Statement of New Socialist Initiative (NSI) on India’s ‘War against Covid 19’
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| Painting- अनु प्रिया |
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Today, India has emerged as a new
epicentre for the novel corona virus in the Asia Pacific region.With 1,58,333
confirmed cases of Covid 19 and deaths of total of 4,531 people after
contracting the virus, it has already crossed China’s Covid-19 numbers.
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New Socialist Initiative (NSI) feels
that the grim news of steadily rising infections and fatalities reveal before
everyone a worrying pattern but the government either seems to be oblivious of
the situation or has decided to shut its eyes. It is becoming increasingly
clear that the Union government has used incomplete national-level data to
justify arbitrary policy decisions, defend its record and underplay the extent
of Covid-19 crisis.
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Absence of transparency vis-a-vis
data collection of Covid infection levels could be said to be the tip of the
iceberg of what has gone wrong with India’s ‘war against Covid 19’.
The
Prime Minister’s announcement of a 21-day countrywide lock down came with a
mere four-hour notice. It was done without engaging in any collective
decision-making process with states to honour and enhance the spirit of
“cooperative federalism” between the Centre and the States.
According to NSI this whole act did a
tremendous harm to the principle of federalism which is a fundamental feature
of our Constitution. Article 1 of the Indian Constitution defines “India, that
is Bharat, is a Union of States”and control of infectious diseases is a
concurrent subject in the Constitution.
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Members of national task force
constituted to advise the central government on its pandemic response have gone
on record underlining that ‘scientific inputs’ were never sought from them by
the Indian government and lock down failed to achieve its purpose because
government failed to take crucial parallel measures, such as developing India’s
testing capacity and medical infrastructure.
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Opacity and violation of set
constitutional procedures and consequent centralisation of the decision making
processes has become a hallmark of the present government’s anti Covid
strategy. It was geared towards making arrangements or institutionalising
processes which could serve the ruling dispensation later as well.
The formation of a new ‘PM Cares’
fund to combat the pandemic – which would be managed by a trust of four – which
cannot be audited by CAG, has been a major example of utilising the pandemic to
further partisan interests.It was constituted despite the statutory existence
of the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) since independence which
is transparent, accountable and audited by the CAG .
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This brazenness has not been limited
to pushing a private fund as work of public charity.
It is becoming increasingly evident that the custodians of power have
tried to use the present situation of medical emergency – when political
activities have largely come to a standstill when physical distancing norms
have been put in place, and the citizenry are restricted to their homes – to
serve as the pretext for the imposition of a de facto political emergency.
Independent critical voices in the
media are being chased, retaliatory revengeful action against students/youth
active in the historic anti CAA movement has been unleashed, leaders of
peasants and workers have been arrested under draconian laws,
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The historic Factories Act of 1948, a
product of long years of struggles of the working people, which mandates that
“No adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in a factory for more
than forty-eight hours in any week” is being effectively annulled.
The organised and systematic infringement of hard earned rights of
workers, under the talk of exceptional circumstances calling for exceptional
solutions, is being executed to fulfill long term demands of the Corporates and
the Moneybags
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The defining image of the callousness
and indifference of the present regime towards sufferings of the people is the
migrant labour on the move back home on foot or on own cycle/rickshaw/auto or
on Shramik Special trains which have become another death trap for many of
them.
Many of them are still walking back
home brutalised by the police at various places on the way, sprayed with
disinfectant supposedly to sanitise them, facing tremendous travails and
tribulations. Till the last report came in so far, over 130 migrants killed in
accidents en route to their home states.
The consistent denial of direct
transfer of money to every such needy person’s account, to alleviate the pain
arising out of sudden lock down, despite advice by the The likes of Abhishek
Banerjee, India born Nobel Prize Winner in Economics ( 2019), is just a reflection
of the tremendous disdain for the exploited, oppressed and the marginalised in
their world view.
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A similar fraud was played upon
people when PM Modi announced a ’20 lakh crore package’ to address the twin
challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lock down-induced economic
disruption and crisis. The so called package was basically a monetary venture –
where monies were being handed over to Corporates, Industrialists , with focus
on reviving the economy not a fiscal measure – which could have been given to
poor / needy people and it comprised of packages already announced.
This has also been a period
where government has facilitated handing over of many public sector enterprises
to private sector.
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The pandemic has badly exposed the
limitations of India’s health system and its highly privatised nature.
It stands exposed not only because of
reports about acute shortage of critical care equipments, or paucity of proper
protective gears for doctors and health workers but also increasing shortage of
hospital space also.
The highly restricted access to
healthcare during lockdown – where focus remained on Covid 19 – has led to many
avoidable deaths due to other causes.
It is increasingly clear how policies
of austerity – cuts in public expenditure on health, education etc are thus
having a very negative impact on people’s health.
NSI demands that the government
revisits its policies of putting profit over people, increase allocations for
it from a meager less than 1 per cent to at least 5 per cent of GDP and move
towards ensuring people’s right to health.
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The most unsavoury aspect of India’s
‘War Against Covid 19’ is the manner in which India has managed to turn even a
global, devastating public health emergency into an opportunity to vilify
Muslims. It amounted to weaponising prejudice against Muslims in an effort to build
a majoritarian Hindu votebank that shuns older Indian ideas of secularism and
tolerance.
This Islamophobia inspired by Covid
19 was met with silence at the top among the country’s executive.
As of now this direct targeting might
have stopped but it cannot be said with confidence that this would end the
continuous stigmatisation of its biggest religious minority?
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New Socialist Initiative appeals to
the broad masses of people to always remain vigilant about the designs of the
Hindutva Supremacists.
It is high time that people come
together on a common minimum programme and resist such blatant attempts at
destroying of democratic institutions and processes, restrictions on
fundamental rights and freedom and increasing criminalisation of any critique
as sedition and anti-national.
We should always bear in mind that if
a pandemic which affects the whole of humanity can be given a communal colour,
then we cannot belittle the Right’s ability to turn any crisis into an
opportunity to further its exclusivist, hate-filled and anti-human agenda.
(29 th May 2020, Delhi)
