Tens of thousands of people have died in the deadly second waveMohan Bhagwat - who heads the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh , the Hindu nationalist organisation seen as the parent body of India's ruling party - was speaking at the weekend during a televised series of lectures called Positivity Unlimited.
"It's a difficult, sorrowful time. We cannot become negative. We have to stay positive and keep our bodies corona negative." Mr Bhagwat believes a dose of positivity will help improve the situation. He admitted that the terrifying second wave was because the government, officials and people "dropped their guard despite indications from doctors".
But at the root of this positivity overdrive, say analysts, is the Modi government's single-minded obsession with controlling the narrative to quell criticism."Positivity itself is a dangerous word in these times. Being positive [to the virus] is a thing you dread most," Dilip Cherian, a leading communications consultant, says wryly.
In January a government-sponsored narrative that a self-reliant India had managed to beat the virus and would now supply vaccines all over the world took hold. On 28 January, Mr Modi said India hadTwo months later, things had spiralled out of control: the virus was ravaging the country, the public health system teetered on the verge of collapse, and the vaccination drive was in tatters.
Pratinav Anil, a scholar at Oxford University, who co-wrote a new book on the Emergency with Prof Jaffrelot, says it "never occurred to Mrs Gandhi that the people were unhappy".
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