BJP supporters say ‘won’t forgive’ Modi for COVID ‘indifference’

India PM’s handling of pandemic that has killed more than 300,000 people leads to disillusionment among his supporters.

New Delhi, India – On April 29, Amit Jaiswal, a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), passed away in Mathura, a small town in Uttar Pradesh state, just three hours from the national capital. The 42-year old died of COVID-19 ten days after testing positive. His grieving family said that despite repeated SOS tweets to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who followed Jaiswal on Twitter, no assistance came. The RSS, a far-right Hindu supremacist organisation founded in 1925, is the ideological fountainhead of Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and counts the prime minister among millions of its members across India.