16-04-2021 The Asian Independent

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
The second wave of Corona-virus
has stuck hard in India particularly
states such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Uttar-Pradesh and Delhi
have seen alarming rise in the cases and
the governments have been caught by
surprise. Was the Corona wave surprising
or we allowed this to happen.
Let us go to the latest figures. As per
reports 14.5 millions cases of Covid 19
registered in India, in which 12.7 million
recovered. 15, 69, 743 cases are
still active and total death till date is
1,76000. In the last 24 hours 2,17,353
new cases have come in and death during
this period is 1,185 as on April 16th
evening and the numbers are now
increasing exhorbitantly. In terms of
total cases, Maharashtra seems to be
still taking it big but one has to appreciate
chief Minister Uddhav Thackery for
being forthright by now allowing religious
gatherings as well as going for
testing. Situation in Gujarat particularly
in Surat and Ahmedabad seems to be
critical as hospitals are overcrowded. It
is sad that Gujarat’s incompetence and
failure has not become ‘national news’
which has obsession with Maharashtra
and Bengal.
Leadership Failure to strengthen
scientific temperament
Last year when the governmentimposed
lock down on March 24th last
year, the cases were around 550 but that
time there were not many detections so
you can't really believe the numbers but
we can safely say that a few thousands.
Indian leadership was so confident that
it converted this into a PR exercise by
asking people to bang thalis, clapping
and lighting the torch or candles to do
away with CoronaVirus. The entire
country mocked the first day Janata
Curfew as people came on the street
shouted Jai Shri Ram and clapped as if
they had won the battle against Corona.
For several months we were under
severe restrictions. The government
allowed no space for planning and
imposed harsh lock down. Those who
build our cities, do the menial work, the
informal sector workers were left to
fetch themselves. Their isolation was
complete and compelled them to return
to their villages in hope that if they died
at least the families would be there to
take care of them. This fear of death was
so powerful that people started taking
all the risk just to reach their home and
be with their near-dear ones. Factories
were closed, schools, railways and all
essential commodities as well as their
productions were almost closed. The
lock down resulted in a huge humanitarian
crisis but the government remained
in denial mode. It enjoyed the power of
‘lockdown’ and wanted people to
remain in ‘submissive’ mode. Real
intentions of the government became
visible once it started the ‘un lock
down’ process. It felt that lock down
was the best ‘opportunity’ to hand over
India’s resources to a few cronies. It
brought farm laws, labour laws. Air
India was put for sale. Railways was
being privatised without consulting the
opposition and the employees. Trains
were suspended and railways are still
running much below of its original
capacity.
No efforts were made to push the
wheel of the economy. In fact, the
attempt was to hand over all the sectors
of our economy to a few cronies from
Gujarat.
Election schedule too long and
dangerous
Elections were organised in Bihar
and now West Bengal, Assam, Kerala,
Puducherry and Tamilnadu are in poll
process. While Kerala, Puducherry and
Tamilnadu went to poll in just one day,
Assam had three phases. It is shocking
that the Election Commission decided
to hold in West Bengal in 8th phases and
the way the prime minister and home
minister along with other ministers
campaigning in Bengal look like a
municipality election. At the time when
both of them should have been in Delhi
speaking to the state and taking stock of
the situation, the BJP has written against
any attempt to club together the rest of
the schedule for Bengal. The situation is
critical but the party in power is not
bothered about it. For it, winning elections
at all cost is essential so that the
opposition is wiped out. This is new
form of Sanghi democracy where opposition
is not merely unwanted but need
to eliminated.
With opposition not speaking much
and media completely surrendering and
becoming voice of the ruling BJP, judiciary
not finding time to take action, the
republic is in a critical stage. Perhaps
the crisis is much bigger than the
Corona itself. The one man who spoke
about timely action is Rahul Gandhi but
then the ministers in this government
are asked to condemn him. Media follow
the bytes of the ministers about
Gandhi family and none of the spineless
patrakars have the courage to counter
their propaganda or question them. The
duty of a patrakar or journalist today is
to carry the government’s press releases
and question the opposition parties. This
is new definition of democracy where
the media ask questions to dissenters
and opposition and keep silent on the
ruling party or just facilitate their view
points.
