Popularity crumbles for Indian PM Modi as devastating COVID-19 surge continues
A leader whose popularity has seemed virtually unassailable is now dealing with deep anger over his COVID-19 response, with scenes of the country s health system failing, crematoriums overwhelmed, and Indians pleading for basic medical supplies.
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Anger growing over what critics call ‘absent’ leadership as 2nd wave took hold, now killing thousands per day
Posted: May 15, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: May 15
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gestures as he addresses a public meeting on Jan. 23. The same month, he boasted to world leaders that India had effectively contained COVID-19, but that was before the country was hit by a second wave that has overwhelmed health systems and left Indians pleading for basic supplies.(Biju Boro/AFP via Getty Images)
Image credit: Mayank Makhija
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MUMBAI, India Outside an upscale Indian hospital last week, Baljeet Asthana put her phone on selfie mode, propped her eyeglasses on her head so she could stare directly into the camera, and hit record.
Through a white polka-dot mask, she described her family’s ordeal: Her 82-year-old mother was inside the hospital “struggling for her life,” Asthana said. Her mother desperately needed an intensive care unit bed, but the hospital Fortis Hospital, one of the best-equipped private facilities in the capital, New Delhi was full. Officials told the family to look for an ICU bed elsewhere.
6 slides Credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images This Government Has Failed Us : Anger Rises In India Over PM Modi s COVID Response By
at 12:02 pm NPR
MUMBAI, India â Outside an upscale Indian hospital last week, Baljeet Asthana put her phone on selfie mode, propped her eyeglasses on her head so she could stare directly into the camera, and hit record.
Through a white polka-dot mask, she described her family s ordeal: Her 82-year-old mother was inside the hospital struggling for her life, Asthana said. Her mother desperately needed an intensive care unit bed, but the hospital â Fortis Hospital, one of the best-equipped private facilities in the capital, New Delhi â was full. Officials told the family to look for an ICU bed elsewhere.
Mayank Makhija / NurPhoto via Getty Images
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MUMBAI, India Outside an upscale Indian hospital last week, Baljeet Asthana put her phone on selfie mode, propped her eyeglasses on her head so she could stare directly into the camera, and hit record.
Through a white polka-dot mask, she described her family s ordeal: Her 82-year-old mother was inside the hospital struggling for her life, Asthana says. Her mother desperately needed
an intensive care unit
bed, but the hospital Fortis Hospital, one of the best-equipped private facilities in the capital New Delhi was full. Officials told the family to look for an ICU bed elsewhere.
Mayank Makhija/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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toggle caption Mayank Makhija/NurPhoto via Getty Images
In New Delhi on Monday, family members cremate the body of a person who died after contracting COVID-19. Mayank Makhija/NurPhoto via Getty Images
MUMBAI, India Outside an upscale Indian hospital last week, Baljeet Asthana put her phone on selfie mode, propped her eyeglasses on her head so she could stare directly into the camera, and hit record.
Through a white polka-dot mask, she described her family s ordeal: Her 82-year-old mother was inside the hospital struggling for her life, Asthana said. Her mother desperately needed