You appear to be having problems with the time ordering of events and exhibiting a tenuous grasp of the facts. Let me help you with that.
The B.1.617 lineage was already recognised as a problematic variant, equipped with troubling mutations which could predispose it to both increased transmissibility and immune evasion, driving the wave in India by
mid-March. PHE added it to their variants list on
1 April. It was already
ringing alarm bells for many research groups and this was clearly communicated to ministers. India's case and death counts were exploding at this time. Pakistan and Bangladesh,
also with rising rates, but greatly lower than India's, were placed on the
red list on
2 April. India didn't go on the
red list till
23 April, though they announced it 19 April and then waited 4 days to implement it; flights
still continued for weeks afterwards.
Perhaps you've spent the last few months hiding from the news? In which case, here is a easily digestible review of the pertinent events:
Ouch.