The idea of a complete lockdown was to “flatten the curve” — stop people from interacting with each other, maintain social distancing and the number of Covid-19 cases will start coming down.
There are many places in the world that succeeded in using the lockdown to this effect. These include Denmark, Slovakia, Greece, Austria and Australia. Some countries used their lockdown so well that they managed to completely become Covid-free, such as New Zealand. A few managed to defeat Covid even without a lockdown, such as Iceland.
European countries badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic in March were able to use the lockdown to flatten the curve. These include the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. Even China, the country where Covid-19 originated, flattened the curve through a strict lockdown. It has now imposed another lockdown.
Vishwa Guru no more
This is the point where we will be told that all these countries are rich and have low population density. It’s funny how quickly we go from pretending to be a superpower (or ‘vishwa guru’ as the BJP prefers) to resigning to our fate as a poor, third-world country that has a long way to go before it can catch up with global averages of human development.
All the talk of being the third-largest economy, world’s fastest-growing economy, $5 gazillion-trillion-zillion economy just goes out of the window when it’s pointed out that India has failed to do what countries from South Korea to Iceland succeeded in doing.
However, we suddenly become comparable with rich countries when we are doing better. We cherry-pick the data we like. So Narendra Modi lauds Yogi Adityanath by observing that Uttar Pradesh has only 600 Covid deaths so far whereas four European countries with a comparable population have had 1.3 lakh Covid deaths.
The Prime Minister should try and compare Covid numbers of Vietnam and Uttar Pradesh, or Kerala and his home state Gujarat. No matter which way you slice it, that graph is only going up, up and up.
Also read: Low testing and tracing: How Delhi turned into India’s New York City after Covid hit
Pandavas are losing
The truth is that Narendra Modi’s lockdown was a failure even by his own publicly declared goal.
Announcing a nationwide lockdown in March, PM Modi had said India would defeat Covid in 21 days, just three days more than what it took to win the Mahabharata war.
If we had a media with a spine and a conscience, if we had a functioning Parliament or an effective opposition, the Modi government would have been forced to explain why its Covid Mahabharata is a losing battle about a hundred days later.
PM Modi has been claiming that we would have lost a lot more lives without the lockdown. That is true. But it is not good enough. We have lost over 17,000 lives and if we continue at this rate, we could easily lose nearly a lakh lives by the end of this year.
Another justification being touted is that the idea of the lowdown was only to buy time so that our hospitals are not overwhelmed with more patients than beds. With a few exceptions here and there, we failed on that front too. Nevertheless, this is shifting the goalpost as usual. It’s a bit like that eternal mystery of the ‘real purpose’ of demonetisation.
It is important and useful to loopback and ask, why did our lockdown fail to flatten the curve? Even if we know the answers, they bear repetition because the ‘war’ against Covid is far from over. It may well have just begun. And it isn’t about the death rate or the recovery rate alone. Unless we can bring Covid under control, our factories, offices and markets are not going to be able to function normally. And unless they do, economic recovery will remain a chimera.
Also read: Public lockdown discipline fast eroding, India risks becoming lax in Covid fight
Why the lockdown failed
If we care about the money in our pockets and the tax revenues needed to buy more fighter planes, we need to ask: why did India’s strict lockdown fail to flatten the curve?
1. We didn’t start early enough. Places that were able to get the better of Covid have one thing in common: they started early. This is as true of Vietnam and Thailand as it is of Bhutan and Kerala.
Kerala health minister K.K. Shailaja started as early as 20 January! The state was ready with the protocol of test, trace, isolate and support before most of Europe. By contrast, Narendra Modi and state governments other than Kerala took Covid seriously only when it heard scary stories about Italy and Spain. Except for thermal screening of visitors from China, we did nothing of consequence in February.
2. We didn’t give people notice. A four-hour notice before the national lockdown didn’t give people time to prepare for it. This meant that the world’s largest lockdown came as a shock to people who didn’t have time to adjust to a new way of life, make arrangements and stock up on essentials. Anxious and uncertain, many people tried to go about their lives normally, disobeying lockdown rules.
Today, we are in an ‘unlock’ situation with a far greater spread of the coronavirus. Perhaps, what a country of our size and diversity needed was a slow, graded, gradual lockdown, to begin with.
3. We used police rather than persuasion. To enforce the lockdown on poor hapless citizens, police coercion was used. This led to many incidents of people hitting back at the police. What we needed instead was a lockdown driven more by persuasion and reasoning. This would have ensured greater, wilful participation in the lockdown.
