Context India

Understanding India’s COVID catastrophe

Faye D’Souza examines how India’s government performed through the coronavirus pandemic.

In the first episode of Context India, Faye D’Souza asks how India’s COVID-19 experience went so wrong and what lessons were learned.

With insights from Dr Shahid Jameel, the director of the Trivedi School of Biosciences, Dr Gagandeep Kang, a professor at the Christian Medical College (Vellore), and Anila Singh, a spokeswoman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), we provide an overview of the challenges India faced through the second wave.

D’Souza then speaks with Narendra Taneja, a leader of the BJP, and Priyanka Chaturvedi, the deputy leader of opposition party Shiv Sena. They discuss issues of accountability, crisis management and why India suffered so many avoidable deaths during the pandemic.

The show closes with an excerpt from a song produced by folk rock group Swarathma during India’s first lockdown.