Will New York city rise again from the shadow of COVID-19? It did from the trauma of 9/11. Will there now be a second coming? Those familiar with NYC’s resilience know there will be
Peering through the window, I could see the iconic Manhattan landscape with its tall towers soaring into the sky. I was on an American Airlines flight from Washington DC that was set to land at what was then Idlewild Airport and is now John F Kennedy International Airport. That was my first view of New York City (NYC) and the date, if memory serves, was March 2, 1960.
Over the years, New York has become my second-most favourite city, the first being Kolkata, where I was born and where I grew up, and which remains home despite my decades in Delhi. I, therefore, deeply mourn the tragedy that has struck both NYC and New York state in the form of a massive COVID-19 attack, sending thousands to the hereafter and paralysing a throbbing megacity with its vibrant diversity of peoples and cultures, waxing along its wide avenues and in the shadows of its concrete canyons, epitomised by the Wall Street.
I am not the proverbial New Yorker who has lived in the city for years and feels the richness of its life in his/her viscera. I am an outsider whose many visits, none more than a month long at a time, have left behind a string of warm memories of exciting encounters with people, visits to galleries and museums, of the buzz of many voices in bars, varied fares in restaurants and hours of bookshop browsing (alas most of them have now closed down). The variety of people one sees is stunning — ranging from White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPS) to African Americans, from those of European origin to those of Chinese, Latin American, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian stock, from those in dark suits scurrying around in the financial district in lower Manhattan, to residual hippies lounging around in the Village’s Washington Square Park.
My memories, too, are diverse. I remember the West End Bar on the Broadway opposite Columbia University. Later closed down, it was frequented by the university’s faculty members and students and, often, by celebrities and writers. It was here that Jack Kerouac (On the Road, The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans et al), William S Burroughs (of Naked Lunch and Junkie and much else) and Allen Ginsberg (Howl and Other Poems and Kaddish and Other Poems) held court, gave identity to Beat writing and shaped its emerging contours, with the word “Beat” being first used by Hubert Edwin Huncke (Guilty of Everything: The Autobiography of Herbert Edwin Huncke and The Evening Sun Turned Crimson among others).
Prior to gentrification in the last couple of decades or so, the area around Columbia University and the West End Bar was marked by poverty and a high crime rate. Now the Beats and kindred souls have left along with junkies, hustlers and muggers; the Yuppies (young, upwardly-mobile professionals) and the university authorities have taken over much of it. A sigh for that. But then NYC has seen many transient bursts of literary and artistic excellence under the canopy of its fervid creativity. The area around the Columbia University and the West End Bar is a part of West Harlem which, in turn, is included in the wider sprawl of Harlem, enveloping the central and eastern part of the latter, in the northern reaches of NYC.
In the 1920s and early 1930s, the entire area was the venue of what has come to be known as the Harlem Renaissance, which saw a flowering of African American culture in the spheres of literature, music, theatre, visual art and sculpture. There was an explosion of music, particularly jazz. Paul Robeson was a towering presence. Many others, who became tall eminences later, cut their teeth at the Cotton Club, for a long time a Whites-only nightclub at the heart of Harlem, which featured promising African American performers. Duke Ellington, composer, pianist and jazz orchestra leader, made his mark here. Louis Armstrong, trumpeter, who profoundly influenced the evolution of jazz, played here. Lena Horne, singer, dancer, actress and civil rights activist, made her mark here, as did Ethel Waters, celebrated for her mellifluous rendering of the blues and Adelaide Hall, the noted jazz singer who later migrated to Britain.
The visual and plastic arts flourished. Aaron Douglas’s paintings and Augusta Savage and Meta Warrick’s sculptures were widely and critically applauded. It was equally a time for intellectual ferment, which owed much to the collection of essays, The Soul of Black Folk (1903) by WEB Du Bois, sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, author and editor. He played a major, if not defining, role in shaping the Harlem Renaissance, as did Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the African Communities league. The widely-circulated weekly newspaper, Negro World, which he founded and ran on behalf of the UNIA, and The Crisis, the quarterly mouthpiece of the NAACP which Du Bois founded in 1910 and edited until 1934, played a critically important role in publishing African American writers and giving them much-needed visibility.