4. We couldn’t enforce the lockdown on much of the population. People living in crowded crawls and slums, people living in distant villages, people allowed to travel for essential services, people allowed to move around for seasonal harvest — all of this added up to a lot of people not following the lockdown and mingling with each other.
On paper, it was one of the world’s harshest lockdowns, in practice, it was one of the loosest. Just one example: a village in Andhra Pradesh, which had weddings and cricket matches during the lockdown, is now paying a heavy price for it. The kind of strict lockdown that most of the middle classes and the rich experienced, was not experienced by everyone.
The worst example of this was of course migrant labourers, whom we should have allowed to return home in the first place. Trying to prevent them from returning home initially only spread Covid further among them, and now they’re spreading it in their home states.
5. We deliberately under-tested. This was perhaps the greatest mistake we made. From the very first day, India has been under-testing for Covid, perhaps just to keep numbers artificially low. Central and state governments were complicit in this. They feared political backlash — they feared people saying the government has failed to control Covid. Ironically, not testing spreads Covid even more, because you don’t know who to isolate.
State after state has realised the gravity of this mistake. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are still making the same mistake, but they will realise it the hard way, as other states did.
With large-scale testing, we would have been able to isolate more people, whether at home or at quarantine centres. But we were told there was no such thing as testing “enough”. We were told it wasn’t possible to test everyone. With such lack of self-doubt, we defied global scientific wisdom. The way Covid is spreading, we might end up having to test everyone. And the saddest joke is we will still not admit there’s community transmission because political expedience decides what’s true and what’s false in Modi’s India.
6. We just gave up on contact-tracing. Once someone is identified as Covid-positive, you ask them to name all places they’d visited in the last few days and all people they met recently. This is called contact tracing, and widespread testing helps create a detailed map of it. This has to be explained like a new concept because India forgot all about it.
Kerala did such a good job of it that they had ‘Corona detectives’. India’s failure to carry out contact tracing at mass scale was partly a reflection of poor state capacity, and partly a deliberate choice to show low Covid figures. These poor choices only made the problem much worse, like letting a wound fester.
The government’s magic wand for contract tracing is a smartphone app in a country where nearly 75 per cent of the population doesn’t have a smartphone.
Also read: I am a public health adviser who got Covid. This is my advice to Delhi and Modi govts
The power of propaganda
Even now, India is not being honest itself about its failure to contain Covid. Nobody cares: we are used to the idea that our lives are expendable. As long as we can cherry-pick data to show all is well and Modi can win the next election.
Just as the failure of demonetisation and the pain of GST didn’t hurt the BJP electorally, the failure to contain Covid won’t hurt Modi either. The opposition, especially Rahul Gandhi, has been rather good in raising these points but their voice just won’t reach the people. The opposition neither has party workers, nor millions of WhatsApp groups, nor a media that questions the government.
With such absence of democratic checks and balances, India’s failed lockdown is being sold by Narendra Modi as a success. And by the time Covid ends, many Indians will indeed come to remember a failure as success. Such is the power of propaganda.
Views are personal
Beautifully written. Articulate and honest.
What ever u write. It dosnt affect modi jis indentations . If writin something against tge PM makes u happy go for it cause , that is the only haplyness the government can provide at the moment .
Modi ji dont read this , all he cares about are the targets he has set and atchive it , a sign of a true leader .
Like him or hate him , he is the elected prime minister of our country . Nothing will go as per our will ..
And not a single target he has achieved but that’s ok. because up is down, boys are girls, losing is winning & Modi is infallible.
Due to people like you who has that kind of conviction everyone has to pay who believes what is truth.
Even if Corona becomes NO1 in the world.. Hindus will still vote for Modi!! You realize that it can kill you 100 percent and yet you are still with him!!. He needs to resign immediately. He is hiding the numbers when the real numbers are 15 lakh..
Don’t worry next 60 years bjp will rule India . No place for librandu media and pappu family . So keep crying. No one cares ????. Modi ke bad Yogi ayenge . Tension na lo tab aur Rona padega Tim logoko ?♂️?♂️?♂️?♂️
Just like the last 1,000 years has been Hindu rule, the next 1,000 will also be Sangh Parivar & BJP rule to make Bharath (not India) the greatest ever in history as it always was. Now please drink the kool-aid.
