The first wave had come to Modi as quite a boon, which he utilised to the hilt by projecting himself as the Supreme Commander - in the crucial war against the lethal invisible enemy, and, thereby, got to be looked upon as the only (possible) Saviour - and therefore to be unconditionally trusted, by the ordinary folks at the moment of that great ongoing crisis. All budding protests were scotched, stinking legislations were passed, the parliament silenced. Even the Long Marches under the scorching sun by over a crore - as per government figures, triggered by his cruel policies couldn't dent his overall popularity - as the Supreme Commander bountifully serving the heady wine of Hindutva. The (utterly stupid) calls for Taali/Thaali/Diya were all pretty much aggressively responded to by large sections of people.
The (shockingly unanticipated) second wave - far bigger in size, however, with its endless procession of deaths -accompanied by the gory images of long queues at the crematoriums, bodies burning (even) in car parking slots, shallow mass graves (for Hindus) on river banks, infected corpses floating in the Ganga and, not to forget, the painful helpless asphyxiated deaths, has, eventually, made a significant impact. (The global media, it needs be acknowledged, has played a conspicuous role by, at least to an extent, filling in the vacuum created by the (by and large) sealed lips local media.) For the first time in Independent India - Hindus in general, including even the affluent, are faced with an existential threat, turning more and more immediate. The filthy rich are just flying out. That's why shedding of crocodile tears before the TV camera. But, the magic has definitely waned, even if not just evaporated. The sheer volume of cartoons linking the (imagined) tears (of the Supreme Leader) with that of the proverbial croc doing rounds in the social media unmistakably underlines that. The mood has palpably shifted. 56" has pretty much shrunk. Yet, the raging pandemic makes any organisation of massive street protests all too difficult and, arguably, quite unethical as well. Both these (contradictory) aspects need be meaningfully factored in. <<Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept to power in 2014 and was voted back to the office in 2019 with a thumping majority, had successfully maintained the image of a powerful nationalist leader. However, as India’s total caseload went past 25 millions this week, it exposed the lack of preparation on the part of the government and eroded Modi’s support base, indicated the U.S. data intelligence company Morning Consult’s tracker of a dozen global leaders. In his lowest ratings since the U.S. firm began tracking his popularity in August 2019, Modi’s overall ratings this week stand at 63%. In massive decline that happened in April, his net approval dropped 22 points.>> < https://hwnews.in/news/national-news/pm-modis-approval-ratings-plummet-as-second-covid-19-wave-sweeps-india/157113 > Sukla -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/greenyouth/CACEsOZg%3DxRrgrd6GX1YCi2J8_ConPMXg4%2B%2BZx4wNcb_xwPrncQ%40mail.gmail.com.
