Bodies of dead COVID patients floating in river a clear manifestation of collapse of governance in UP, Bihar

Around 100 bloated decomposed bodies were seen floating in Ganga river in Chausa, a village located about 11 km from Buxar city, on Bihar’s border with Uttar Pradesh on Monday. The officials of Bihar suspect that these bodies might have been in the water for at least five to seven days.

The chief ministers of the two states, Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh and Nitish Kumar of Bihar, were facing scathing criticism for their utter inability to handle the corona crisis. Not only the urban areas, the towns are being ravaged by COVID, where on a rough estimate around 50 persons are dying every day, and the situation has sharply deteriorated in the rural areas. The villagers have been left at the mercy of gods and deities. The “jhola chap” compounder are dictating the lives of the poor villagers.

The death rates have alarmingly multiplied. The crematoriums which used to handle 10 bodies a day are finding it tough to manage 50-odd bodies every day. These are also running short of firewood. Earlier the people manning these burning ghats used to charge something around Rs 300 to Rs 400. Now they are charging anything from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.

The situation has worsened to such an extent that the relatives of those who have lost their life to COVID are forced to leave the bodies at the ghats after paying the fees to the people manning the ghats.

These people also find it tough to cremate the bodies. Those who know their style of functioning say that they often throw some bodies in Ganga. There is no doubt that these 80 bodies too were thrown into Ganga by the crematorium staff at Chausa or Chitravans in Buxar.

An official from Buxar said that many Uttar Pradesh districts were situated across the river and “the bodies may have been dumped in the Ganga”. Officials claim that such incidents have happened in other places as well.

On Saturday, a similar incident happened in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur, where dozens of partially burnt bodies were spotted floating in the Yamuna.

Significantly, Buxar DM Aman Samir denied that bodies in the river were from Buxar’s villages. “Bodies are not of Buxar. They are coming from upstream of Ganga”.

It is worth mentioning that on Sunday, Buxar reported 76 deaths due to COVID, while cremations of more than 100 people took place. This has led to a blame-game between the UP and Bihar governments.

Among the states affected by the second wave of COVID, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh epitomise the highest form of incompetence and callousness. Yogi and Nitish, in a shameless manner, have been defending themselves but the fact remains that these two BJP-ruled states have witnessed the maximum number of deaths.

Both states have no oxygen, no ventilators and no hospital beds. They are suffering with acute shortage of medicines, overcrowded crematoriums and cemeteries, and black marketeers. Nitish and Yogi continue to insist that there are no shortages, and point to relatively low “official” numbers of positive cases and deaths.

Recent data shows that testing went down by 20 per cent two weeks ago as test positivity increased to 18 per cent in the same period. The most shocking has been the diktat of Yogi: any person exposing the deficiencies would be jailed.

The most disgraceful has been the silence of PM Narendra Modi, who has not questioned the functioning of the two leaders. Even while the state was getting ravaged by COVID, Yogi was busy holding panchayat elections, which simply aggravated the situation beyond control.

Only a couple of days back, the teachers associations in UP claimed that 700 teachers lost their lives due to COVID while conducting panchayat election.

In ‘Epidemics and Society: From the Black death to the present’, Frank Snowden writes: “Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning… every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities. To study them is to understand that society’s structure, its standard of living, and its political priorities.” This applies perfectly to Yogi and Nitish.

Commenting on the horrifying situation in the country, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge has written to Modi that while the entire nation had come together to fight the epidemic, the “sunshine patriots” have either gone into hiding or are confusing the truth and “communalising the situation”.

A “sunshine patriot”, according to political activist and theorist Thomas Paine, is one who claims to fight for his country when the going is good but turns his back on it when the situation gets tough.

Kharge added: “Unlike the ‘sunshine patriots’, conscientious organisations and people are working collectively in the national interest. One of the reasons they are compelled to do so is (that) the Union government seems to have abdicated its duties towards the people.”

The failure of governance in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh has become quite pronounced. Even the front line warriors – doctors and nurses – are not being provided with the bare minimum security.

There have been other events which are a matter of serious concern.

On Friday, former MP Pappu Yadav exposed 50-odd stationary ambulances covered with tarpaulins which were allegedly bought using MPLAD funds by BJP’s Saran MP Rudi in Bihar. One wonders how this could have gone unnoticed by the police and administration.

Earlier, Tejashwi Surya, BJP Lok Sabha member from Bangalore in Karnataka, had kicked up a storm over the recruitment of Muslims to help run the Bangalore civic body’s COVID helpline.

Sadly enough, the “patriots” of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad who are always found to be busy organising “Tiranga yatras” chanting “Bharat Mata ki jai” are invisible during this period of national crisis.

The most shocking is the recent statement by the RSS cautioning people against “anti-Bharat forces” and commending the government for its ‘good work’. All this strengthens the belief that the RSS and the BJP are not willing to accept the gravity of the situation.

This is clearly manifest in the attitude of Yogi.

At a time when common Indians are selling their land, jewellery and expending their savings to ensure treatment for their loved ones, Yogi and Nitish have been maintaining a passive attitude. They do not appear to be worried at all.

Their silence also underlines their confusion and utter lack of clarity in fighting the epidemic. For the first time since the Modi government came to power in 2014, senior Union ministers and top functionaries in the BJP and the RSS are on the defensive. The Modi government, BJP and its spokespersons try to hide behind the alibi that this eruption of COVID has been “sudden” and “unexpected.” They are still not ready to accept that Modi and Amit Shah are responsible for this situation as the top leaders of the BJP and the government of the day.

(IPA Service)

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