Awww a loser like you using emoticons to establish dominance. How cute. Losers like you are people who have done nothing in life and are a disgrace. Obviously you have no knowledge and just like to bark like a dog. I didn’t need to type this but you needed to hear it fucking dumb arrogant piece of shit. Losers like you shouldn’t reproduce also coz you will sell the country and then still dance like an idiot. See the facts, country is going to the dumps because of this ineffective govt. If you can’t see, then keep your mouth shut and do not show your stupid self in public coz you are an embarrassment.
Awww a loser like you using emoticons to establish dominance. How cute. Losers like you are people who have done nothing in life and are a disgrace. Obviously you have no knowledge and just like to bark like a dog. I didn’t need to type this but you needed to hear it dumb arrogant piece of shit. Losers like you shouldn’t reproduce also coz you will sell the country and then still dance like an idiot. See the facts, country is going to the dumps because of this ineffective govt. If you can’t see, then keep your mouth shut and do not show your stupid self in public coz you are an embarrassment.
what an amazing discovery. this process of selling failed actions has been going on since the ‘gujarat model’ days. this is just one journallist who appears to have seen the light. the country will never see it. we have a faulty gene.
The media was bought & sold out.
Government has addressed the problem irrationally and unscientifically in a cut and paste of Xi’s Wuhan “Lock Down” and “Aarogya Sethu” which suits Modi’s Totalitarian style of replacing Governance with Government and Government with Technology.
The people of India have been retained in a quasi educated and semi literate State by Government policies lacking in competence, integrity or National Interest since 1947 that have progressively corroded all standards beginning with education and proceeding through the judiciary to the rule of law, law enforcement, police, bureaucracy, and politicians, rendering the masses undisciplined and unfit to fend for themselves.
The British established the Pasteur Institute at Coonoor in 1907 to make vaccines. But, post 1947, this has become moribund like all other Indian Institutions whether Courts, RBI, Universities, DRDO, ISRO, Public Sector, Police or Government Departments in progressive and unaccountable Government sans Governance.
The lock down was a knee jerk reaction and is a failed policy. The only rational and scientific way of combating COVID 19 in the absence of an effective, universally administered vaccine, is through social distancing, personal hygiene (masks, gloves etc), a proper diet, and strict control of ailments such as diabetes and blood pressure through medication. Admittedly in a population that has been kept uneducated and semi literate in order to elect and maintain sub humans in power, this would require a lot of effective remote education through public media.
What the Government did instead was exercise its senseless and mindless colonial-communist power or “Government” in lieu of “Governance”. A vice which has afflicted India with increasing frequency and magnitude since 1947 compensating for the deteriorating standards of education, jurisprudence, administration, public probity, and accountability.
About all the Lock Down achieved was to assert and exhibit the mindless and senseless power of the Indian State and its most mindless and senseless minions, the Police.
Indians have fallen by the same pervasive ignorance, and contumacious worship of false idols from Nehru to Modi to stoke their forlorn hopes and escape from their well founded despair.
Modi is more than a mere demagogue, he is a mass hypnotist par excellence of the caliber of a Stalin or a Hitler. Selling not only his own failures as successes, but re launching all the anti national policies since 1921 such as reservations, corruption, doles, entitlements, Gandhism, Nehruvianism, Ambedkarism, Periyarism, and appeasements, polished, re branded, and re launched as his own with technology assited viciousness. He has trashed every item on the BJP Manifestos for 2004 and 2019 to pursue his own dreams of replacing Nehru as the most incompetent, corrupt and best camouflaged scoundrel to rule India. He has restored and expanded all the doles, reservations and entitlements that steal from some for the benefit of others on the basis of caste, tribe, religion, gender, language, geography and proximity to power shredding the BJP manifesto for 2004 (the second item of which was :Equality under law”!). Let alone bringing the stolen billions back to the exchequer, instead of prosecuting those he accused of corruption to come to power, he has legalized corruption in his “Anti Corruption” law by criminalizing the victims of extortion (the so called “bribe giver”), election bonds, retrospective amendment to the FCRA and exempting lawyers from GST!
Iyer,
Are you suggesting that we were well off under British Raj and we can handover our governance now to the queen. Was it because, the administration of British India mainly consisted of your clan so that governance did not LOWER bit Went hIyer and hIyer.
