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This sums it up: India’s devastating second wave was fuelled by a series of crowded events, including mass rallies addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi [0

This sums it up: India’s devastating second wave was fuelled by a series of crowded events, including mass rallies addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi [0]. > Fuelling the catastrophe was a series of crowded events, like mass rallies by politicians such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, religious holidays and pilgrimages on the Ganges river. > As governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers, including Modi, touted victory over the virus, people relaxed their vigilance and stopped wearing masks and maintaining social distancing. [0] https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/4/29/indias-deadly-virus-surge-follows-crowded-events https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/4/29/indias-deadly-vi...

revendell_elf 5y ago
But those rallies were conducted in West Bangal and highest COVID cases are in Maharashtra. I'm definitely against these rallies but logic seems to fail us here, isn't it?
- pas 5y ago
  Any Modi/BJP (or otherwise government permitted) rally anywhere sends the signal that people can be more lax.
  - revendell_elf 5y ago
    Even if they're in two opposite ends of India? Also, I don't want to take sides, but all other parties rallied during elections so why single out BJP? Once again, I'm strictly against these gatherings and I firmly believe that they should be banned without delay but this selective outrage is rather obvious that the agenda or the narrative is something else altogether.
    - pas 5y ago
      There very well could be a selective outrage, but I'm almost as far removed from this as possible. HN as a groupmind usually scolds the official government, because the assumption is that they have the most effective control over behavior of people. -- I simply said that Modi/BJP is responsible wherever they are. Of course the other parties are responsible too. And we can simply apply the Spiderman rule: more power, more responsibility. Modi is the PM, BJP is the ruling party. (And yes, of course in some states BJP's influence is lesser than some other party's. And there the responsibility of that particular party is greater.) On top of all this it also depends what was the rhetoric of the other parties. Were they also loudly claiming victory over the pandemic? Naturally Modi trapped himself into a bit of a corner with that. (Even if facists can usually disregard/bend reality, but we shall see how the electorate takes this dissonance.)
- kumarvvr 5y ago
  A certain section of western media is distinctly biased against the ruling party. So there seems to be a lot of marketing for a certain point of view, nudging the facts aside.
  - HotVector 5y ago
    Might be because BJP is a right-wing nationalist party.
    - revendell_elf 5y ago
      any data to back your statement? I'm genuinely curious as to how one label a political party as right or left wing? BJP is a nationalist party no doubt about that though.
- pvsukale3 5y ago
  Testing per capita is not same across the country. Maharashtra has been doing a lot of testing. I have been in touch with my friends in UP and it is really hard to get tested there. So the current official numbers are not accurate there.
bluzeee 5y ago
It is very unfortunate that a single guy using one single resource is creating a false narrative about an entire country and is misusing this forum to spread false narrative. While even scientists are puzzled on the cause [0], a few like the above commenter for sure knows the causes conclusively India unlike U.S. and other western countries needs more careful analysis due to its diverse nature, larger informal economy and lack of proper data collection practices. Any simple attribution like the commenter is doing is simply false narrative 1. Anyone who has been tracking India covid cases closely knows, the most affected and contributing (72%) states for the second wave have been Maharastra and Kerala [0] 2. And, as second wave picked-up just 6 states contributed to 86.37% of new Covid-19 cases as per the data tracking [1] 3. Why did it spike in Maharastra ? Read [3] & [4] Importantly note the point on variant "This surge has started from Vidarbha, and it is hard to believe that mutant variants didn’t have a role to play" 4. Now, lets talk about variant found [4] "Two leading experts recently contended that a new coronavirus mutant strain was reportedly detected in Amravati, Yavatmal, and Akola, all in the Vidarbha region in the eastern part of the state" 5. Above comment talks about religious event which is kumbh mela which took happened in Haridwar, Uttarakhand state. Do you see the state in any of the listed states contributing to the raise ? No. Let's put today's status, is that state even in the top: 10 [5] 6. And do you know you need a permit and negative covid test report to participate in this religious event ? [6] 7. He talks about Narendra modi rallies. Seriously ? He took rallies in the states where elections being conducted by Indian election commission, like all all other political parties he has to support his party. This is saying like Biden cannot take election rally while Trump goes on giving daily speeches. Importantly, do you see the state of Westbengal where election allies happened in the top ? 8. As Maharastra went into curfew, poor migrant labor mainly from Bihar and UP and people from other states rushed back home and there is no data how this might have affected 9. Did BJP declare victory over virus ? Yes. But there is no scientific or data based attribution of spike Or the commenters indirect attribution of peoples laxity and not wearing masks to victory declaration is misguiding [0] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/indias-massive-covid-surge-puzzles-scientists/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/indias-massive-co... [1] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-updates-february-16-2021/article33847984.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-updates-f... [2] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/6-states-contributed-to-86-37-of-new-covid-19-cases-says-govt-101614497304795.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/6-states-contribut... [3] https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-why-is-maharashtra-seeing-a-new-spike-in-covid-19-cases-7191973/ https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-why-is... [4] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/maharashtra-hits-129-day-high-of-8807-fresh-cases/articleshow/81199045.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/maharashtra-hits-1... [5] https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/new-indian-covid-variants-can-cause-re-infections-warns-aiims-chief-121022100228_1.html https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/ne... [6] https://www.covid19india.org/ https://www.covid19india.org/ [7] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/kumbh-2021-limited-to-30-days-to-begin-on-april-1-2372990 https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/kumbh-2021-limited-to-30-day...
strategyanalyst 5y ago
Modi is responsible, but not due to rallies and religious festivals. Surge in cases weren't related to these events. The trend lines were rising a month ago and government was waiting for someone sort of miracle to change its direction. No one really knows why cases in India fell to such low numbers and why they increased suddenly.
- intended 5y ago
  I want to add that the overall chart shows that there was a small bump in, an uptick around 19th feb. However this trend was only actionable in a better data oriented environment. People explained away or ignored that small bump.
KrishnaAnaril 5y ago
Hello, It was election time in few states and all parties organized rallies not just Modi. I'm from Kerala, India.
kumarvvr 5y ago
I would not really take AlJazeera as a un-biased source. For one, in the article above, it mentions the massive rallies by the ruling party, BJP, but does not mention anything about rallies by other political parties, like Congress, TMC and others. A google search highlights only rallies of BJP. I found only 1 site that talks about other rallies. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/all-bengal-rallies-flouting-covid-19-norms-101618425712682.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/all-bengal-rallies...
- dagmx 5y ago
  If you're claiming AlJazeera is biased and then linking the Hindustan Times, then I question your perception of bias. For an American audience, this would be like saying MSNBC is biased, here's an article by Newsmax or OANN.
  - malshe 5y ago
    For all practical purposes Al Jazeera is Fox News. Who takes them seriously in the US?
ahurmazda 5y ago
Just in case, here is Arundhati Roy in her own words[1]. She is one the brightest activist voices from India. She paints a haunting tale of what’s been happening in the past year and beyond leading us to today. > “Let’s try and not be a cry baby.” — Tushar Mehta, India’s solicitor general, speaking for the government of India [1]https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/apr/28/crime-against-humanity-arundhati-roy-india-covid-catastrophe https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/apr/28/crime-against-h...