Langston Hughes was, perhaps, the most important literary figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Countee Collen left behind his mark as a poet. Arna Bontemps and Jean Toomer were important writers whom The Crisis gave salience. While the Renaissance’s role in enabling individual writers to be recognised and successful is important, much more so its contribution to laying the groundwork for the evolution of African-American consciousness and literature and defining its ethos. Du Bois wanted African American artists to remember their moral responsibility projecting the issue of racial equality in their work. James Baldwin, the novelist and essayist whose writings shook the United States in the 1960s, did this in all his works, and, particularly tellingly, in Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time.
Unfortunately, the Great Depression delivered a crippling blow; other factors like internal squabbling worsened matters. The Harlem Renaissance hobbled to an end in the early 1930s. As they say, sic transit Gloria mundi (Thus goes worldly glory). Before waning, however, it projected the ethos and culture of African Americans on their terms and not in terms of the stereotypes many Whites had imposed on them. With its creative reverberations spreading far and wide, it made the world sit up and take note. It aroused the latent pride of African Americans in their own accomplishments, culture and capabilities and made them progressively unwilling to suffer the discrimination that had continued to be heaped on them despite the abolition of slavery. The road was prepared for the movement for equality, an issue that was gaining increasing momentum, to swell into the tidal wave of the civil rights movement of the 1960s when many barriers collapsed.
The 1960s were a turbulent period. Besides the peaking of the civil rights movement, the one against the United States’ participation in the Vietnamese War (as David Elliott calls it in his definitive book the by the same name), convulsed the campuses and streets. NYC was no exception and the highest point in the multiplicity of protest meetings, marches and sit-ins was clearly the April 15 Spring Mobilisation march against the war in Vietnam, which attracted several hundreds of thousands of participants.
In NYC, the civil rights, anti-war and the Beat movements, which often overlapped, flowed parallelly in the 1960s. The three subsided in the early1970s. The reasons were several. The civil rights legislation of the 1960s seemed to have taken some of the edge of the African American drive for equality. The Vietnamese war limped to a close in 1972. Internal feuds split the Left-leaning Students for a Democratic Society, which was active in both the anti-war and civil rights movements. All involved were tired of the prolonged campus unrest.
The Beat movement had also lost steam. The East Village Other, the shrill voice of counter-culture and protest, died in 1972. The Village Voice, a sober platform of creative dissent founded in 1955, ceased publication in 2017, surviving online till 2018. The Bohemians moved out of the village. Yet New York was not bereft of excitement. The village had its jazz and restaurants. Until the COVID-19 horror struck, performances and exhibitions drew thousands to the Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts, which now houses the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet and the Julliard School of Music. The Museum of Modern Art and the American Museum of Natural History drew streams of visitors.
Over the whole city now hangs the sinister shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. Will it ever recover? It did from the trauma of 9/11. Will there now be a second coming? Those familiar with NYC’s resilience know there will be.
(Writer: Hiranmay Karlekar; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The US withdraws funding to the world body for promoting Chinese propaganda on COVID-19. Trump has a point
Donald Trump has ripped to shreds a lot of the US-backed multilateralism that has powered the world through an era of peace and prosperity following the end of the Second World War. It nurtured the idea from the United Nations to the World Bank, and as the world enters the first truly global crisis since the end of the Pacific War in August 1945, the World Health Organisation (WHO). However, the US President has some justification for his attacks on the WHO and its leader Tedros Adhanom, whom he has accused of being a Chinese lapdog. Finally, he has stopped funding the organisation. While many anti-Trump political and social leaders as well as philatrophists backing global public health initiatives, like Microsoft founder Bill Gates, have criticised this decision, it is evident that power politics played its part in obfuscating the true face of the virus. The WHO, for all its good intentions, was swayed, failed in its duties by not taking China to task sooner and parroted the Chinese line. It bungled notoriously on the human-to-human transmissibility of the Covid-19 virus when it claimed in a tweet that it was not possible, even though Chinese doctors already knew that was the case and Taiwanese public health officials were letting the world know the same. The problem is that Taiwan, which is the Republic of China but claimed by the People’s Republic of China, is not a member of the WHO. Dr Tedros, in particular, has been criticised for being far too close to the Chinese administration. The fact is the WHO has not covered itself with glory in this case. Previously, during the original SARS outbreak at the turn of the century, the WHO had been critical of Chinese decisions. This time round it did not take a critical look at China’s warnings and systems. However, that is not the fault of the WHO completely as it depends on its member states to give it more accurate information. The Chinese administration under President Xi Jinping has a carefully cultivated sense of news and only fed the WHO what it wanted it to know. No representative was really allowed to interact with Chinese medical staff without Communist Party of China officials present. Given China’s growing influence in the UN, the WHO’s reverence or kowtowing to China aren’t surprising. Its control over the WHO is the result of a much longer lobbying, one that seeks to influence global governance on its terms. Already, China is commanding the post-Covid economy, with both US and Europe dependent on its medical supplies line. Chinese infrastructure projects are already dotting southern Europe. So it will continue its diplomatic manoeuvrings.