No lessons learnt
The second phase of Corona wave
has exposed the government’s inefficiency
which was more worried about
its achievements. The prime minister
and his ministers continued to claim that
India has managed the Corona crisis
better than the powerful Western world.
India’s sarkari intellectuals were suggesting
that over one lakh 75 thousand
death is much less than the people who
died in the US and UK but Indian leaders
and media should observe what happened
in China which is perfectly normal
at the moment. Except for Wuhan,
Chinese actually controlled the crisis
much more efficiently than any other
country.
Similarly, Vietnam, Taiwan,
Singapore, Malaysia managed things far
better than India and any other country.
In terms of vaccination, the attitude of
the government has been highly disturbing.
The attempt was to deliberately
destabilise the public sector or government
hospitals and bring private into
action. It is said that various Pharma
companies are lobbying for the vast
NEWS
Fight against Covid-19:
Incompetence or
deliberate negligence
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat
social and human rights activist
market in India. When Rahul Gandhi
spoke for more vaccines, the government’s
ministers claimed that he was
lobbying for the foreign companies but
now the government has accepted and
allowed import of Sputnik and other
vaccines.
Last one year should have been used
to promote scientific and rational thinking
among the people. The government
should have promoted ideas that respect
humanist values which does not create a
stereotype image of those suffering
from Corona. Instead, the government
continued to promote religious fundamentalism.
Every Muslim was treated
as Tablighi last year and blamed for
spread of Corona Virus. The government
did nothing to stop this nonsensical
attitude. Media was actually promoting
the idea and every savarna Hindu
was blaming the Muslims for the spread
of CoronaVirus. Each Muslim became a
Tablighi person and many of those who
were arrested for ‘spreading’ corona
virus were finally released by the courts.
But look at the
irony, the ministers,
Chief ministers
are
‘encouraging’
people to go to
Kumbh mela and take a dip. Reports are
coming that Kumbha fair in Haridwar
has become a hotspot for spreading the
CoronaVirus. One of the top Sadhus
died due to CoronaVirus. The prime
minister speaks of the ‘ Kubha’ fair to
be celebrated as symbolic but this is a
strategic ‘appeal’ which means nothing
as the die is cast and millions of people
have already gone to Haridwar. They
should have stopped it in the beginning
but then the government never wanted
to ‘hurt’ the Hindu sentiment, it ‘represents’
so proudly. Look at the difference
in their responses on Tablighi Jamaat
issue and that of the Kumbha fair.
Corona communalism
Corona was used by the ruling party
to demonise Muslims last year but it
never stopped the Hindus from getting
organised. In fact, the cheap and vulgar
comments made by the BJP leaders are
available on social media and various
TV channels. They glorified their traditions
and said that nothing would happen.
Today, Varanasi, Lucknow,
Ghaziabad are suffering and the political
leadership of the BJP is silent. It is
busy campaigning in West Bengal but
silent on the macabre of death in rest of
the country due to Corona.
Uttar Pradesh is going to have
Panchayat elections in the month of
April. Netas are coming and campaigning.
Nobody is bothered about the
restrictions. Why should the government
allow the Panchayat polls?
Shouldn't they be stopped? Why should
16-04-2021 to 30-04-2021
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the election commission continue with
Bengal polls in so many phases? Does it
not understand the crisis?
Lost Opportunity
India lost a historic opportunity. Its
prime minister wanted his Gujarati
friends to capture all the public
resources. It used Corona to hand over
the profits of India to these cronies
while making their losses as national
ones. It was time for government to
strengthen the national health network
very much like the National Health
Services of Great Britain which was on
the verge of being privatised prior to
Covid-19 but became the biggest landmark
of the country. Contrary to that,
government of India never bothered
about strengthening the health infrastructure
and the cronies started crying
that the government alone can not handle
it and hence their entry was
inevitable. Nobody was denying that
but it is equally important to strengthen
the government’s own health network.
If the centre failed in doing so, our
states too showed no urgency in doing
so and the result was a complete failure
to protect the lives of the people.
