MyVoice

Second wave of Covid-19 has been a disaster for the country. It has unleashed a wave of mayhem across the country that has stunned every Indian soul. With hundreds of thousands of new cases and thousands of deaths being reported every day, daily heartbreaking scenes of funeral grounds filled with dozens of burning pyres, hundreds of patients in hospitals dying for the lack of oxygen, and thousands of others being denied a bed in hospitals, an already dented image of Indian healthcare infrastructure is getting uglier every day.

Amidst this health crisis, something else too is happening which is equally sinister and consequential as it could have a direct impact on the future of this country. Many defunct institutions and anti-nationals of this country have suddenly become woke to preach India’s central government, and Modi specifically, lessons of leadership and efficiency. Take courts as the latest example in this category. Courts of this country, a failed institution, have finally got a voice to channelize the seething anger of Indians. So much so that it’s perfectly alright and legitimate for them to castigate and declare as murderer whoever they feel is not acting in public interest. It could be very likely that ‘our lords’ in Indian courts could soon don the role of vigilante, dispensing ‘death sentence’ to guilty without a trial.

Well, finally we should cheer for these courts, the same courts where a common powerless Indian is harassed for decades for getting justice in cases ranging from burglary to rape and murder. Just imagine yourself in Arnab’s position (who was arrested by a murder-accused policeman) except that you could not afford a Harish Salve to get you free from the clutches of a draconian law & order system of this country. In all likelihood, you would have ended up murdered and nothing would have happened, just as nothing happened for the Hindu saints who were murdered right in front of a police station with a policeman obediently handing over the saints as a sacrificial lamb to the murderous mob and a video of the entire incident seen widely by entire country including top politicians, chief justices, top lawyers, and top police officers. Nothing happened! Nothing will happen!

The travesty is that a broken institution that has regularly scowled at Indians by denying them justice is now bent on being a messiah for Indians by bullying the central government, and specifically the prime minister, to provide the needs of every citizen as if all other central and state institutions have gone for a summer vacation. That brings us to another force, the crooked politicians, who have ruled different parts of this country for decades with the sole intent of enriching themselves but have been having a tough time since last two elections to demolish a super-strong ‘Modi-wall’ to rule India. Be it Maharashtra, or West Bengal, or Karnataka, or any other state; all these state’s ruling politicians have to do is to conveniently declare a lockdown, place their order for oxygen with the central government, and then shed crocodile tears in courts.

The question is what these state leaders, whether from Congress or BJP, were doing with many of them in power and politics for decades? Did they never assess the health care infrastructure of their states? Did they forget to check if they had sufficient capacity and logistical support to meet emergency medical needs, be it oxygen or medicines, hospital beds, or ambulances? This despite India becoming a global hotbed of multiple chronic diseases that kills hundreds of thousands of Indians every year and leaves many others bedridden and financially bankrupt courtesy of regular hefty medical bills. Even today, why it is so difficult for all of them to sit together, and work on the allocation rather than going to courts as if Modi has hijacked the nation’s entire oxygen supply system and he is not meeting their demands despite having it?

The real reason for the state politician’s activism is because they are just interested in their political future and give two-hoots to people’s actual needs. Had they been indeed concerned about the pain of the common man, they would have worked on the health care infrastructure long back, as India’s record to provide affordable, effective, and simplified healthcare has always been pathetic. Government hospitals have never been equipped. On other hand, private hospitals subjected patients to indiscriminate costly tests, medications, and procedures with their eyes on their profitability rather than patient’s health and happiness. No wonder that India’s much-touted global medical tourism never took off as healthcare costs quickly escalated while standards plummeted.

Coming back to the point, if you read between the lines, this entire episode of national disaster has been hijacked by elements that have only one focus: demonize Modi, ensure his political defeat in the next election and bring a ragtag government that unravels whatever little good things that have happened in past 6-7 years. India’s quickly improving status as a business-friendly nation, improving infrastructure, strengthening military power, increasing presence of India at the global map, be it as UNSC member or an important part of QUAD ally, its ability to stare back at its enemies and ‘don’t mess with me’ attitude, integrating Kashmir with India with an elan, writing an obituary for the domestic terrorism, efforts to tame corrupts be it enacting RERA or strengthening the banking system, etc. Before the second wave of COVID-19 happened, Modi was an undisputed leader who seemed undefeatable, and India’s political Singham in the literal sense!

And now we are witnessing every day a narrative that makes us believe as if Modi has doomed India! Shrewd self-serving politicians, millionaire farmer-leaders with political ambitions and political backups, several foreign-funded print & electronic media, liberals living off abusing India, all have suddenly seen a glimmer of hope for getting their pound of flesh aka denting Modi’s image in the eyes of his staunch followers who believed in him and were happy with his performance of last 7 years. These actors now everyday comment, publish, or telecast news that shows Modi in low light, publish fake survey results about his popularity, circulate comments of liberals who hate India and Hindus, and for whom India and Indians never mattered for anything beyond making money. Regional political satraps have suddenly found a hope to forge maha-alliance and beat Modi in the next election to become PM and undo all his good acts, be it abolishing 370, resolution of age-old Ram-temple issue, direct cash transfer schemes, controlling terrorists, reviving India’s diplomatic dexterity, strengthening India’s defense might…and the list goes on.

People of this country who are currently fighting with the brutal second wave need to be on guard. While many of us have lost our near and dear ones, we all must remember the sacrifices of our ancestors who lost their lives for this country. We must decide if this single event, however brutal it could be, is sufficient to demonize a leader who had no reasons to work honestly and tirelessly for India and Indians and in fact could have enjoyed the power like many of his predecessors, and disappeared in the political quagmire leaving behind a trail of corruptions and unfulfilled promises.

We must decide if anti-India hyenas who are salivating to recapture the power and milk its resources would succeed in befooling Indians and trampling Modi. You just need to look at the USA where the same forces used the same COVID crisis to crush a popular nationalist leader who was a doer, albeit with a different style, and instead installed a leader who has opened borders to thousands of illegal immigrants, supported an ugly movement that defies equality by demonizing a class & and demands defunding police, and under whose watch unemployment and crime rates are increasing every day.

So watch carefully, identify these actors and their malafide anti-India machinations. They are working full-steam to divide you and push this country into a spiral of chaos. They, and not Modi, are the real demons.