Here, even the US has admittedly been off the ball. Trump, who has renounced a leadership role in international bodies, allowed the US seat on the WHO board to remain empty for years. Such a representative could have shared US intelligence with the WHO. For all the comical ineptitude of its President at the start of the crisis, the US did have intelligence of the Chinese virus and what was happening in Wuhan well before the rest of the wide world had an idea of the virulence of the disease. Yielding ground means letting China use its economic heft to secure its primacy instead. The world has until now done a fabulous job of messing up its response to the virus, which has wreaked havoc in southern Europe in terms of lives and hollowed out the global economy. We cannot be petulant in our response to the crisis nor lie about what we are doing. Here both China and the US have let the rest of the world down. They have to step up and act responsible, else the world will leave them both behind.
(Writer: Karan bhasin; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
When the Corona crisis has blown the lid over assorted religious televangelists and godmen, who claimed to have a panacea for all ills, there are communities that have set examples
The Coronavirus crisis has inadvertently blown the lid over assorted religious televangelists, godmen and “cure-all” religious leaders, who claimed to have a panacea for all ills, both physical and even political. These religiously-loaded hucksters successfully peddled their “spirituality” for financial gratification via medicaments, groceries and “ancient formula.” This could guarantee remedy and protection from all known ills that still defied modern science. Their carefully curated garb and invocations afforded a semblance of a certain religious-cultural “type” that was rooted in a particular religious denomination. This was then harnessed via the gullible adherents of that religion/sect.
These charlatans routinely pooh-poohed modern science as a Western affliction. They went so far as suggesting an “anti-national” slant for those who spurned their ideas. In the initial days of this debilitating Coronavirus, which still defies any cure anywhere in the world, these masqueraders held forth with their cavalier attitude and ostensible “solutions.” This to beat a hasty retreat as their purported “solutions” came a cropper for sheer ineffectiveness. Across the world, the purveyors of this religious-cultural “enterprise” created a constituency and “market” that came unmistakably wrapped in legitimacy-seeking strains of religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism, among others. These practitioners also did a great disservice to their parent religions as they flitted between commerce and puritanism. Along with willing politicians, they contributed significantly to polarising societies.
However, a significant part of society did remain sceptical of such divisive and commercial religiosity and, instead, preferred a more “inclusive”, “philosophical”, “cultural” and “spiritual” side of religious nuance, one that invariably always insisted on humanity, peace and consideration for the “other.” Even in countries like Pakistan that are caught in the vortex of religious extremism, there are examples like that of late Abdul Sattar Edhi, who gave his life for human dignity beyond the narrow confines of organised religion. Edhi’s purpose in life was to bathe and bury thousands of unclaimed bodies without discriminating on the basis of religion, gender or race. The noble soul said, “No religion is higher than humanity.” Such selfless acts in such turbulent times give the society and, indeed, the religion, their soul. Every religious order and nation has its own celebrated or unsung heroes, who keep the true faith and ensure that it does not get discredited due to acts of some extremist mullahs, priests, pandits or any other godmen, who preach a toxic lesson of “divide”, monopoly-on-truth and supremacism.
The Sikh community, in particular, has distinguished itself across the world with its sense of community service, piety and altruism, especially in difficult times. Be it during the devastating Australian bushfires or the horrific communal riots in Delhi, the reassuring sight of the Sikh community rising to the occasion and setting up makeshift langars, ferrying injured people to the hospitals and even helping rebuild the destroyed sites of victims is now a usual sight. Importantly, these aid initiatives of the Sikh community tend to prop up impromptu under the aegis of either the local gurudwara in the community or through a purely voluntary organisation of Sikh members in the area.