If observed carefully, one can see that lockdown was declared not to secure the lives of the citizens, but to get rid of Sahin Bagh protest against CAA, NPR & NRC. Govt. got a plea to dislodge the ongoing protest when all the efforts failed to contain the protest, even they resorted to rioting by its sheltered criminals and Govt. machinery. And they were in such a hurry that no time given to the migratory workers to return home. But when lockdown started two meaningless programmes like Bangling of Thali and Lighting Candles asked to be observed by the citizens.
The migratory workers remained in their working place without food and lodging, at least Govt. could have arranged for temporary shelter and food. But they did nothing. In hunger and thirst they started on foot, some hitchhiking on matador, lorry etc., most died on the way in accident, dehydration and hunger. When faced severe criticism they started train service at the cost of the workers themselves. Eight people died in the train. Some got hart as the train did not halt at the proper station, some returned half dead, contacted disease. So we saw the inhuman face of BJP Govt. This Govt. has no feeling for the lives of its citizens. They want to kill its citizens in detention camp, now a natural way came to them. India has never seen such a Govt. who is anti social, anti people as well as anti national. And we know all anti national element sing for nationalism at the top of their voice.
The historical tragedy of life of Modi would be that all his ideas or plan failed miserably and most were aware of the fact but didn’t accept immediately for reasons Best known to them. Though Godi media and Bhakta will never accept them. These historical failure have caused Greatest damages to the people of the country and country as a whole. Any amount of Swaach Abhiyan won’t be able to remove the stains scares on minds and bodies of cores of people who walked thousands of kilometers.
The best and most accurate paragraph of this article is “media with no spine and ineffective opposition”.
True…
The media has no spine and the opposition is ineffective….that’s the takeaway from the article. Rest of it is the usual rant.
This Article is just a piece of shit. You will write anything on the name of article and PM Modi. People should stop visiting your sites… Because its just useless
why are you still visiting site?
Because they cannot refute it, but cannot ignore it either. The article causes burning. They have chosen wickedness and they cannot climb down.
Yes, an ostrich is safe because her head is buried in the sand. It looks fine down there. People should never read criticism, only praises of the Dear Supreme Leader & call it an informed democracy.
GREAT ANALYSIS
Can anyone say that following are not required and not logical for success everything else being same? If not accept this analysis.
1. We didn’t start early enough.
2. We didn’t give people notice.
3. We used police rather than persuasion
4. We couldn’t enforce the lockdown on much of the population.
5. We deliberately under-tested.
6. We just gave up on contact-tracing.
Any post-facto analysis can score academic brownie points … but resolving an invisible and unknown source of this virus needs action and not just writing analysis…
instead campaign hard for sled-discipline with all your might…
suggest practical measures rather than analyse the past…
ALL of Modi’s schemes are failures, starting with demonetisation. Still Hindus support him. The right conclusion is most Hindus have their heads filled with gobar, just like BJP leaders.
Whatever may be the strengths of Shri Shivam Vij, data analysis is certainly not one of them. Success or failure is relative. Shri Vij should be encouraged to compare the mortality rate per million of India with other countries. He will arrive at a different conclusion. And if that is intellectually too tough an ask for him, which I suspect it is, he should just watch Shri Shekhar Gupta’s Cut the Clutter programme.
True…
Not only failed Covid lock down. But Indian airlines, Railways. But can not sell 3000/= Crore useless statue
Modi has had a fantastic record of passing off failures as successes for a long time.
1. Making industrialist friends and winning elections has been passed off as successful Gujarat model. Meanwhile on health, education, human development, poverty alleviation Gujarat is in the league of Bihar.
2. Fudging economic data has been successful in claiming miraculous economic growth of 8%, 9% etc. Meanwhile middle class is getting poorer, poor class is getting destitute and youth have no jobs.
3. Disaster like demonetisation has been passed off as a successful strike against black money. Instead of ₹ 15 lakhs in each account, poor people have received ₹ 500 to tide over for a whole month and tax-payers have had to contend with enormous petrol and electricity bills.
4. Using valour and sacrifice of armed forces have been successfully used to convince people of 56 inch chest. Meanwhile as recently as last month 20 unarmed soldiers were sacrificed to enable a bump in popularity ratings which had taken a beating as a result of Covid mismanagement.
5. Muslims paranoia and social backwardness has been successfully used to blame them for Hindus inability to rise out of poverty and illiteracy.
6. Selectively blaming Nehru for his mistakes without crediting him for his achievements have been successfully used to discredit the opposition and stop it from playing it’s constitutionally mandated role of highlighting the govt failures.
