Face Covered, Mouth Shut, Its People's Turn to Ask Questions

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Face Covered, Mouth Shut, Its People's Turn to Ask Questions

It is imperative that we the people of India should ask the question about the government’s plans to fight the Corona virus

Thursday April 9, 2020 7:51 PM, Syed Ali Mujtaba, ummid.com

How Modi government is tackling covid 19

It is a matter of life and death for every Indian and all are united behind the government in the fight against the unforeseen enemy. However, being behind the government does not mean that citizen should not seek answers from the government about the state of preparedness to tackle the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

It is the government and not the people that have to deliver. Each of us knows there are problems India is facing in the fight against Covid-19. We all know that the government is caught between the devil and the deep sea.

Irrespective who get the label of the devil and who the deep sea, there is a feeling among the people that either corona will kill the people or the lack of preparedness of the government will take their lives away.

As an Indian, it is imperative that we the people of India should ask the question about the government’s plans to fight the Corona virus. And it is the job of the government to answer people’s concerns and take them into confidence by telling them about its action plan in fighting the common enemy.

So far, the government has been asking the people to do this and do that. And people responded to the diktats with great enthusiasm. First they clapped their hands and beat vessels and even shouted go corona, go as was asked by the Prime Minister.

Then he asked the people to go into darkness and then light the candle. Again people gave him overwhelming support as his wish was people’s command.

Now, he has asked the people to feed the hungry and even to this many people have come forward and doing community feeding even before being asked to do so.

The fact of the matter is the situation in the country is really alarming. The people in the country want to know how the government is planning to tackle some harsh realities that stare at every Indian face.

1- There are only 0.55 beds for per 1000 people

2- We have the capacity to do only 35 Covid tests for 1 million people.

3- There is acute shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) kit that is essential for the para medics in the fight against corona.

4- According to CII’s CEO Snap poll there is going to be 15 to 30 per cent of job losses in next two months.

5- According to some reports, people are not going to get salary after a month or so.

6- Already employees' salary is being cut to 50 per cent when we are in two weeks of the lockdown.

7- One survey shows 42% have no ration left for the day, let alone duration of the lock down.

Apart from the above there are many other such nightmares that the nation faces. The people with face covered and mouth shut want to know how the government is planning to tackle some of these core issues.

The government has put the people to exemplary hardship by locking the country for 21 days. Now they want to know for how many more days this lock down will continue. If such situation continues what arrangements the government has made for the job cuts, salary cut, loss of pay, feeding the poor, hungry and starving masses.

Muslims who have litany of woes in this country remains united behind the government’s efforts to fight the common enemy. Their patriotism is second to none and they should not be suspected in these testing times.

However, this is not the case. Due to the fault of some Tabligi Jamaat members and due to complacency of the government, some cases of corona virus have emerged from Jamaat’s Markaz Nizamuddin in New Delhi.

One can call it a case of neglect by the Jamaat members or government's inferential attitude that the corona problem at the Markaz snowballed into a major crisis in the country where the entire Muslim community is being vilified and are called Corona Jihadis.

How can the entire Muslim community be made suspect to be prime carrier of the corona virus. This sounds bizarre as no one can risk his life or of others and Muslims are no exception.

In this context, Government’s stoke silence speaks a lot. Muslims like to know why the government so far has not issued a statement not to bully the Muslims and suspect their patriotism. This tells about the preparedness of the government as we stand together fighting the Covid- 19 crisis.

We all know that soon we are going to overcome the corona crisis but the images of the government, its people that the Covid -19 has thrown to the public will linger long in our memories, even when it’s all over and life gets back to normal.

[Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com.]

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