For them, the religious or racial identity of the victim is not relevant to extend support to the most vulnerable. The genesis of this culture is reposed in one of the three pillars of Guru Nanak’s teachings ie, Vand Chhako, which necessitates sharing and consuming together as a community. The extended implication is to help those who are in dire need of help.
While almost all religions have the same underlying tenets and message of universal brotherhood and compassion, a lot of the practical aspect of the same has either been twisted by zealous clergy or the message remains confined within the texts. However, as a more modern religion with a reformist agenda, Sikhism has almost internalised certain attributes of daily living that have given the modern-day community the ability to punch above its weight in terms of contribution to the society and the nation.
The revered concepts of sewa (selfless service for the benefit of others) and charhdi kala (mental state of eternal joy and optimism) have given the community a unique identity and disposition in its own eyes, one that it is almost blasphemous to not live up to that exacting standard. The famous saying of never seeing a Sikh beggar is attributable to that sense of fraternal progress and hard work that disdains success at the cost of others. Above all, a Sikh is a quintessential warrior, who is given to defend his faith with his own life — be it in Saraghari, Mesopotamia or in Kargil — the ingrained martial outlook has appropriated the finest codes of soldiering and, therefore, its noblest instincts.
The essential difference has been the ability of the Sikhs to cheerfully assimilate into multicultural milieus without reneging on their own faith and yet, integrating and enriching the diversity of the land with unmatched hard work and selfless contributions in places as far-flung as in Canada, Australia to Kenya.
Parsis are yet another community, whose contribution in nation-building, enterprise and philanthropy are unbelievable. In both cases, the genuine spirit and large-heartedness towards the “others,” as opposed to the narrow confines of their own religiosity and adherents, is what sets them apart. Gurudwaras — from New York to Delhi — are dishing out meals for the homeless and shelterless in the midst of the Coronavirus lockdown, which has left hapless citizens abandoned to their own fate. In many ways, the essential lesson of this crisis has been the need to collaborate as this virus spares no religion, gender, race or nation. In such times, mankind and religious leaders must introspect the “walls of exclusivity” that they set up or intend to build. For, no “wall” offers any meaningful protection against global crises. Religious practices and practitioners that insist on such “walls” have been rendered useless. Mankind and religion may still survive only if societies encourage and celebrate diversity and respect for each other.
(Writer: Bhopinder Singh; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Attacks on the Afghan security forces, who remain in active defence posture, targetted suicide and IED attacks and wartime criminality —including kidnapping and armed robberies — have hampered the rapid implementation of the Government’s Coronavirus strategy
COVID-19 has emerged as the single-most dangerous enemy of humanity in this century. Most of the fatalities have occurred in developed and developing countries, including the US, Italy, Spain, France, China and Iran. Looking at the scope and scale of emergency preparedness, the containment and mitigation measures undertaken by these countries to defeat COVID-19, one immediately begins worrying about a lack of resources, a severe shortage of essential commodities and services, as well as widespread human vulnerabilities in the countries of the “bottom billion.” There, State institutions remain weak, healthcare systems are non-existent or dysfunctional, demographics unchecked, coping mechanisms severely eroded and economies stagnating or in a state of gradual collapse.
This grim situation is further exacerbated by protracted and often imposed conflicts, which continue to be fuelled by geopolitical tensions and rivalries in regions such as the Middle East and South Asia where State actors exploit impoverished youth by brainwashing them ideologically and militarily arming them to advance State-specific geostrategic goals.
These intertwined and ever-growing vulnerabilities of the least-developed and war-ravaged societies remain a cause for grave global concern, as expressed by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who urged warring parties across the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against COVID-19. Indeed, no country needs an immediate cessation of conflict as much as Afghanistan. Even before the advent of the many and sometimes overlapping conflicts of the past four decades, Afghanistan had been a least developed country with meagre resources to address its dismal socio-economic indicators and abject poverty. The following decades, including the past 19 years, have hardly been kind to the suffering people of Afghanistan. Last year alone saw the killing and maiming of over 10,000 civilians while “conflict-related civilian casualties with more than 100 killed and many more injured” were recorded in March, says the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA). On March 27, the UN Security Council condemned the “heinous and cowardly terrorist attack that took place at the Dharamshala Sikh Temple in Kabul” when 25 citizens, including children, were killed and wounded.
