City of Djinns

BIMAL SHIVAJI

Delhi is well-known for its various memorials, mausoleums and the final resting places of royals and many prime ministers of democratic India. From Humayun’s Tomb to Raj Ghat, the Samadhi of the father of the nation, Shakhti Sthal, the memorial to the only woman prime minister of India, to Veer Bhoomi, where the remains of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi rest, these memorials are a must see on the itinerary of dignitaries, history buffs and tourists.

Today, there are many pyres burning in Nigambodh Ghat, khabaristhans and even parks turned into crematorium across Delhi, victims of the callous attitude of the Government ruling from Raisina Hills in the capital city. Alas, there will never ever be a memorial or not even a stone to mark their resting place. They breathed their last gasping for precious oxygen which was in short supply at hospitals in the various corners of Delhi.

Medical oxygen got over even in the premier medical institute of India, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. All chest thumping by Prime Minister Narendra Damodar Modi of having fought the pandemic successfully proved to be of little use as the second wave of COVID-19 caught the NDA government off-guard. The Prime Minister soon declared that vaccine will be made available for all citizens above eighteen years of age.

But what followed that declaration, that the states will have to bear the cost of the vaccination, at a higher price, shocked the nation. There was a hue and cry from chief ministers during their meeting with the invincible Prime Minister on April 23.

To add insult to injury, soon it became evident that Serum Institute of India would be selling vaccines to the States at a price much higher than what it charges other nations.

A Prime Minister who was busy hosting US President Donald Trump and his entourage when the first wave of COVID-19 hit the nation and was in denial mode for a brief period failing to act promptly, has once again proved his shortcomings in assessing the grave emergency situation. Mr. Modi is behaving much like an ordinary politician than a statesman, a shame to the position he occupies, one that had been held by much learned and efficient leaders, be it the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, one whom the present incumbent blames for all the perceived backwardness of the nation, or the one whom he succeeded, an economist who has taken the nation to lofty heights and paved the way for its economic growth.

Will the distressed spirit of the people who died as a result of the incompetence of leaders come to haunt them and end their reign once and for all? Only time will tell, until then we will helplessly watch the fire in Luteyns’ Delhi spreading across the nation engulfing many innocent lives!

PS. I have borrowed the heading from the title of a book by William Dalrymple.