THESE two years since the Modi-II government was re-elected saw the consolidation of the process, with renewed vigour, put in motion seven years ago, post-2014 elections, of the realisation of the RSS project of converting India into their conception of a rabidly intolerant, theocratic, fascistic  “Hindu Rashtra”. This was its declared objective on it’s founding in 1925.

GANGA and Yamuna, the rivers that give birth to extensive plains of north India, have been more of a cultural entity than mere geographic bodies for the people of India. It is easy to talk about Ganga in different contexts, but understanding the river and the special place it has in the conscience of the country, is as complex as understanding India.

IN the months of May and June, India will need to administer at least 125 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as second doses alone. The upper limit of manufacturing capacity in the country is about 75 million doses per month. By most accounts, the actual production is less than this. For the month of May, so far only 41 million doses—or a little more than half—have been procured, or are available for procurement. It is clear , therefore, that India faces a severe shortage of vaccines even to cover second doses, and this shortage is likely to continue for the next few months.

THE incompetence of the Modi government is starkly visible in its handling of the current crisis. It fares even worse on the vaccine front. Its belief in the ideology of free-market capitalism is that the market will magically produce whatever we need. This is why it starved the seven public sector vaccine manufacturing units (Down To Earth: COVID-19 vaccines: Waiting for advantage India, 17 April 2021) of any support. And, it also gave the public sector vaccine, Covaxin, developed by ICMR and National Institute of Virology, to a private company, Bharat Biotech.