revendell_elf 5y ago

But those rallies were conducted in West Bangal and highest COVID cases are in Maharashtra. I'm definitely against these rallies but logic seems to fail us here, isn't it?

pas 5y ago
Any Modi/BJP (or otherwise government permitted) rally anywhere sends the signal that people can be more lax.
- revendell_elf 5y ago
  Even if they're in two opposite ends of India? Also, I don't want to take sides, but all other parties rallied during elections so why single out BJP? Once again, I'm strictly against these gatherings and I firmly believe that they should be banned without delay but this selective outrage is rather obvious that the agenda or the narrative is something else altogether.
  - pas 5y ago
    There very well could be a selective outrage, but I'm almost as far removed from this as possible. HN as a groupmind usually scolds the official government, because the assumption is that they have the most effective control over behavior of people. -- I simply said that Modi/BJP is responsible wherever they are. Of course the other parties are responsible too. And we can simply apply the Spiderman rule: more power, more responsibility. Modi is the PM, BJP is the ruling party. (And yes, of course in some states BJP's influence is lesser than some other party's. And there the responsibility of that particular party is greater.) On top of all this it also depends what was the rhetoric of the other parties. Were they also loudly claiming victory over the pandemic? Naturally Modi trapped himself into a bit of a corner with that. (Even if facists can usually disregard/bend reality, but we shall see how the electorate takes this dissonance.)
kumarvvr 5y ago
A certain section of western media is distinctly biased against the ruling party. So there seems to be a lot of marketing for a certain point of view, nudging the facts aside.
- HotVector 5y ago
  Might be because BJP is a right-wing nationalist party.
  - revendell_elf 5y ago
    any data to back your statement? I'm genuinely curious as to how one label a political party as right or left wing? BJP is a nationalist party no doubt about that though.
pvsukale3 5y ago
Testing per capita is not same across the country. Maharashtra has been doing a lot of testing. I have been in touch with my friends in UP and it is really hard to get tested there. So the current official numbers are not accurate there.