In addition to these attacks, the improvised explosive devices (IEDs), planted in urban and rural Afghanistan, indiscriminately kill and cripple citizens. This tragedy is further compounded by the adverse effects of climate change, including droughts, floods, landslides and avalanches. The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) says that, “More than 14,000 people have been affected by floods, landslides and avalanches in more than 12 provinces across Afghanistan.” Plus humanitarian efforts have been hindered by attacks on aid workers.
Moreover, the destruction of critical service-delivery infrastructure remains a tactic often used to further victimise people. Millions have been deprived of electricity as transmission lines, importing electricity from Uzbekistan, have been cut in northern Afghanistan where such attacks recur often. Extended power cuts disable the few hospitals and clinics that respond to the basic medical needs of the population. Indeed, this is killing and maiming Afghans by other means than direct acts of violence, which are often overlooked for holding to account those UN member-State/s that directly cause or indirectly contribute to such complex humanitarian crises.
It is clear and well-documented that the Taliban are responsible for the frequent and largescale civilian deaths due to direct and indirect acts of violence and destruction of critical infrastructure. But they are not alone in committing these war crimes. Since their creation as an instrument of external strategic influence in 1994, the Taliban have enjoyed safe havens, an operational infrastructure, diplomatic support, as well as medical treatment for their wounded fighters in our neighborhood — from where they continue to run a terror campaign across Afghanistan.
At the same time, their killing machine has enabled other regional and transnational terrorist networks—such as the Al Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) — to destabilise Afghanistan. In turn, this has enabled the Taliban to run a multi-billion-dollar illicit drug business that has not only addicted jobless young Afghans but has also fed drug demand in the wider region where millions are dying of addiction.
In the face of the rapid spread of the Coronavirus, the Taliban must reconsider their efforts to maintain status quo: To keep killing Afghans and destroying critical service-delivery infrastructure, whose extended dysfunction will cause further death, pain and destruction. Indeed, as they know all too well, this stands against the core teachings of Islam. This also violates the basic principles of international human rights and humanitarian laws, which uphold the right of all Afghans —including those in the Taliban-controlled areas — to unfettered access to COVID-19 tests and treatment.
As of now, 784 Afghans in over 20 provinces across the country have contracted the deadly virus and 25 people have died. These figures hardly reflect the ground reality, considering that thousands of Afghans have recently returned from Iran and Pakistan which are also battling COVID-19. Indeed, attacks on the Afghan security forces, who remain in active defence posture; targetted suicide and IED attacks and wartime criminality —including kidnapping and armed robberies — have hampered the rapid implementation of the Afghan Government’s COVID strategy, including containment, mitigation and socio-economic relief and recovery measures. To avert a COVID-19 catastrophe in Afghanistan, the Taliban must respond positively to calls by the international Ulema, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Afghan people and the international community, to cease violence immediately across Afghanistan.
Cessation of violence during this national hour of acute need for a humanitarian response to the global pandemic will automatically build confidence on all sides, allowing the recently-announced inclusive negotiation team and the Taliban to begin making progress towards peace, which all Afghans desire, demand and deserve. In the eyes of the Afghan people, choosing the path to peace over continued bloodshed will undoubtedly demonstrate the Taliban’s independence of any foreign influence while establishing their Islamic credentials based on the key tenets of a peaceful, tolerant, compassionate and merciful faith as enshrined in the Constitution of Afghanistan.