7. Investigative and police agencies have been successfully used to silence institutional checks and balances and get away with excesses on political opponents and civil society activists.
Modi’s successes are many – Internet does not have enough server space to list them all.
You are correct. But can you explain why Hindus continue to believe failure is success ?
Home Ministry asks states to prevent mass exodus of migrant workers amid Covid-19 lockdown
PTI – 27 March, 2020
Mass exodus of migrants: Are they the Covid-19 lockdown violators or victims?
ThePrint Team – 30 March, 2020
Identify migrants who want to go home, make travel arrangements within 15 days: SC to govts
Bhadra Sinha – 9 June, 2020
Take steps to bring back migrants & help them resume work — Covid-19 panel tells Modi govt
Moushumi Das Gupta – 14 April, 2020
This is the only Indian state that doesn’t want its students, migrants to return home
Shanker Arnimesh – 23 April, 2020
Modi needs to give migrant workers a ‘New Deal’ to get them back to the cities
Andy Mukherjee – 30 April, 2020
You are contradicting your own colleagues. When the govt. was not allowing ThePrint was arguing why are the govt not helping workers to send them home and now you guys are questioning govt why are they sending them. I don’t understand what your team wants from govt in COVID-19 crisis. You are changing ur like chameleon.
Your question is simple to answer. The Print is an anti BJP news portal. Hence whatever BJP will do, The Print will oppose. It’s editorial line is driven by hatred towards BJP’s ideology and it’s frustration in not achieving its goal of regime change.
What is the BJP’s ideology ? Hindu fascism. Do we all have to clap hands for Hindu Hitlers just because you do ?
Dear rasgolla was clapping hand was for hindus or to encrase our doctors cleaning workers police personal who was serving in that hard time.
Intellectually-dwarf arrogant rulers excel in ‘Crying Wolf’.
India’s first Covid-19 death occurred in Kerala after a passenger returning from Gulf flight brought this virus here on 30th January. Any precocious ruler would have banned incoming-flights from overseas. If that had been done, then we would have locked down airports, say ~10 in number instead of locking down entire cities & towns that shoved Economy into Ice Age. But here Rulers were thumping chests to claim that ‘Gomutra’ would guard against the virus. This made a section of bureaucracy & population complacent.
Second blunder was to ignore opposition’s advice in Mid-Feb to take matters related to spread of virus seriously. But nonchalant Rulers were busy in preparations to host Trump!
Finally, Tablighi delegates, who were prevented in Indonesia to hold their event due to pendemic were issued visas to visit India! This cardinal blunder resulted in turning Delhi into the corona hotspot: Visitors not only introduced virus in Delhi but on their dispersal to other states, they spread it like wild fire.
Our senior doctors insisted on complete lockdown immediately. So the government did it. The state governments could not manage it very well. So the migrant crisis erupted. Interestingly, these migrants are returning fast to their prelockdown workplace. Low testing is also due to the paucity of testing kits and testing machines. Now we are going to be self-sufficient in PPE, testing kits and machines, and ventilators. Without lockdown, we would be in a very bad situation very soon when there was a paucity of all necessary COVID fighting methods and materials. So in hind sight, it is easy to criticize the PM/CMs
I have questions, I you did we would have been in a very bad situation without the lockdown… Where do you think we ate now? If now we are self reliant in testing then why is it that people are not being tested? Enough ppe kits… Why are health workers getting infected? Last but not the least… Have you been tested?
Mr. vij,
All the blame is on Government. Why not on its citizens.
Kerala did good work because people understood the threat and helped government.
In Lock-down also people were roaming around without mask, There is no way you can put Police in front of everyone house.
I have tried numerous time to old citizen not to come out when i went to buy essential items.
Not a single one agreed, By saying we can’t have a jail like life, Its better to Die with corona.
As per my information, Kerala is one of least testing state. I don’t see that fact in it.
Even before Janta Curfew, People went Crazy on Railway station and Bus stop. If lock-down was announced by giving time, Just Imagine the situation and Death It might have occurred.
I have been in Thailand and Japan. So i know how they respect Govt Decision whether it was public place or traffic rules.
You are comparing those place decision to our country, where if you don,t like government, you won,t follow it. Even for National Anthem.
Please criticize people of this country by writing, How many people broke rules in those country and compare it with ours.
Any government is as good as its citizens.
I am not saying this government or Prime Minister is like God. But Comparison should not be only with government failure. Its citizen should also be accountable,
Your Facts are one sided and very difficult to digest or getting angry on You, If you are not so called Bhakt or Hater.
