巴拉特

分类： bharat

  • A man wearing a protective mask walks past a bus stop displaying preventive measures against the coronavirus in Mumbai, India, March 18, 2020

    A man wearing a protective mask walks past a bus stop displaying preventive measures against the coronavirus in Mumbai, India, March 18, 2020

    A man wearing a protective mask walks past a bus stop displaying preventive measures against the coronavirus in Mumbai, India, March 18, 2020

    With China seemingly out of the coronavirus woods, the world’s second most populous nation is yet to face the worst of it. For Indian PM Narendra Modi, the coming days might be his greatest disaster… or greatest triumph.
    It’s easy for headline-hunters to run away with the screamer that Modi “asks citizens for self-curfew on March 22,” which indeed he did in his address to the nation on Friday. However, the seriousness of his warning to citizens that they need to “isolate” themselves wasn’t lost on anyone.

    “Science still doesn’t have a vaccine for [the coronavirus]. The trend in countries shows it explodes after a few benign weeks,” warned Modi, lest Indians be lulled into complacency by the reports of four deaths and 180 cases thus far, and come to think that India’s 1.37 billion people are somehow immune to the lurking danger.

    Quietly preparing for siege

    The Indian state itself has slowly switched to a “lockdown” footing, though the government has desisted from a formal announcement, figuring it would only further the panic and not the cause.

    Starting March 22, international flights will not be allowed to land for a week. Railways are cancelling trains by the hundreds. States are shutting down public transport. Formal curfews are being imposed in India’s busy hinterland cities. Shops have been forcibly shut down, except for essential services such as groceries and chemists – as has been the case in Jammu, a city in the Himalayan foothills.

    India’s secondary education exams, a touchstone for millions of teenagers aspiring to a quality higher education, have been postponed. Universities have been asked to shutter till the end of March. A government advisory has asked persons above 65 and children below 10 to stay at home. There is no telling when an evening out in shopping malls, now closed, will be in the realm of possibility again.

    India’s health ministry has been converted into a virtual war-room. Screenings are no longer limited to the airports alone. Random tests are being administered to citizens, albeit on a very small sample still. Approved laboratories are training new ones. Quarantine beds and virus kits are being built up, while the export of drugs has been halted.

  • Protest against the rape of a child and a teenager in India, April 17, 2018

    Protest against the rape of a child and a teenager in India, April 17, 2018

    India’s Supreme Court confirmed that the men who gang-raped a 23-year-old paramedic in 2012 will be hanged. The brutal incident shocked the nation, sparking protests and changes in laws regarding sex crimes.
    “There is no material to review our order,” the judges said on Monday as they upheld the death penalty verdict for the three men involved in the shocking rape case, local media reports.

    All three men were earlier sentenced to death by hanging but launched a lengthy process to review the verdict, claiming that is was “cold-blooded killing in the name of justice.” The fourth man who is also sentenced to hanging chose not to appeal the ruling.

    The crime also involved two other perpetrators. One of them committed suicide in custody, while another, who was underage at the time, was sent to juvenile home and released after serving a three-year term.

    The 23-year-old female paramedic intern was gang-raped and viciously beaten by a group of men on a moving bus in South Delhi in 2012. The victim, who became known in the media as ‘Nirbhaya’ (‘The Fearless’), died of severe injuries.

    A male friend who boarded the bus with her that night was also beaten by the assailants, and knocked unconscious.

    The brutality of the crime sent shockwaves across India, sparking massive protests in many areas. The public outcry led the government to change criminal law with regards to sexual assault. The legal definition of rape was broadened, while other crimes, such as acid attacks, sexual harassment, voyeurism and stalking were added to the criminal code.

    In April, India introduced death penalty for the rape of minors.

  • Epidemics hold no sex appeal for politicians. For a terror attack, an economic blockade or a flying enemy missile, others can be blamed

    Epidemics hold no sex appeal for politicians. For a terror attack, an economic blockade or a flying enemy missile, others can be blamed — but if you mismanage the outbreak of a killer virus, voters will only blame you.
    Yet, all over the world politicians are directing blame wherever they can over the mayhem coronavirus has wreaked. Italian politicians are busy fighting one another, US President Donald Trump has pointed the finger at his predecessor Barack Obama — and China and Iran have accused Trump’s America itself of unleashing the virus. Amidst all the chaos, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a different approach to the Covid-19 crisis.

    India’s PM quickly initiated a video conference with fellow South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) leaders and pledged $10 million to set up a Covid-19 emergency fund for a rapid response team of doctors to serve the entire region. He also proposed a video link-up for G20 nations to unitedly tackle the epidemic. British PM Boris Johnson and Australian PM Scott Morrison immediately lauded his effort and promised to join.

    One move, many outcomes
    Modi managed to achieve several things with this stroke of disease diplomacy.

    First, when most nations have been busy shutting out the world over the endemic, India has opened up a new window of international collaboration against the real common enemy: a lethal virus. Even Modi’s many critics and adversaries will find it hard to disrespect or dismiss his effort.

    Second, it enhances India’s global soft power, taking it beyond Gandhi, yoga and Bollywood. It gently re-establishes India’s place as a benign force and an ancient nation which has believed in leading with compassion rather than brute force. It is in many ways Gandhian itself. But more importantly, it is a throwback to the old, harmonious diplomatic approach when the Indian civilisation extended far and wide around the Indian Ocean in the east and up to Afghanistan in the west.

    Third, while the western mainstream media and certain leaders have been ruthlessly and hypocritically targeting India and trying to tarnish its image globally over a new citizenship law and the Delhi communal riots, Modi’s outreach to the immediate neighbourhood and the world in a time of crisis should do away with some of that criticism.