India caught off guard by Covid’s second surge

In a televised address to the nation on April 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the gigantic second wave of the coronavirus in India as a "toofan." Five days later, in his monthly radio broadcast "Mann ki Baat," he said the second wave has "shaken" the country. Modi was stating the obvious. It was just four months ago that his government had declared that the first wave of the virus had been controlled. Time is of little relevance for a deadly and dicey virus which keeps mutating every now and then.