For crores of his fans, Narendra Modi’s March 19 suggestion to observe Janata Curfew on March 22 from 7 in the morning to 9 in the night is the only panacea to curb the menace of the Coronavirus. He also suggested to ring bells, beat metal plates for five minutes in the evening from 5 pm for applauding those like the doctors, nurses, sweepers and the persons who maintain the essential services in these difficult times.
In fact, this was certainly not his innovative idea. Modi has borrowed it from Italy where around 2200 persons have lost their lives to Coronavirus. Last Saturday millions of Italians leaned out of windows or stood on balconies to applaud health care workers caring for coronavirus patients. Again on Friday, there was a similar response across Italy to an online call to sing the national anthem or play it on a musical instrument. Some Italians banged pots and called out: “We will make it.”
Through his appeal for observing “Janata Curfew” he cautioned people to get ready for an isolation drill against the coronavirus pandemic. This in fact was ominous; he intended to convey that people must get ready to face serious challenges; a situation like shutdown. Even a layman would find it hard to comprehend; how could the government salvage the situation through one day curfew? This needs s chain of curfews. As Modi did not intend to be called an alarmist he put the same in a diplomatic and polite manner; of course the intent was clear get ready for shut down
Modi cannot deny that he was following in the footsteps of his rightist friends, the leaders of the capitalist countries. The entire capitalist world is lamenting the fact that their leaders like Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and others have failed. There is no doubt that the capitalist and corporatist countries are utterly unprepared for such challenges. The only panacea that is being propounded to check the pandemic has been to tell the people to stay at home and work from there. This is a luxury and many workers can’t afford. It is said that older people are the victims of the disease. It obviously implied that there is no effective mechanism to take care of the needs of the old people. They are vulnerable in a capitalist set up. The denialism about the scale of the problem has been responsible for the death of nearly 8000 people across the capitalist world.
Countries which claim to have order of intellect, technology and resources, the countries which claim to have developed economy or prefer to be recognised as capitalist country are the worst victims of the Coronavirus. If one looks at global map it would be amazing to see that almost all the capitalist countries are ravaged by the coronavirus.
From just a handful of cases a few weeks ago, the Covid-19 outbreak has engulfed around 63 countries. According to a rough estimate around 2,00,000 people are infected across the world. In US, the citadel of capitalism, the scenario has ballooned to over 2,500 cases. Not only of the Trump administration’s, the public response of these countries has been incoherent, incomprehensible and of the nature of denialism about the scale of the problem Look at the manner in which UK prime minister responded to this. He is not yet ready to concede that the UK administration has failed its people.
What has been the worst, the epidemic has badly exposed the health care system of the developed world. It won’t be an exaggeration to suggest that the capitalist world should take lessons from the developing countries. The respective population of the developed countries is quite small in comparison to the developing countries, but they have miserably failed to reach the healthcare even to this small population. What has been shocking is that instead of admitting their failures these countries have been blaming the virus itself. Some have started blaming the capitalist governance of China and its president Xi Jinping of suppressing the fact from the global fraternity.
An insight into Modi’s suggestion of Janata curfew will make it absolutely clear that it is not different than that of shutdown and lockdown announced by the capitalist governments. At least they had the guts to announce. But our own leader the protagonist of the rightist mode of governance by suggesting Janata curfew made it explicit that the country utterly lacks the basic infrastructure of health care. Ironically he put the responsibility to fight the virus on the shoulders of the citizens.
It was horrifying to listen to Narendra Modi telling the people that science has no solution to the virus. Modi cannot deny that he wasted precious time in preparing to fight the challenge. Corona has been late in reaching India. Modi government has got sufficient time to set his house in order. But he was so engrossed in the game of pulling down the Madhya Pradesh Congress government and anti-NRC and CAA protests that he could not pay attention to this task.
He in fact has taken the challenge very casually. He would have looked towards the Kerala government and taken the required cue from it. He should have used the time to reorganise and galvanise the health care system. Instead he remained a mute spectator. Undeniably the situation was simply complicated by the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who created unwanted panic.
Modi also did not make sincere effort to debunk unscientific propaganda like spraying of cow urine and taking bath in cow dung would cure people, his Hindu zealots were spreading. He could have told them that singing bhajans was good for the soul and peace of mind but to sing, “Go Corona, Go” was futile exercise. He ought to have put check on saffron vigilantes from polluting the situation.
While slowly, the world is shutting down, fear is overtaking the people. The fear is more for the realisation that the elected leaders are incompetent, and it is the profit motive that dictates the human relations rather than humanity. The world’s heads of governments rely upon fear to baffle their people; they thrive on panics of one kind or another.
Modi’s address to the nation on March 19 night lacked a clear vision; what he wanted to do and how to accomplish the task. He did not elaborate on how his government intended to fight the pandemic. He was not clear about how the government intends to coordinate the functioning of private health sector with government health system to fight the menace. Like the capitalist countries corona testing in India has not been upto the mark. There was no clarity how the private and government should work together. For checking the menace it is imperative that the testing is carried out on a war-footing.
To present a generous face he repeatedly sought favour from the people; “I want a favour from you all”. The “janata curfew” was one favour he sought. Quite significant another favour he sought from “countrymen”, was to show high degrees of “restraint” and “self-discipline” in meeting the challenge.
IN sharp contrast to Modi’s stance, the Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been striving for a private-public partnership approach to defend Bengal against the pandemic. She also held meeting with the private healthcare stakeholders and after that announced her intent to include the private healthcare sector in the battle against the coronavirus.
Kerala has been the first state where one case was observed. But now this state has turned out to be source of inspiration. Even before the Modi government could venture to fight the disease, state’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his health minister Shailaja have launched a crusade against the virus.
Meanwhile, Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum (PMSF) has expressed shock and dismay at Modi’s address. Slamming his call to observe a people’s curfew on Sunday to test self-discipline for fighting the virus, PMSF in a statement signed by its national convener Dr Harjit Bhatti said it is shocked at Modi extolling patience as an essential virtue ‘to avoid this disease’.
PMSF is absolutely right; how could Modi expect the people to practice patience; staying away from crowds, avoiding stepping out of homes. PM ought to have realised that 90 per cent of the country’s workforce is in the unorganised sector and do not have the luxury of staying at home. Majority of the poor and the marginalised have no access to public health and facilities for testing.
With four deaths and 220 cases reported so far the panic certainly appears unwarranted and a case of gross over-reaction. Or is the over-reaction because most of the affected till now happen to belong to the affluent sections of the society, who go abroad on vacation and for honeymoons?
Battling a pandemic is one thing, but over-reacting is something quite different. How long can one go on locking down one country after another in the name of precautions? One fails to comprehend the failure of capitalist world to carry on test on the people in sufficient numbers and reluctance to take necessary action. The prevailing situation in capitalist world simply reminds of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn prophetic warning on making NHS more effective and broad base it.
A recent survey of nurses on the West Coast found that most hospitals did not have a clear plan in place to isolate and treat coronavirus patients. There are reports of workplaces lacking even the most basic hygiene products to combat the outbreak, while transit workers and flight attendants have been prevented from wearing protective equipment at work.
(IPA Service)
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