You should see Shekhar gupta sir show on You tube and get some insight on to balance our view by not tilting one side.
I hope that the writer did not make any money for writing this.
This piece has no research, no logical arguments, just a conclusion.
Only an idiot would compare India with New Zealand or Iceland.
The countries that the article mentions are the size of mid-level cities in India with a much larger area.
Read it carefully. He is pointing out this Hindu tendency to boast vainly. Modi tells us India is vishwa guru on world teacher’s day and we can send teachers out to educate the world – when we are a 50% literate country. When we can find a crumb, the Hindus will have an inflated sense of having arrived, and when you are caught out, you will claim India cannot be compared with others because of the population.
‘This is the point where we will be told that all these countries are rich and have low population density. It’s funny how quickly we go from pretending to be a superpower (or ‘vishwa guru’ as the BJP prefers) to resigning to our fate as a poor, third-world country that has a long way to go before it can catch up with global averages of human development.’
Exactly. People have such an inferiority complex about themselves that they have to resort to claiming that the aircraft was invented in India 10,000 years ago, there was the internet around 5,000 & all sorts of fantastical imaginary claims just to make themselves feel good about non-existing past glory.
I agree with the view that lockdown has not yielded the desired results. The reasons cited for our underperformance in containing the spread of the virus are many. Some of them are beyond our control. I may add that the principal reason has been totally missed out in the article, which is lack of self-discipline in our society. In Europe the lockdown strategy could succeed because the European society is inherently self-disciplined. In contrast, the USA too failed to contain the virus. The principal reason is the same – they love individual freedom and their carefree style of living. No matter the uncontrolled spread of the virus, they will go on the beaches to enjoy life. Thousands gathered in the streets to protests against the Floyd killing. The result is for us to see – even more rapid spread of the virus. It is expected that the daily additions of infected persons in USA could reach the figure of one lakh. India is adding about 20000 per day and are not far behind. Brazil is another example of an indisciplined and careless handling of COVID-19. They have suffered the most. India has now very few options ahead of us, as we have wasted our opportunities. Return to the lockdown era is inconceivable. This will destroy our economy and will prove to be even greater evil than the spread of the virus. The only option available to us is to bring down the deaths by focusing on vulnerable section of the society rather than wasting efforts and resources on asymptomatic majority of the infected persons.
Communalism appeals to many Hindus, whatever the cost to economy or health. Even if territory is lost, it is difficult for most Hindus to say Modi and his team are incompetent and have failed. Despite his wickedness, Modi was the Great Hindu Hope for many Hindus. Having endorsed wickedness for so long, it is difficult for such Hindus to accept they did wrong
Modi needs to resign as he has failed
Obviously, the countries in Europe are able to do it because of compulsory health insurance policy. The rates can vary from age to age- On average if you are 25 yrs. old you are suppose to pay 100 Euros per month. That’s the reason they are able to fund all the health infrastructures especially in Germany. Moreover the size of India and population diversity should not be compared to that with smaller countries. For example: Denmark population 5.8 Million is less than Chennai Metropolitan 7Million.
One cannot use the excuse of diversity and population and size all the time. However, unifying people with so many languages, trying to make them understand simple things like hand wash and keep distance is either easy or difficult depending on your perspective (half glass empty or half glass full).
100 Crores have 1000 Crores perspectives; it so happens your own views and perspective on certain matter will not match with your own peer / family members. Everyone is trying. Every one can play blame game but it is suggestive to rise above blame games and learn from the mistakes or error being committed every day.
Please write an article what a central/state government can introduce. How many hospitals, equipment, employees, management should be there? Create a quality and quantity tasks. Appoint inspectors, create internship in hospital management, propaganda to schools and young minds on nursing and caregiving.
Pay them well and feed them well, remove caste(ism) or hereditary traditions. Provide access to education. Make compulsory health insurance for family, bring down the cost of medical treatment. Create and manage databases, keep active research tabs(check out if some doctors/hospitals are hoarding money for research and not using fruitfully.)
Ask engineering colleges and students to make easy access beds or give them problem statements regarding bio technology or day to day problem faced in hospital. May be they will or shall come up with innovative solution.
You are the journalist more talented and creative, you have the database and knowledge +tools. Make sure such articles are written and reaches to common public in their own mother tongue.
Even though I am asking for some optimism I consider myself as a pessimistic. I believe that things are going to get worse never better.
