About 3 months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his country's victory over the Corona pandemic and his insistence on continuing with local elections, since last month India has been witnessing an unprecedented wave of the epidemic, until India has become the country with the highest number of injuries and deaths in the world.
What exacerbated the situation in such a frightening manner?
When the Corona virus appeared at the end of 2019, Modi underestimated the matter and ignored the alarm bells that began to ring in China and Western countries - as his critics say - as he was busy at the time to topple the Congress Party government in the state of Madhya Pradesh, and he did not start any serious measures to confront the virus until March 24 / March 2020, when a general lockdown was announced in the country.
This was the most severe closure in the world that affected the Indian economy in a great way, and it led to millions of workers losing their jobs suddenly, and because of the suspension of train and bus services, millions of workers began the journey of torture on foot to their villages hundreds of miles away from the cities in which they were working.
Modi participated in massive election campaigns despite warnings from Corona (Getty Images)
Despite the increasing spread of infection, Modi invited former US President Donald Trump to visit India to celebrate him in late February 2020. The latter came with a large official and media team at a time when Corona was ravaging the United States while Trump - like Modi - until that time mocked the pandemic He denies it.
Following this sudden closure, which greatly affected the poorest population and left thousands of workers without work, the government announced that it is taking a number of steps, such as increasing beds in hospitals, establishing field hospitals, accelerating the production of an Indian vaccine, and launching an economic fund to reduce the burden of living.
Later, Modi lifted the general lockdown and allowed economic activity to return, and even announced to world leaders in Davos last January that India had overcome the pandemic.
What is the impact of Modi’s continued elections on the spread of the pandemic?
Modi was not satisfied with that, but he allowed local elections in 5 states, despite criticism from many who said that the time was not appropriate for holding the elections, and the Prime Minister personally participated in electoral campaigns that included large gatherings of hundreds of thousands in one place.
Modi seemed to be proud of these gatherings, and he said days before the eruption of the second wave early last month that he had never seen such large gatherings in his life.
These electoral activities continued through March and April, and Modi participated in his last election campaign on April 17, when the deaths reached 1,500 and injuries to 200,000 that day.
Later, Modi addressed an election campaign remotely by means of 200 giant screens that were placed for him in various places in West Bengal state, and this was enough to gather millions of squares at one time.
It was not surprising that West Bengal, which was at the bottom of the list of states affected by Corona, is currently at the top of the states with the highest infection.
Then the government allowed the holding of the Hindu "Komb" celebration in Haridwar, in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, to bathe in the sacred Gangetic River. The celebration lasted from March 11 to April 29, during which 8 million people gathered, according to official statistics.
Reports indicate that upon their return from the celebration, they transmitted the infection to all the villages and cities from which they came, and the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, who permitted this celebration despite the warnings of doctors and media, said that the sacred Ganga water will wash and remove any virus.
Narendra Modi with Trump during his visit to India in February 2020 while Corona was ravaging the United States (Reuters)
The second wave, how did it happen?
India entered the second wave phase in early April, despite many demands to stop the celebration and to shorten the stages of the elections, and the world began to watch hundreds of bodies emerge from hospitals and homes to cemeteries and incinerators in the hundreds, with a daily shortage of beds in hospitals and a shortage of oxygen and medicine.
With the great difficulties facing the medical authorities in providing beds and oxygen for hundreds of thousands of people with Corona, the crisis began to worsen after getting worse with each passing day, and the number of injured and the number of deaths increased every day from the previous day.
As of Tuesday, health conditions in India had deteriorated further, with more than 20 million new cases of the new Coronavirus "Covid-19" recorded, and the Indian Ministry of Health announced that the number of infections had exceeded 20 million after more than 357,000 new infections were recorded, and more than 3,400 were recorded. A new death.
Is the crisis out of the control circuit?
Modi's critics say that the crisis out of control, the inability of hospitals to receive the injured, and the death of thousands every day, due to the lack of oxygen and the insufficient provision of vaccines, have undermined the influence that Modi has gained by ruling India with an iron hand over the past seven years.
Writers began expressing their frustration at what they describe as Modi's failure to lead the country, and for the first time painters published drawings that ridicule Modi and cruelly highlight his flaws, and for the first time writings appeared in important newspapers and news sites calling for his departure, including 400,000 people in one night signing a petition on the Internet It demands the resignation of Modi.
Observers say that until recently, no one dared to criticize Modi or publish an article presenting or criticizing him except for immediate punishment from the government's security services.
What is the impact of the failure in the Corona file on Modi's situation?
Not only did Modi and his government face criticism and anger from the street. His Hindu nationalist party, the "Bharatiya Janata", suffered a severe defeat Sunday in the local elections in West Bengal.
The results of the local elections that took place last month in this state showed that the "Trimanol Conference" party led by Mamata Banerjee, Modi's fierce rival, is on track to win a third consecutive term.
Modi lost the elections in the eastern state, despite harnessing all means to win these elections, and Modi's defeat in West Bengal revived the opposition parties and vowed to defeat his party in the general elections to be held in 2024.
Despite that defeat, the BJP won about 80 seats to become the main opposition party, and in the 2016 elections it won only 3 seats there.
Protests against Modi's change of India's nationality law to strip millions of Muslims of Indian citizenship (Al-Jazeera)
Did Modi fulfill his brilliant promises that brought him to power?
Modi became prime minister after his party won the May 2014 elections with slogans fighting endemic corruption and creating jobs for millions of Indian people.
And his opponents say that Modi did not fulfill his electoral promises and exploited his rhetorical capabilities, and he imposed the state apparatus over any dissenting voice, and played on the ropes of sectarianism by showing Muslims and Pakistan as enemies of India to win the friendship of the Hindus during the first five years in the consolidation of the pillars of his individual rule.
Modi won again in the 2019 elections by using the sectarian game, and this time he began to implement the policies favorable to the Hindu movement (RSS) to which he belongs, so he changed the nationality law in order to strip millions of Muslims of Indian citizenship, and he also introduced amendments to the residency laws in the country. Indian Kashmir for the first time since 1947, in an effort to eliminate any attempt to challenge the issue of the region's subordination - the disputed - to India.