Protesters of Narendra Modi’s controversial citizenship law remain detained in jails rife with coronavirus
An ashen-faced Natasha Narwal emerged on bail from Delhi’s notorious Tihar jail on Monday evening. It was the freedom one of India’s most prominent feminist activists had spent a year fighting for, but this was an exit steeped only in sadness; it had come 24 hours too late.
A day earlier, Natasha’s 71-year-old father, Dr Mahavir Narwal, had died of Covid-19, alone in a hospital intensive care unit in the city of Rohtak – another victim of the devastating second wave that has swept India in recent weeks. So far the country has registered over 20m cases and more than a quarter of a million deaths, though most experts believe the true toll to be far higher.