Thank you
I await your feedback
Karan Shah
Completely one sided. Don’t know to what end. Not a balanced, objective presentation at all. We are living in the country. We know what’s happening. This report seems to be completely out of touch with reality at ground level.
So what is happening at ground level ? You must be living safely in America.
You must not have checked the mortality per million in USA to that of India’s before writing your comment.
In India, are they testing and compiling credible statistics ?
Absolutely well analysed
More I read him, I am more convenced of government response to covid
What was the government response ? Light lamps and clap hands. Most Hindus are filled with gobar, so anything is alright for them.
Light lamps and claps hands was not for tackling covid it was for health workers, police and for sanity workers. Does mix things. And don’t create hatred on bias of religion, we need to tackle situation together.
Lighting lamps for health workers instead of supplying them PPE is messaging to build Modi’s Hindu image .
You had ex President of IMC making statement that lighting lamps is based on a quantum principle. A top medical doctor spouts pseudo scientific nonsense based on some Hindu thinking.
You had health worker, Dr. Aaati Lalchandani who made fake news that Tablighis were spitting on health workers She said on camera that Muslims should not be treated. She is into Hindu communalism. You want to clap for such sub standard people ? As a result of her statement, Gulf countries are going to limit recruitment of Indian doctors. With such unprofessional conduct encouraged by Modi’s Hindu communalism, the outside world will one day derecognise the Indian medical degree.
“Such is the power of propaganda” – So says Shivam Vij, who is an ardent supporter of Kerala and CPM – communists who base their entire ideology on propaganda, as witnessed in Soviet Union, and even now in China.
The international press lauds Kerala. I saw the BBC ask the Kerala health minister what she could teach the west.
Must be sour grapes living in a state not as developed. Always hate the successful. If you can’t beat on facts, trash on the politics, blame the propaganda.
Good analysis. Many points to ponder.
I think its baseless aquisations piled up with series of negetive reporting. Failed lockdown is narrative your media is trying to push agenda for your own narratives to get sold. Centre is doing its every bit to sucumb and tone down the mess….but ur article is biased only for Modi bashing. There are two types of government….centre and state…..where is your analysis for states….you have only picked Kerala for appreciation….and UP state which has surpassed most expectations will not be highlighted by your journalist….where is ur reporting for Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and even Andhra Pradesh….your article is mum and have no narratives for state government mishandling lockdown chance to curtail the mess which was predicted earlier in march. Its been now common narratives that opposition and some few lutyens media is trying to push and blind people intellectual rights to question. If you say media houses supporting government narrative and name calling them as spineless is purely ur tactical way to deviate this issue….question the state heads….are they not responsible for the mess and shouldnt law book them for negligency…..stop spreading false reasoning because its ur narrative…..lockdown is not only responsibility of one government but also people participation…..if there was 100 pc lock down…then we were not having such mess…..so now its all depending on 5 states ….we are not living in ideal world…..if military action was to taken then reporters like u would stand in way and create another Shaheen Baug type of riots….so centre is trying and doing best….investing time to find cure…and now after all this mess it now vaccine that can solve everyones misery
Hey Shivam….. piss off. Nobody reads your crappy articles.
Jack Khan Mohammad: I think you should go back to your shakha and play with the bamboo lathi that Mohan Bhagwat gave you. Or perhaps scoot back to your desk at the BJP IT cell and gossip with your fellow itchy scrotummed gaurakshak buddies and get back to doing the only thing you can do on a computer : trolling.
Better still if he went with his lathi to the LAC and show his Hindu nationalism to China.
Hey Shivam,
Remember the time you wrote a piece saying that opposition needs to indulge in spreading fake news? Good job with that. It’s sad to see you undermining the gargantuan work taken up by your colleagues in Andhra and putting it up to suit your whim and fancy. I lost the respect for your research because it’s apparent you didn’t read that piece. Anyways, good luck with roasting Modi by giving out incomplete facts
Very easy to criticize as when you want to criticize you can do it both ways. Had lockdown would not have done in that stage, you was comfortable to say that Government did not take steps in the initial phase. Now, when it is done, you say it has failed. In one sense it is the faith even the critics are having on Modi Government as he has raised expectation level so high that everyone thinks he alone can combat Covid virus also. It appears that Mr. Modi knows everything and can set things right with magic stick. The article itself says that there are different results of different steps taken by different countries. Did we find such labour migration problems incited by opposition fearing success of lockdown from any other country? Do we find the State Heads openly refusing to implement Central schemes/ suggestions anywhere in the World? Vested interests that somehow want to grab the chair are bent upon to go to any extent to achieve their goal. You will not find such situations anywhere. I feel the intentions of the Central Government were clear and positive which have been derailed by groups that do not want to see any successful venture by the Government.
