Modi criticised for rallies amid Covid spike

India has the world's fastest-growing Covid-19 cases adding 273,810 new infections and 1,619 deaths on Monday

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces growing criticism across the political spectrum for holding large election rallies as the country's health system reels from a deadly wave of Covid-19 cases, forcing citizens to beg for oxygen and hospital beds on Twitter.

Modi avoided wearing a mask at a campaign rally on Saturday, saying "I've never seen such huge crowds" at an event in West Bengal. That night he said "India had defeated Covid last year and India can do it again" following a virtual meeting with health officials who spoke of critical shortages of drugs, vaccines and other supplies in a nation that has seen a string of new daily records in the past two weeks.

Leaders of key States lashed out at Modi over the weekend, while the opposition

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, whose State includes India's financial center, said on Saturday he tried calling Modi to address shortages of oxygen and the drug Remdesivir but was told the prime minister was too busy addressing rallies.

Even a former finance minister in Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party blasted him. The prime minister's "delight" at the large crowd on Saturday "could have come only from a person who is completely insensitive," Yashwant Sinha, now chairman of the newly created United Democratic Alliance party, said on Twitter over the weekend. "I deplore his remarks."

A spokesman for the prime minister's office wasn't immediately available for comment.

India now has the world's fastest-growing Covid-19 caseload, adding 273,810 new infections and 1,619 deaths on Monday, leaving it behind only the U.S. in terms of total numbers. India's benchmark stock index slumped the most in Asia on Monday as investors worried the high infection rate would hurt the economy and corporate profits, while the capital was set to go into a weeklong lockdown from Monday night in an attempt to curb the spread.

The growing gap between Modi's optimism in fighting the virus and the reality on the ground is particularly evident in Delhi, one of the hardest hit places in India.

While it's "too early to say" if Modi will get hit at the polls this time, "certainly many more people are expressing their dissatisfaction than was the case even two months ago," said Neerja Chowdhury, a New Delhi-based journalist and political commentator who has written about Indian politics for three decades. An India Today survey released in January found Modi retained a 74 per cent approval rating, down from 78 per cent in August 2020. (Bloomberg)

Muneeza Naqvi & Ruth Pollard