Only the lights from burning pyres across the country’s crematoriums, in the wake of an abnormal Covid spurt, managed to wake Prime Minister Narendra Modi up from his deep slumber, said the CPIM politburo member Md Salim, at a public meeting.

With the pandemic raging wild, reports of collapse in health infrastructure are surfacing from all corners of states across India while the dead are having to wait for hours, and even days, to be cremated or interred in the wake of paucity in graveyards and crematoriums.

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Be it due to shortage in oxygen supply or life-saving drugs, lives are being snuffed out as Covid count continues to surge. “For all the time the LeftFront was prodding the Election Commission to act against massive gatherings taking place during roadshows by the Prime Minister, Union home minister, and the Bengal chief minister, it had remained inert. Now when Modi woke up with the lights of burning pyres flashing on his face, leading him to cancel his further rallies in Bengal, the EC took the call of banning all roadshows and mass gatherings. An ideal example of fascism where government institutions become puppets of the dictator regime” said Salim.

Launching a scathing attack, he pointed out that the repercussions of the central government’s alleged lack of sense of responsibility, left citizens in the lurch amid a pandemic-a dreadful situation where people are running from pillar to post to secure a bed in a hospital or to arrange for oxygen supply. Shortage in vaccine supply, too, has stalled the vaccination process.

“In BJP ruled states, such as Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, state governments have surrendered saying the dead be given a funeral wherever and whenever possible since crematoriums and graveyards have run out spaces. In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, bodies are being cremated on footpaths” claimed Salim and remarked that it is in the same UP where PM Modi during the state’s Assembly polls, politicised graveyards, and crematoriums, seeking to polarise voters on the basis of religion.

In 2017, in UP, Modi had reportedly said during a rally if a village receives funds for a graveyard then it should also get funds for crematoriums.