The most powerful man in India refuses to have a conversation with us Indians during a national health emergency — the coronavirus pandemic. It’s been six years, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi still prefers soliloquies. The idea of uttering the words, “Modi ji my question to you is”, would send many of us into a tizzy. That is the power of Modi’s silence over Indian media.
Narendra Modi having an open, unscripted press conference seems to be a fantasy for many journalists and political observers. This fantasy, however, is now turning into a necessity. We are not in election season. We are also not in a mud-slinging match between political parties. We are in the midst of a pandemic, fast-spreading, without cure and one that is laying bare India’s public health infrastructure. People are dying either of Covid-19 or of hunger and starvation due to the nationwide lockdown. We need to ask tough questions, at the risk of being called ‘anti-national’.
Every leader — from US President Donald Trump to German Chancellor Angela Merkel — is answering questions and making themselves available for their people.
So, here are the five questions I would ask PM Modi. Here’s hoping they reach the man of the hour and get answered.
Also read: Indians are fighting against coronavirus and BJP IT cell is fighting against Indians
Is ‘jugaad’ the way forward in India? Where are the PPEs?
Expecting medical staff to fight coronavirus without personal protective equipment or PPEs is like sending a soldier to war without ammunition. According to HLL Lifecare Limited, a government-owned body authorised to procure PPEs, India needs a million PPEs. However, the ministry of health says India needs 17 million PPEs and has placed orders for the same. Who are we supposed to trust?
Why are all frontline workers — medical and police personnel — not being equipped with N95 masks and sanitisers? Why are we expecting that surgical or cloth masks will work? Is ‘jugaad’ the way forward in India even in a health emergency. We cannot afford to lose our frontline workers for a simple reason: If medical staff in hospitals starts contracting Covid-19, then patients will be harmed, and the hospital will also have to be shutdown. Wockhardt Hospital was shut down in Mumbai and called a Covid-19 containment zone after 26 nurses and three doctors tested positive. Three hundred medical staffers have been quarantined in the hospital. Why? Because they were not given PPEs and told to wear surgical masks, which evidently did not protect them.
Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University was also shut after 65 of its trauma centre employees came in contact with a Covid-19 patient.
A hospital in Punjab saw 45 of its doctors and medical staff resign after one of its senior doctors contracted Covid-19 due to the unavailability of PPEs.
The Delhi State Cancer Institute (DSCI) has also been shut after its two doctors and 16 nursing staff have tested Covid-positive.
The list is endless Modi ji. My question is already too long. I would probably be thrown out of this fantasy press conference by now.
Also read: More than 300 Indians have died of the coronavirus, and nearly 200 of the lockdown
Why is Amit Malviya still in election mode?
PM Modi are you aware that you’ve handed over your IT cell to a man who refuses to check his calendar? Can someone please inform Amit Malviya that we are in April 2020 and that May 2019 is long gone, and that the BJP has won with a thumping majority? And you have also got Madhya Pradesh back. He can stop talking about the last three months seeing an “Islamic insurrection of sorts” because the new villain on the block is coronavirus — and it doesn’t have a political ideology.
It would be nice if Malviya could use his 32 lakh strong WhatsApp group members for relief and awareness campaigns instead of stoking disharmony and communal fissures by continuously peddling fake narratives against Muslims. We know old habits die hard, but please get back to the hate-mongering after this pandemic is over in India. And only PM Modi has the power to stop Malviya from this slippery ‘we hate Muslims’ slope at this time.
Also read: India to get over 3 lakh PPE this month, Reliance, TikTok, Red Cross among major donors
How’s the research on ‘gaumutra as hand sanitisers’ going?
Suman Haripriya, BJP MLA from Assam, has been propagating that cow urine, if sprayed, purifies an area much like a sanitiser. She said: “We all know that cow dung is very helpful. Likewise, when cow urine is sprayed, it purifies an area… I believe something similar could be done with ‘gaumutra’ and ‘gobar’ to cure coronavirus (disease).”
Vallabh Kathiria, chairman of Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog who at one point was Gujarat’s Union minister of state for health and family welfare, has said that “use of cow urine kills bacteria and would definitely be helpful in fighting the coronavirus”. Although he is an oncology surgeon, it will be nice to send Kathiria a gentle reminder that bacterias and viruses are not the same.
The problem is, helpless Indians start believing these ‘hacks’ and amplifying them.
We thought the government was going to arrest people peddling fake news about coronavirus?
In fact, BJP activist Narayan Chatterjee was arrested in Bengal after a man, who fell ill after consuming cow urine at the cow urine party that Chatterjee had organised, complained to the police. BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu still defended Chatterjee by saying that “it has not been proved whether it is harmful or not”.
Also read: Enough of mann ki baat Modiji. Covid-19 war is the time to take some questions
Where is our home minister — Amit Shah?
Yes, that’s just about it. That’s enough of a statement in a question.
Will your core voters — the middle class — who are quick to give gaalis (abuses) to anyone questioning thaalis–taalis–diyas take up the jobs of migrant workers after they’re lost to hunger, fatigue or coronavirus due to the lockdown?
Where is the preparedness of the Modi government for the poor? The $3-trillion economy will remain a fantasy if left to the core voters of Narendra Modi — the Indian middle class.
If it has to become a reality, then it will have to ride on the backs of labourers and migrant workers who lift the brick and mortar of the high rises and 8-lane highways that the middle class uses to fill its coiffures with high flying jobs at multinationals. Respect the poor. Our manpower is our greatest asset. If we lose them to hunger or Covid or unemployment, India will be left with a vacuum that can never be filled by the entitled nouveau riche.
Waiting eagerly for your answers, prime minister.
The author is a political observer and writer. Views are personal.