Share on Twitter
Rajni Gill woke up with a slight fever in mid-April, the first warning that she had COVID-19. Within a few days, she was breathless and nearly unconscious in a hospital.
Desperate to arrange plasma treatment for Dr Gill, a gynaecologist in the city of Noida, her family called doctors, friends, anyone they thought could help. Then her sister posted a plea on Facebook: “I am looking for a plasma donor for my sister who is hospitalised in Noida. She is B positive and is 43.”
The message, quickly amplified on Twitter, flashed across the phone of Srinivas B.V., an opposition politician in nearby Delhi, who was just then securing plasma for a college student. He deputised a volunteer donor to rush to the blood bank for Dr Gill.
Share on Twitter
As India battles one of the worst humanitarian crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s leaders are facing increased scrutiny and criticism over their handling of the second wave.
Experts have estimated the figures for both infections and deaths could be much higher.
READ MORE
Social media feeds are filled with footage and photos of crowded cemeteries, dying patients being loaded onto stretchers, overrun hospitals and bodies being burned on makeshift pyres out in the open.
As the virus continues to ravage India, Mr Modi’s government is cracking down further on social media, particularly over any criticism over its response.
Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
For the past few years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a far-right Hindu nationalist faction, have dominated national politics. Since coming into power in 2014, Modi and BJP have attacked the foundations of India’s political system, gradually undermining the guardrails protecting democracy.
But this weekend saw a notable setback for Modi: an electoral defeat by a larger-than-expected margin.
In local elections held in five states, the BJP lost the biggest prize: control of the Legislative Assembly in West Bengal. The defeat came amid gathering signs of trouble for Modi’s quest to dominate India the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreak, attributable in no small part to government policy, foremost among them.