Yes this is a valid point, but I still feel the central government is in the end fully responsible and I'll explain why. This isn't about politics(I live in a BJP state and find the response mostly ok given the constraints they have)- I have distaste for all politicians and think if you adopt a political party as your identity, you have a stupid identity. People should vote on facts, not emotionally.

My limited point is that had the Prime Minister and his government wanted to they could have easily, using completely legal methods,1. Postponed those stupid elections, 2. Quarantined the protest area(including isolate people who wish to go from the protest into back home or elsewhere, it is allowed under the pandemic act; or even cancel it idgaf), 3. Cancel the kumbh mela and other religious stuff(it is allowed under the pandemic act), 4. Not done stupid shit like celebrate early and dismantle covid-related infrastructure(it cost virtually nothing to maintain), 5. Listened to scientists, applied mind and used these 365 days to prepare(this is the single biggest threat facing india- there is no excuse for running out of basic things like oxygen and space, no matter how bad the wave is, after having a year to prepare and 2836484838 warnings that exactly this would happen. You know India's population therefore you prepare for the worst case scenario for that population- they did not). Basically the message I got from the central government was that they care more about maintaining their power than peoples' lives. That is unacceptable to me and it should be to you too.

As for your whataboutery wrt state governments: tell me one thing- who is controlling every aspect of the pandemic response? Centre or state? Many states have been begging for the right to vaccinate people; the central government has refused and said it will conduct everything itself and give certificate with prime minister's face. Now they say ok but make sure prices are several times higher for state governments, so that they again will get credit for cheaply vaccinating people. You do not think this is vile? If both entities do it won't it be faster? State governments without exception are amazing at vaccine drives and other community healthcare measures. It has been seen repeatedly as with the cases of polio, HIV etc etc. All decisions for medicine, infrastructure, preparedness measures were taken by the centre or state? Even if hypothetically the states, if they had more autonomy and screwed up, does the centre have the power to detect and correct it or not? Centre wants all the credit when things go right, when they go wrong they want it to be the state government's fault. They have failed, then they obfuscate every single fact to cover that up. And you are helping them do this. Why are you helping them do this? The state governments have not done a great job either- but I will be lying to myself and you if I say blame is somehow shared equally. I can say, again from firsthand experience here in Karnataka, that the state government has mostly been behaving sensibly and doing whatever they can with the power they currently have.

I have no spoken about crematoriums overflowing and newspapers filling up with obituaries in some states while only 10s of deaths are being reported, and how there is anecdotal evidence in UP about labs being told not to report more than a certain number of positive cases a day. There the states are 100% to blame, however you will not accept that because most of those states happen to be BJP-ruled, so ok let's ignore it.

Ignore the words- a politician's words mean nothing to me. They will say what they have to to cling to power, that is the nature of that profession. Look at facts. I'm sorry, I do not mean to shit all over the party you support(in fact I'm happy with my state government given the constraints they have- they are testing WIDELY- 85% of those rtpcr unlike many other states that seem to be testing less or fudging numbers so cases appear low. All their measures have been pragmatic and science-backed from the beginning etc.)- but facts and common sense is facts and common sense. Denying facts does not make them disappear. It is astonishing to me that people would rather bury their heads in the ground that swallow a bit of honesty.