How anti-democratic politics make India’s COVID calamity worse – By Prerna Singh

“I cannot breathe.”… The most immediate cause of their suffocation is a deadly new wave of an unpredictable, mutating novel coronavirus. 

But, as a political scientist who studies India, I also see shadows of the kind of deadly systemic force that bore down on George Floyd’s neck when he gasped the same last words. In India, that force of callousness and contempt takes shape as Hindu nationalism – propelled and promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Because of Modi’s politics, COVID-19 has brought India to its knees and tens of thousands of Indians to their deathbeds. In the world’s largest democracy, the Modi regime must be held accountable for the terrifying surge of death and disease since March….

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-05-08/india-covid-pandemic-deaths-narendra-modi