox.
#1 https://www.nytimes.com/1975/07/03/archives/india-declared-free-of-smallpox-2-countries-left.html
#2 https://qz.com/india/1758391/there-is-no-smallpox-in-india-thanks-to-these-unsung-women/
....

2. 1980s: India started a vaccination program against diphtheria. It was largely mitigated by the 2010s but it still persists and is making a serious return to that country.
#1 https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/the-lowdown-on-diphtheria-and-its-resurgence/article22267520.ece
#2 https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/rising-cases-of-diphtheria
....

3. 1994-95: Under PM PV Narasimha Rao India started a national program to eliminate poliomyelitis. By 2014, India was declared polio-free.
https://polioeradication.org/news-post/how-india-eradicated-polio-challenges-and-lessons-learned/

4. 1996: India started the Yaws Eradication Programme (YEP) to eliminate the skin disease. After sometime, India overcame yaws.
#1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4510759/
#2 https://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/news/India_free_of_yaws/en/
#3 https://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/news/India_global_eradication_yaws_celebration/en/
....

5. 1983: India started a vaccination program against Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT). In 2015, India was declared MNT-free. https://qz.com/india/491451/india-has-eliminated-tetanus-as-a-mass-killer-one-year-after-getting-rid-of-polio/

As we can see, every major disease that especially plagued poor countries was successfully eliminated by India. So how did Covid-19 go out of control there?

Read this detailed thread by @samjawed65:
https://twitter.com/samjawed65/status/1385546644922507265

She's covered everything down to the last detail.

There's a flyer: Covid-19 is more infectious and spreads at a much faster rate. The other diseases India eliminated had lifelong effects on their victims.

With that said, while India's medical infrastructure is sorely lacking, a manageable situation turned into a catastrophe.

So who's to blame for this chaos?

The Indian middle class!

People living in gated communities in Gurgaon, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune who got politically hyperactive in the early 2010s just to spice up their boring lives led India to where it is now.

Having overcome various challenges, the Indian middle class became overconfident and developed extreme delusions of grandeur. Egged on by the Indian diaspora, they supported Modi for one reason and one reason only: To show Muslims, Christians and subalterns their rightful place.

Now I'll address the Indian middle class which supported (and still continues to support!!) Modi/BJP/RSS:

India overcame various challenges in the past because people back then had a vision and a very far sight. They didn't mind sacrificing themselves for YOUR wellbeing.

The challenges they faced given their conditions would've broken you before you even understood what they were, forget overcoming them.

Eradicating diseases, developing indigenous cryogenic missiles and supercomputers, the 2008 economic meltdown, the high oil prices in 2012-13.

They struggled hard against overwhelming odds just to ensure YOU didn't have to struggle or fend for yourselves.

While they definitely committed their fair share of mistakes, and I'm not denying that they did, they still faced and successfully overcame bitter challenges.

Contrast all the challenges they faced to what you face today.

2016: Modi made you stand in a queue for your own money. You still supported him.
2017: Modi made paying tax an unbearable pain for you vis-à-vis GST. You still supported him.
2018: Modi told you to sell snacks.

You still supported him.
2020: Modi made life a living hell for poor workers (most of whom were Hindus) who walked thousands of miles back home. You still supported him (and sadly, they did too).
2021: Modi mismanaged Covid-19 and you're cremating your kith and kin in the open.

And you still support him!

What's the commonality in all of them?
1. They were/are completely avoidable.
2. They were/are caused by only one man.

But you still support that one man. Why is that again? No need to explain, your hatred for Muslims has reached sickening depths.

There can be no other rationale for backing RSS/BJP after everything that's happened.

Overconfidence in yourselves (that too due to the very same people you love to hate) has made you divert all your energy to primitive tribalism of the worst kind.

Tribalism is like a drug.

Once you get hooked on to it, it'll be a long time before you break free of it, if at all you manage to break free of it!

While the Congress has committed a lot of mistakes, they endured heavy challenges to get you to safety. You repay them by calling them "anti-Hindu".

And you hate and despise Muslims who're going out of their way to help everybody irrespective of religion.

Flyer: I realize Muslims are held to a much higher standard than Hindus in India. Outside of the Western world, this is the norm for minorities almost everywhere.

