ON THE AFTERNOON of April 1, singer and former Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman received a message in verse from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. “Jhar theme jabe ekdin,” read the opening line. The storm will end one day.
The day was hot and humid with no signs of a storm, but Suman knew what Mamata meant. Penning a few melancholy lines was her way of blowing off pressure amid her battle to prevent the COVID-19 storm from wreaking havoc on West Bengal. “The thunder will end one day; but the leaves will fall from the tree onto the graveyard,” read the last stanza. “Shed a tear or two then, if possible.” Struck by the lyrics, Suman set them to a tune. He named the raga as Mamata.
Suman’s song has notched up a good number of views on social media, but Mamata’s efforts to fight the pandemic has not been so well received. The state government has been struggling to contain the COVID-19 fallout. On the health care front, there is an acute shortage of equipment and medicines. There are only 10,000 medical kits for the 9.2 crore-strong population, and just 65,000 personal protection equipment sets for more than two lakh doctors and paramedics. More than 50,000 people are already in home quarantine, while lakhs of migrants from all over India continue to stream in, despite the lockdown.
There has been a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases among those who have returned from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, and Karnataka. While the state government has tried to isolate potential patients, it is unable to carry out widespread testing because of the shortage of kits.
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