India: a record of vaccinations for the birthday of the Prime Minister
Audio 02:31
For Narendra Modi's birthday on September 17, his BJP party mobilized and vaccinated nearly 23 million people in one day.
AFP - DIPTENDU DUTTA
By: Sébastien Farcis Follow
2 min
The Prime Minister of India is exceptionally revered by his party and the government apparatus, which organized a record-breaking Covid-19 vaccination to celebrate his birthday.
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We are on September 17th.
It's Narendra Modi's birthday, and his BJP party is mobilizing its troops as well as the state apparatus to offer a special gift to the Prime Minister: a record of vaccinations against Covid-19.
The effort pays off: nearly 23 million people are vaccinated in one day, four times more than the previous days and a national record.
“
The BJP has teams in every village across the country.
They have lists of residents and make sure people get vaccinated.
That day, our workers collaborated with other parties to show how quickly India could vaccinate its people,
”said RP Singh, spokesperson for the BJP.
Vaccinations have especially exploded in states led by the BJP.
In one day, they were multiplied by 38 in Karnataka and by 10 in Gujarat.
But how to get there would be doubtful, analyzes Rijo John, health economist and assistant professor at Rajagiri University in Cochin: “
In the BJP states, vaccination has fallen sharply in the previous 3-4 days, only to explode. that day and then fall back to the same level as before.
The authorities were therefore able to delay the vaccination of people to reach this record, which is a bad thing in terms of public health.
"
Growing worship
The next day, the newspapers headline that India broke this record to celebrate the Prime Minister's birthday. Another mark of the growing cult of Narendra Modi in India. "
In recent years, the BJP and Mr. Modi have erased the lines of demarcation between the leader, the government, the state and the nation,"
observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, writer specializing in Hindu nationalism.
These concepts are supposed to become synonymous. Basically, "Modi is India, and India is Modi". BJP leaders speak of him as if he is a superman and his image is everywhere
: in the newspapers, on the huge posters on the streets, on the highway, you can't live a day in India without seeing his picture. .
"
Never has a Prime Minister been the object of such a cult since Indira Gandhi.
It was the 1970s and the authoritarian daughter of Nehru ended her term by declaring a state of emergency, which suspended civil liberties for 21 months.
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India
Narendra Damodardas Modi
Coronavirus
Vaccines