{"id":187273,"date":"2021-06-21T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=187273"},"modified":"2021-06-18T06:20:26","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T05:20:26","slug":"the-ganges-is-returning-the-dead-it-does-not-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/06\/the-ganges-is-returning-the-dead-it-does-not-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ganges Is Returning the Dead. It Does Not Lie."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Corpses wrapped in shrouds were exposed along the banks of the Ganges River in Shringverpur, in India\u2019s state of Uttar Pradesh, after rains washed away the top layer of sand in late May. Ritesh Shukla\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

17 Jun 2021 – <\/em>The Ganges, or Ganga, is the holiest of India\u2019s rivers, and most Hindus believe that dipping their body in it will purify their soul. But when the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic hit this spring, the river also became Exhibit A for the Modi administration\u2019s failures and deceptions.<\/p>\n

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The northern state of Bihar recently revised its death toll<\/a> for April and May from 5,424 to 9,375. Private agencies tasked with conducting coronavirus tests at Kumbh Mela, a Hindu religious festival in northern India that attracted millions of pilgrims in April \u2014 and turned out to be a coronavirus superspreader event<\/a> \u2014 reportedly falsified some 100,000 results<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The second wave of infections appears to be ebbing, but the country is struggling to process the staggering toll<\/a> \u2014 nearly 380,000 people dead,<\/a> the vast majority since just March \u2014 hobbled by the continuing obfuscation of both local and central authorities. But the holy Ganges does not lie.<\/p>\n

On May 12, villagers in Buxar, a district in Bihar, found bloated and disfigured corpses floating in the river<\/a>. Some 100 bodies were fished out there and in a district upstream, Ghazipur. A local senior police officer said the bodies had traveled downriver from Uttar Pradesh, India\u2019s most populous state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n