"In the midst of the biggest humanitarian crisis of the pandemic, the Indian Premier League (IPL) (20:20 cricket) sometimes feels like it's not just happening inside a bio-bubble, but in a bubble in space somewhere," wrote Rudraneil Sengupta. "They could have raised funds of any number of things -- food aid, PPE kits, RT PCR kits, oxygen, medicines, ambulances." Such sanctimonious preaching is just disguised envy. In 2018, there were 298 million households in India with 197 million television sets, Financial Express, providing 885 registered channels in all regional languages as well as in English, IBEF. People in India love cricket and in 2020, IPL had an overall viewership of 405 million, Timesnow. Anyone with minor symptoms of Covid infection has to isolate at home and is forbidden to go outside. Naturally, these people will spend a large amount of time watching television and if they can watch movies why should they not watch IPL? These players are paid large sums of money to play and will be paying enormous amounts in income tax, which is among the highest in India. Players have short working lives and get no pension, old age care or healthcare benefits for the taxes they pay while politicians have granted themselves all kinds of perks after retirement. When a sudden lockdown was announced last year a heartless government made no arrangements for migrant workers suddenly faced with hunger, Times of India (TOI). A Bollywood actor Sonu Sood organised feeding centers and buses to help migrants get back to their villages hundreds of miles away. "While aam aadmi (common man) scrambles from hospital to hospital in search of oxygen, a bed, a ventilator, our political parties behave like prehistoric tribes, fighting elections as though they are battles for extinction," wrote Gurcharan Das. "Democracy accepts differences and disagreements but under the basic rules of cooperation. Today, there is such rage, hatred among opponents, it's an uncivil war." It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who came to power with "Congress Mukt Bharat" (India free of Congress) slogan and incessant personal attacks on the Gandhi family, The Print. Unfortunately, the same tactic of trying to eradicate the Trinamul Congress Party (TMC) from Bengal became a hilarious howler when Modi used the slogan "pode chhap, TMC saaf", which translates to 'a stamp on buttocks will eradicate the TMC'. He meant 'poddo' which is Bengali for 'lotus', which is the symbol for Modi's party the BJP. Modi wants total power over all of India without any opposition. "And this unilateralism is a result of hard-nosed political approach and cold minded electoral calculations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2014. The party under the leadership of Modi and Amit Shah has acquired a distinct style of dealing with friends and foes alike -- what some would describe as the Modi-Shah doctrine -- to negotiate from a position of strength," wrote Rahul Verma. Modi expects and gets total subservience from his party and in February 2021 the party passed a resolution "lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi" "The party unequivocally hails its leadership for introducing India to the world as a proud and victorious nation in the fight against Covid-19," the resolution said. That must seem like shameless crawling now that people are dying on streets as the healthcare system crumbled under the sheer number of patients. "The United States will immediately send raw materials for COVID-19 vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear", Reuters. The EU will send oxygen and medicines, India Today. Even Pakistan has generously offered to help India, TOI. The humiliation. The Madras High Court has accused the Election Commission of "murder" for holding elections during this outbreak, but Modi is the prime minister. Blaming the IPL players or the opposition just diverts attention from the one person who should be held responsible -- the Prime Minister, who has reduced us to a nation of beggars. No excuses please.
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