India's Modi scorned over reckless rallies, religious gathering amid virus mayhem

Patients with a breathing problem wait inside an ambulance to enter a Covid-19 hospital for treatmen

Many Indians are pillorying Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his response to a scary surge in coronavirus cases, sickened by him addressing tens of thousands of people at state election rallies and letting Hindu devotees congregate for a festival. Tags like #ResignModi and #SuperSpreaderModi have trended on Twitter in the past two days, as bodies piled up in mortuaries and crematoriums, and desperate cries for hospital beds, medical oxygen and coronavirus tests flooded social media. Having swept to power in 2014 with the biggest single party majority in decades, Modi is unused to such public roasting. He has diced with losing support before by springing unpopular reforms, notably after he decommissioned high denomination banknotes overnight in 2014, and last year, when his agricultural reforms provoked months of mass protests by angry farmers.