Countries like Japan and South Korea are well-off but they hold non-Japanese and non-Korean minorities to abnormally high standards just for the sake of acceptance into their societies, if at all.

That for the flyer, now back to the discussion.

You were happy when RSS/BJP....

were going for Muslims, Christians and subaltern people. Your privilege and arrogance blinded you to their suffering at the hands of the ruling regime and state-backed thugs.

What was that "privilege"? No matter who's in power, you won't be affected by their actions.

What Modi's criminality and incompetence that led to the present crisis in India did to your privilege was shattering it to bits. Now you don't even have a place to cremate your dead. No dignity even in death.

But wait, wasn't that EXACTLY what you subjected others to?

Isn't that something you're still willing to endure just for the cheap thrill of seeing some poor Muslim mechanic/cobbler being beaten to death by mad RSS goons so you can smear him as a terrorist and pollute cyberspace with your bile?

What you enjoyed till now was a privilege.

A privilege handed over to you by the likes of Congress and other "sickular" parties which you despise with all your might.

Do you think RSS/BJP would've handled any of the challenges faced earlier by Congress that easily?

Had they been in power instead, you'd still have....

diphtheria, smallpox, polio, yaws and tetanus running riot throughout India. You'd still be stuck in the stone age.

BJP can't even handle Covid-19 properly. You think they'd have achieved anything else which Congress did?

You'd have been FUCKED! OVER AND OVER!! EVERY TIME!!!

What Congress and other "sickular" parties worked hard to achieve (and elevate you to a safer space) is being undone in a catastrophic manner.

Just a few months ago, you wouldn't have even imagined being witness to your kith and kin dying in your arms for want of oxygen, right?

You never imagined a time would come when you can't even cremate your kith and kin with dignity, did you?

You were enjoying and relishing every moment smearing minorities, subalterns and other easy targets already subjected to state and non-state persecution, weren't you?

You never wanted to give them dignity in life, your kith and kin lost dignity in death right in front of your eyes. Karma?

As bad as I feel for the departed, and may Almighty take them in his stride, I really can't feel sorry for you if you still support BJP at this point.

If anything, I believe you need to suffer even more, to the point where you lose your own dignity, both in life and in death.

The Vishwa guru you boasted about has gone belly up and has essentially cut a sorry figure. Now some of you are peddling conspiracy theories.

Don't believe me? Check this out.
https://twitter.com/Iyervval/status/1386349206026088450

Now they're accusing POTUS Joe Biden of conspiring to overthrow Modi!

Everybody but Modi/BJP/RSS is responsible for the sorry state of India today!

What else drives this except primitive tribalism of the worst kind?

Middle class India, if you ever want to know what you're really capable of achieving, look back at all the disasters, past and present, under the BJP regime. That's the level of your competence and capability.

But is the virus strong enough to shatter your delusions of grandeur?

Given how stubborn as a mule many of you are, I doubt!

Just because NRIs/foreign nationals of Indian origin back BJP, doesn't mean YOU have to. They engage in identity politics because they won't be living under Modi's incompetent, arrogant and dangerous governance, YOU will!

For NRIs and foreign Indians, their human rights will always be protected. They'll have dignity in life and in death. They won't struggle for anything.

Meanwhile, in your country, human rights isn't mandatory but optional at best. If the govt hates you, you're doomed.

They can peddle all the bile they want online because they won't face the consequences of their actions. An innocent person somewhere in some remote village will.

But now YOU are directly affected and your kith and kin overseas and their identity politics are primarily to blame.

I doubt this will have any impact on you. Showing Muslims their place will still be on your priority list.

So go ahead and do the right thing: Watch some RSS goon lynch some innocent Muslim to death, videotape it and proudly upload it on Facebook to show how brave he is.

Go there and call that Muslim a terrorist, accuse him of some conspiracy against India and smear him to the extent where he can't be recognized even by his own family anymore.

After all, that's what you losers support Modi and Yogi for! Even if they seize your property!

Yes, Mugabe, I mean Yogi said that!
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/seize-property-of-those-spreading-rumours-up-cm/article34404518.ece

Deny others of dignity, in life and in death, and watch as you and your loved ones lose dignity, in life and in death.

Please continue down that rabbit hole.... till you can't anymore despite your most sincere efforts.