Though every one cried against
Tablighi Jamat last year with BJP
leaders vilifying all the Muslims for
spreading Corona, Hindu festivals and
political rallies were rarely mentioned.
The media jumped on the bandwagon
of the illiterate Hindutva netas suggesting
that a dip in Ganges will
remove all the sins of the people.
Uttarakhand Chief minister on record
said that nobody would be denied entry
at Haridwar Kumbh because of Covid
norms. Now, we are in the Chaitra
Ramnavami season and the government
has not uttered a single sentence to the
public as not to participate in it.
The fact is that this period would
have the right time for the government
to inculcate the feeling of scientific temperament
in the people and asking them
to be rational in thinking and having
faith in modern medicine. But how can
you trust a government when its health
minister and another minister participate
in a programme which was a false
claim by Ramdev to have developed the
Corona vaccine approved by WHO.
Once WHO categorically denied even
then the government did not bother.
None is raising the issue of corruption
today. Nobody questions the business
interests of many ministers in the
cabinet who are now doing everything
to dismantle the public sector and working
towards building a Brahmanical
hegemony through private as they won’t
require to fulfil constitutional mandate
of reservation in the private sector. That
is the reason why Modi still remains
popular as ‘Savarnas’ are ready to suffer
but will always find excuses to defend
Narendra Modi and his policies. For
them, this is their golden period because
Modi and Amit Shah have ensured that
the Savarna hegemony over Indian
bureaucracy, judiciary, media and academia
remain unquestioned and unchallenged.
It is this reason why none of
them question the intents of this government
or its gross failure in dealing with
the situation.
As India prepares to face the worst
during the second wave, we hope the
political leadership will take appropriate
action so that things do not go out of
hand. The vaccination drive needs to be
upscaled and hospitals need more oxygen
and other facilities. This is a big crisis
for which we cannot blame anyone
except the senseless handling of the situation
by the political leadership which
was more interested in declaring that
India has become world’s number one
in ‘vaccine’ development and dealing
with the Coronavirus. Whether we
become world leader in vaccine development
or not, it is time for the government
to provide vaccines to all without
glorifying itself.
No country can win a war against
Coronavirus unless dealt with scientifically
and with secular laws. Any effort
to make one religious group as great
while vilifying others will only damage
our national resolve to fight against
CoronaVirus. During the crisis, we need
to come together, build fraternity and
ensure people and communities that
they would be taken care off.
Transparency is needed and state governments
should be given free hand to
develop their own responses. It is time
for the states too to build health infrastructure
as part of government responsibility
to people.
The Future
Corona is here to stay for some time.
We don’t know when it will end but the
crisis has exposed the hollowness of our
leadership. The war against Coronavirus
can not be won by jargons and empty
rhetoric but with visionary actions, one
the quick emergency response to the crisis
and other the long-term investment
in the medical infrastructure all over the
country. The third aspect can be to
build a culture of rationalism and
humanism so that people have scientific
temper and empathy towards the fellow
citizen but for that the government can
not be seen as promoting fake idols like
Ramdev who falsely claimed to have
developed the vaccine for Corona
approved by WHO. In any other country,
the Ministers who participated in the
press conference of such a notorious
businessman, would have been dismissed
but it is India where nobody is
there to question the power and seek
accountability.
Let us our friends in the media will
raise issues and force the government to
respond and seek their accountability.
Meanwhile, requesting all the friends to
take utmost care and protect yourself.
Don’t fall prey to rumours but also
important to keep your cool and do not
allow yourself to flow in the depressing
news. We have lost many people and
suddenly it is looking uncertain how the
world around us is. Social media platforms
are looking like ‘obituaries’
which is extremely distressing and
depressing. We must care for people and
friends where needed but it is also
important that we also protect yourself.
The time of crisis will show our resolve
to fight against this battle but as our
leadership dwindles, it is the communities,
the people who have to protect each
other, wear masks and maintain safe
distance till life comes to normal.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social
and human rights activist. He blogs
at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com
twitter @freetohumanity
Email: vbrawat@gmail.com