bluzeee 5y ago

It is very unfortunate that a single guy using one single resource is creating a false narrative about an entire country and is misusing this forum to spread false narrative. While even scientists are puzzled on the cause [0], a few like the above commenter for sure knows the causes conclusively India unlike U.S. and other western countries needs more careful analysis due to its diverse nature, larger informal economy and lack of proper data collection practices. Any simple attribution like the commenter is doing is simply false narrative 1. Anyone who has been tracking India covid cases closely knows, the most affected and contributing (72%) states for the second wave have been Maharastra and Kerala [0] 2. And, as second wave picked-up just 6 states contributed to 86.37% of new Covid-19 cases as per the data tracking [1] 3. Why did it spike in Maharastra ? Read [3] & [4] Importantly note the point on variant "This surge has started from Vidarbha, and it is hard to believe that mutant variants didn’t have a role to play" 4. Now, lets talk about variant found [4] "Two leading experts recently contended that a new coronavirus mutant strain was reportedly detected in Amravati, Yavatmal, and Akola, all in the Vidarbha region in the eastern part of the state" 5. Above comment talks about religious event which is kumbh mela which took happened in Haridwar, Uttarakhand state. Do you see the state in any of the listed states contributing to the raise ? No. Let's put today's status, is that state even in the top: 10 [5] 6. And do you know you need a permit and negative covid test report to participate in this religious event ? [6] 7. He talks about Narendra modi rallies. Seriously ? He took rallies in the states where elections being conducted by Indian election commission, like all all other political parties he has to support his party. This is saying like Biden cannot take election rally while Trump goes on giving daily speeches. Importantly, do you see the state of Westbengal where election allies happened in the top ? 8. As Maharastra went into curfew, poor migrant labor mainly from Bihar and UP and people from other states rushed back home and there is no data how this might have affected 9. Did BJP declare victory over virus ? Yes. But there is no scientific or data based attribution of spike Or the commenters indirect attribution of peoples laxity and not wearing masks to victory declaration is misguiding [0] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/indias-massive-covid-surge-puzzles-scientists/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/indias-massive-co... [1] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-updates-february-16-2021/article33847984.ece https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-updates-f... [2] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/6-states-contributed-to-86-37-of-new-covid-19-cases-says-govt-101614497304795.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/6-states-contribut... [3] https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-why-is-maharashtra-seeing-a-new-spike-in-covid-19-cases-7191973/ https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-why-is... [4] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/maharashtra-hits-129-day-high-of-8807-fresh-cases/articleshow/81199045.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/maharashtra-hits-1... [5] https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/new-indian-covid-variants-can-cause-re-infections-warns-aiims-chief-121022100228_1.html https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/ne... [6] https://www.covid19india.org/ https://www.covid19india.org/ [7] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/kumbh-2021-limited-to-30-days-to-begin-on-april-1-2372990 https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/kumbh-2021-limited-to-30-day...

strategyanalyst 5y ago

Modi is responsible, but not due to rallies and religious festivals. Surge in cases weren't related to these events. The trend lines were rising a month ago and government was waiting for someone sort of miracle to change its direction. No one really knows why cases in India fell to such low numbers and why they increased suddenly.

intended 5y ago
I want to add that the overall chart shows that there was a small bump in, an uptick around 19th feb. However this trend was only actionable in a better data oriented environment. People explained away or ignored that small bump.

KrishnaAnaril 5y ago

Hello, It was election time in few states and all parties organized rallies not just Modi. I'm from Kerala, India.

kumarvvr 5y ago

I would not really take AlJazeera as a un-biased source. For one, in the article above, it mentions the massive rallies by the ruling party, BJP, but does not mention anything about rallies by other political parties, like Congress, TMC and others. A google search highlights only rallies of BJP. I found only 1 site that talks about other rallies. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/all-bengal-rallies-flouting-covid-19-norms-101618425712682.html https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/all-bengal-rallies...

dagmx 5y ago
If you're claiming AlJazeera is biased and then linking the Hindustan Times, then I question your perception of bias. For an American audience, this would be like saying MSNBC is biased, here's an article by Newsmax or OANN.
- malshe 5y ago
  For all practical purposes Al Jazeera is Fox News. Who takes them seriously in the US?

ahurmazda 5y ago

Just in case, here is Arundhati Roy in her own words[1]. She is one the brightest activist voices from India. She paints a haunting tale of what’s been happening in the past year and beyond leading us to today. > “Let’s try and not be a cry baby.” — Tushar Mehta, India’s solicitor general, speaking for the government of India [1]https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/apr/28/crime-against-humanity-arundhati-roy-india-covid-catastrophe https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/apr/28/crime-against-h...