Photos: Ashok Sinha
Sunday Discussion Point
By Kaushal Kishore*
Finance Minister has finally declared the twenty trillion rupees package in five sessions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while announcing the extension of lockdown into a fourth phase since 18th May, has declared much awaited stimulus for Indian economy. Idea of the self reliance with ‘Vocal For Local’ slogan fascinated many, including stock market that recorded the sudden jump. PM talks about a wonderful formula to find an opportunity in this health emergency. Saleem Miyan at Swaraj India has referred to Atamnirbhar Bharat Abhiyan as a Loan Mela before calling it an entertainment. Liberated Gandhi Project has got the forty thousand crores, and Rahul Gandhi’s response on it is amusing. Meanwhile the crises of prolonged lockdown including reverse migration are in the headlines. Herein former BJP general secretary Govindacharya reminds us that in case of the strength of a chain, it’s the weakest link that counts most, instead of the stronger ones. After two months long lockdown the state of infection in India is on unprecedented rise. Counting in India is now in six digits, and in the US it’s in seven digits. When the world counted initial five million infections, India got place among top nations with a twenty percent share. The crisis seems to loom larger, as the middle class is afraid, and backbone of working class migrants is broken.
We pledged to overcome one of the worst periods of history with ringing bells to encourage the Corona Warriors. Then the lockdown was announced. Since then onwards exodus caused by reverse migration is being seen on the highways in Delhi and other parts of the nation. We have also tried to remove darkness by lighting lamps, but the rising number of COVID-19 infection is not ready to stop. Agitated migrant workers were seven times seen violent at Surat in Gujarat. These sights of migrant labourers’ plight is visible today as the symbol of national fate. This maniac state arising out of the hunger and fear is fatal. Moreover this is an outcome of seven decades of the development vision aligned to modern technology. The lockdown has cleared how much respect bureaucracy has for these hard working people. In an era, when public services are institutionalised, the plight of labourers from unorganised sector reached at peak. The health care institutions are not an exception to the disgrace. The top institutions like ICMR in India and World Health Organization are standing in the dock today. Initially the symptoms of COVID-19 was reported to be cough, fever, sneezing, etc. Then they have added headache, tremor, stiffness in the muscles, sore throat and loss of taste in it. And then this invisible infection also became asymptomatic. Similarly, they have recommended at least three tests in a series in COVID-19 cases, and the release from hospital was possible after two mandatory negative reports. Then ICMR adopted the single negative report practice, and finally no such negative report is necessary. The interpretation of these developments can lead us towards difficult consequences.
The communist government of Kerala is being noticed for better management of the pandemic. The migrant labourers are referred to as the ‘Guest Worker’ there. Nitin Gadkari has appreciated them recently. The pandemic has unearthed failures of interdependence and globalisation, and brought the local and indigenous to the center of the discussion. The bureaucracy for its salary exempted the liquor stores from the lockdown and suggested heavy tax on it. In this hour of health emergency, the institution which should be purest is in a critical condition. The Director General of WHO is now being questioned in Africa. The reality of testing in Tanzania came after the positive reports of sheep, goat and papaya. The allegation of ten million dollars bribe in order to pass the vaccination bill in Nigerian Parliament recently surfaced against Bill Gates. It triggered a demand for his arrest in the Italian Parliament. The crisis of reverse migration is also not entirely disconnected from these developments.
The political theatre that unfolded in the third phase of the lockdown on account of migrants’ train fare is not possible to forget. Adviser to former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and veteran journalist Prem Shankar Jha’s comments on it can shock any Indian. He has defined that the Bharatiyata disappeared from establishments like Indian Railways and Air India during COVID-19 pandemic. The home states of migrants and stranded people are afraid of new infection on their arrival. Still the government started limited train services on Tuesday, May 12. Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah expressed his grief after going through the reports from the roads. Then directed the states to stop plying migrants on the roads and send them in the camps. A thousand crore rupees has been allocated from the newly created PM Care Fund for this purpose. Moreover Center for Monitoring Indian Economy presents figures on increasing unemployment. More than 120 million people are reported to be unemployed within six weeks of lockdown. Majority of them are from unorganised sector. Crisis of unemployment and rising hunger are actual cause of reverse migration. The lessons of self-reliance and self-respect can be learned from this class. Workers lifting an industry with hard labour are natural capital of Indian culture like a farmer. Actually the system is nature centred instead of being economy centred, and mankind is a part of nature, not the master.
Also read: COVID-19 and the third world war
Government of Uttar Pradesh issued a circular increasing their working hours for twelve hours a day. A number of social activists and institutions including Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh opposed it. The matter reached the High Court. At last Allahabad High Court dismissed it. A couple of decisions of Hyderabad High Court are worth mention. The court asked questions during a suo-motto response in the accidental death of 16 migrants on the railway track at Aurangabad. As such centre and state are bound to answer. The court has also taken cognizance of the plight of Dr. K. Sudhakar, who spoke about the lack of PPE kits at Visakhapatnam. Initially he was suspended then the cops beat him badly on the road. It has broken the pledge to stand with the Corona Warriors. As a consequence memory of Dr. Li Wenliang re-emerged. Perhaps the police in India seems to move fast in order to break the records of China. The stand of Supreme Court on the plight of migrants disappoints. In spite of such efforts, the suffering of daily wagers are still continuing.
Australia heads a campaign to investigate the biological weapon theory. The nations like India, France, Germany, UK, US and Russia came in its support. WHO believes that this investigation may take an year. Chinese virologists Shi Zhengli, also known as ‘Bat Woman’ and Xiangguo Qiu, who has brought the virus from the Canadian lab, are in focus these days. Now the communication gap between Australia and China turned into Trade War. The prolonged trade war between the United States and China metamorphosed into the Cold War. Still Gandhi’s land keeps a distance from the civil war. When our elder brother claims to be bigger than all, the objection from ‘Big Brother’ cannot be annihilated. Sometimes business with elder brother brings equally big burden. The annual trade deficit with our elder brother is twenty trillion rupees. It’s possible that this trade deficit has persuaded the PM to decide the value of stimulus. We have no objection if our younger brothers are at the receiving end of more love from the elder brother. But standing on the equal footing in business is needed to be ensured first. Let the trade deficit with China end soon. No compromise with the identity of India is tolerable. So long as the two are not ensured the dignity of hard working people and country are in peril.
In the prayer meeting on 26 January 1948 Gandhi ji said: We are entitled to celebrate the hope that the worst is over and that we are on the road to showing the lowliest villager that it means his freedom from serfdom and that he is no longer a serf born to serve the cities and towns of India, but that he is destined to exploit the city dwellers for the advertisement of the finished fruits of well-thought-out labours, that he is the salt of the Indian earth. Mahatma’s prayer seems to move a step ahead during lockdown caused by the noble corona virus. Liberated Gandhi Project means Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Only this is possible with the two devils—technology and development. It could have been a tribute to Gandhi in absence of these two. Apart from it, the Vocal for Local campaign needs to turn away from debt and FDI to be Real for Local.
*Kaushal Kishore is a member of All India Panchayat Parishad from Bihar. The writer is the author of The Holy Ganga (Rupa, 2008), Managing Editor of Panchayat Sandesh. His column, Across The Lines, appears in vernacular publications. The published article is his own views.