I have never read a more moronic article than this one. At the end of the day an opinion is an opinion, but some are bereft of any semblance of balance. Let us see where we were when the lockdown was lifted. We used to have about 1-2k cases per day. Our testing positivity rates were low (in the states where we were testing). I follow Mr. Gupta, and he was claiming lockdown has been a success. The positivity that we found was probably due to lack of testing. The article quotes 6 reasons. India was commended for the some of these 6 reasons. India was one of the first to impose a countrywide lockdown. Sometimes your best falls short.
Some of our politicians may pat their backs and use rhetoric etc. Our opinion pieces need not always be to show their efforts down. Yes accountability has to be demanded. However, one has to understand the task at hand. One has to understand what could be accomplished. Given the Federal structure of India and the politics. Can we analyze the failures due to the lack of implementation in the states? Is our leadership only at the center? Do we not have State OWNERSHIP? At the end of the day states are free to implement plans independently of the Center. Why are we not holding states accountable.
This opinion piece seems to be a tirade against BJP patting its own back. Who gives a rats ass? No one does. Not at this time. Print should not be publishing such rubbish.
You would believe that covid fight is successful only if modi dies of covid
“Shoe I am “you STUPIDO. BIHAR AND WEST BENGAL elections are fast approaching you need to be working on ground to divide Hindus and ensure the FAMILY that is corrupt wins. You will get your share. I don’t want to risk life of my small 50 year old baby in this pandemic. MAMAMIA get to work ISO writing idiotic columns.
At one point you cry that migrant labours are not allowed to go home, “modi ji train chalao na” and at second point you say lockdown was a failure
You say deliberate undertesting but whats new in this? Every country’s govt is doing so to save their as$es.
Even aap govt was trying to hide deaths.
I hope to see your blog on mismanagement by AAP in delhi.
It is true India has tight budget. Though current scenerio is disappointing but how can you say lockdown was a total failure?
The author was over the top ranting. At these tomes of crisis people need solutions and not exacerbate public anxiety. Let keep his political views for another day. The biggest culprits are Delhi, Maharastra, Tamilnadu, Gujarat and Telangana are the worse off. It was left to individual states to manage after the first 21 days lockdown that is attributed to Modi. Indians lack self discipline and all are self centric. That is causing the problem. Govt is right in testing symptomatic cases. India didn’t had enough Test kits and it took time to rampup testing. That is a pre existing conditions. In three months time India has done an amazing job and it is gettimg better.
Shivam Vij needs to be injected with a heavy dose of the virus.
He is a specialist in cherry picking bad news.
ANON: Is that all you have by way of argument ? Shoot the messenger?
A super spreader of fake is not a messenger.
No one can match the BJP’s IT cell. After reading Shivan Vij, no Modi critic will go and beat up BJP supporters.. That is the difference.
One hundred days later, we are still in the thick of it. Important states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, containing the metros, extending the lockdown till the end of July. Vikas is estranged, even basic governance is shaky. The absurd notion that governments should do good for the people is being discarded.
‘Such is the power of propaganda’ , your article is a proof bof that.
Cover being a new virus, not much was known to enforce a lock down early. Also the lock down gave time to our hospitals and Healthcare workers to prepare for the pandemic.
So it was not a failure of the prime Minister. If at all it is a failure of us Indians that we can’t follow rules and thwarted the measures to be taken during lockdown.
With an outlay of just 1.28% of GDP what else is expected. Neither the state govt nor union govt came up with any plan to strengthen Public health system.
This rot is continuing from last 73 years and will keep continuing. Thats the reason ehy one of the CM is going today temple to pray god to do something.
Desh chal raha hai Bhagwan Bharose.
The CM is putting god on work. Lets hope that soon KALKI AVATAAR comes. Till then media should justify Rs five thousand crores of tax payers money that it gets from govt for creating an illustion of All is Well.
This is one exercise where it was more on people of the country be disciplined and follow some basic guidelines and not act stupid but we failed.
Please provide your solution to the problem .. now the daily increase is under 4 % & likely to slightly move up as we unlock. Do you have any idea of the daily increase without lockdown ?