Poetry is challenging our managed media.

"Two weeks ago, Parul Khakkar, a poet in Amreli in Gujarat, published a poem on her Facebook page" "called Shab-Vahini Ganga (the hearse called Ganga)," wrote Salil Tripathi. "Astounded that a Gujarati poet would criticize the state, many began sharing it, turning into an instant hit. She was attacked online mercilessly, in misogynistic, vulgar tones, by hundreds who seemed more upset over a poem than the deaths." The poem has been translated into Bangla, Marathi, Tamil, Hindi, Punjabi and English and set to tune in Gujarati and Punjabi. "A BJP leader from Gujarat told the Wire that his party's trolling of the apolitical poet was absolutely tasteless and further exposed the party's aloofness from the situation on the ground," The Wire. One poet wrote, "You just need to bury them/ ten feet deep into the soil/ until the maggots burrow and eat the petals/ breed in the still moist caverns", while another wrote, "In this crematorium of a city/ my nose recognises this smell". The government's response has been to deliberately undercount the number of people dying of the coronavirus. "Across India's small towns and villages local language newspapers are revealing that thousands more are probably dying of the coronavirus each day than the government's data show,"Jeanette Rodrigues. "The raging second wave of the virus revealed not only governmental ineptitude but also exposed India's soft underbelly -- our heavy bureaucratic system, which wasn't nimble enough to cope with the crisis," wrote Gurcharan Das. "India needs modern, effective utilities that are autonomous, accountable, and creditworthy," Times of India (TOI). "Who will be losers in this reform? Bureaucrats, politicians, and unions -- a formidable interest group." Asking people to reform the system so that they lose their privileges of power is like asking leeches to stop sucking blood. Then there are people like Yoga Guru Ramdev who claimed that allopathy, which is the western form of evidence based medicine, is responsible for death of patients and that 10,000 doctors have died after taking two doses of vaccine. "On May 1, the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) approved a drug called 2-deoxy-d-glucose (2-DG) for emergency use among people with moderate and severe COVID-19, to help manage the disease." The Wire. The drug apparently has some effect on cancer cells. Studies regarding efficacy of 2-DG have not been published in any journal but a manuscript was posted on a website for preprints, wrote Prof Madhav Thambisetty. "All but two of the seven authors of this manuscript are with Patanjali Ayurveda." "Earlier this year, Baba Ramdev, the co-founder of Patanjali Ayurved, released 'Coronil', a herbal Ayurvedic medicine that initially claimed to guarantee a 100 percent recovery from Covid-19 within a week." Viruses do not have a cell wall or cytoplasm like cancer cells do, so they do not need glucose for metabolism. "It (a virus) doesn't breathe, it doesn't eat, it doesn't excrete, and it doesn't grow -- so it can't be alive, can it?" Science Learning Hub. After Ramdev's offensive statements about doctors he was gently coaxed into retracting his comments by the Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who himself is an 'allopathic' doctor, which is "politial theatre pure and simple", wrote Vasudevan Mukunth. "Most of the reports, analyses and, especially, editorials on India's Covid situation which have appeared in the foreign media bluntly blame Modi for fueling the crisis and failing to manage it. And they back up their arguments and analyses with facts, generally gleaned from the ground," newslaundry. However, "India's vast media have become increasingly subservient to Modi's government since the Hindu nationalist was first elected Prime Minister seven years ago," CNN. "In the last seven years, Narendra Modi has been a colossal figure in Indian politics," wrote Rajdeep Sardesai. "As he completes seven years in office on May 26, there are visible signs that the halo is losing its glow," Hindustan Times (HT). "In a tweet slamming the Delhi Police raid at Twitter's Gurugram office on Monday night, (TMC MP Mahua) Moitra said, "Welcome to our Susu Potty Republic! Drink Gaumutra, smear cowdung and flush the rule of law down the toilet."India Today. Succinctly put.