(Writer: Ashraf Haidari; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
If we want them back, there has to be a solid reason and incentive for them to do so. Confinement without food won’t do
Nothing much has changed for the about 20 lakh migrant labourers, who have been displaced by the lockdown to contain COVID-19, driven out of their site shacks following stoppage of economic activity and left to fend for themselves with little or no savings. Turfed out of an existence as they knew it, they began the long walk home, fleeing a disease that they had not asked for but were exposed to, and returning to their subsistence livelihoods in the village. At least, there they would eat whatever the land would yield and they would be safe. And then they were held in camps by different State authorities, sometimes subjected to disinfectant jet sprays and at other times treated like pests and looked at with suspicion even if they offered themselves up for any job at hand. Although the lockdown is now being opened in a staggered manner to enable farm activity and construction, the flight has meant that a chunk of these labourers would rather avail these income openings in their own villages and States than staying on in cramped camps. There is a reason why 1,500 labourers virtually revolted and gathered at a bus stand in Mumbai’s Bandra on Tuesday afternoon, demanding transport arrangements to go back to their native places. Their reasons are common to all inmates huddled at makeshift camps that came up in various States in fits and starts, rather than as part of a unified policy. For all tall claims by authorities, they have no food. The Food Corporation of India godowns may be full and we may have many times more reserves than are required but with the supply and distribution chain broken down and disproportionately functional in places, no rations have reached these camps. Most labourers do not get more than one meal a day at a time when body resistance and immunity are primary concerns. Media reports indicate some of them are surviving on just rice, starch and salt. Except for private charitable organisations and trusts, there is no directive that makes Government community kitchens mandatory and keeps them running. Makeshift common toilet facilities are another problem, causing hygiene related deficiencies and compounding the risk factor for contracting the disease. Besides, there are no work opportunities or any kind of stipend. Apart from spraying disinfectants, there is no medical camp that assesses their health condition, leave alone testing for the virus. So the impatience and frustration are just getting over the tipping point. And that anger is manifesting in furious ways, sometimes as an assault on policemen enforcing the lockdown, at other times looting and damaging trucks full of supplies or simply staging sit-ins, demanding that they be allowed to travel. A recent survey has shown that four out of 10 labourers did not have ration left even for one day and 90 per cent had lost their only source of income in three weeks.
There is also a latent emotional reason. Rejected overnight by cities that they have serviced over the years and their residents who went into self-protection mode, they now are angry and want life on their terms. And they want to be home, a basic human instinct when battling a threat to survival itself. Yes, the Government did tout the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana, that would ensure that each one would get an additional five kg rice or wheat per month. The problem with migrants is they do not have ration cards here but in their villages. Those who do cannot use them either, simply because they do not guarantee portability like an Aadhaar and can be used only at the address registered on them. Besides, clustered in unknown sites, they do not know how to access fair price shops. Perhaps food coupons would have been better. As it is, the mass exodus has affected the economy badly with agriculture and small industrial units lacking enough staff. Perhaps the States housing camps should prepare a roster of units going empty, farms in need of manpower and send labourers there for work after a health check-up and an assurance of a clean accommodation, howsoever temporary. If we want to keep them back, then there has to be a reason and incentive solid enough for them to do so. Factory and farm owners need to restore confidence like clearing their dues, something that most MSMEs cannot as the Government is yet to repay them. Different State Governments may have to issue several work permits to get them back and keep them safe in a post-Covid work environment. It would be prudent to let those, who have been allowed to drift away too far out, to return and let them avail of MGNREGA schemes in their native villages. It is time to revive the village economy and set up import substitution units to decentralise the growth engine and get small wheels moving and pick up speed. If a solution is not worked out soon, protests and clashes will become the new normal as the in-betweeners could fuel a social uprising. We have no right to decide for them from a position of privilege but must guarantee their productive worth instead.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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With nations across the world facing a critical test, India’s vibrant democracy and cultural generosity have created the synergy needed to face the challenges posed by COVID-19
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Some contours of the post-Coronavirus world are clearly visible. The nation State has regained legitimacy; the case for free flow of refugees/immigrants across a borderless world has collapsed; and Governments are facing the critical test of whether they can rally their people behind them to overcome the disease. India has performed remarkably well so far, though critics may carp that steps taken in February and March could have been taken earlier. Perhaps, or as Maurice Maeterlinck mused: “It is easy for those who are wise after the event to see what ought to have been done when time has brought full knowledge of what was really taking place” (Wisdom and Destiny).
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Doomsday accounts of Cassandras in reputed (sic) Western media and their acolytes in India have proved demonstrably false. India’s vibrant democracy and cultural generosity have created the synergy needed to face the challenges posed by COVID-19. Immediately after the lockdown was announced, civil society across the country rose as one to daily feed millions in every city, without discrimination; virtually every mandir, matham, gurdwara is at work. Five star hotels, dharamsalas and guest houses are providing quality accommodation for overworked medical staff. Even migrant labourers, who were misguided to leave Delhi or panicked and left other cities, have been provided for by citizens along the route.
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The Indian Railways imaginatively converted unused bogeys into quarantine facilities. Research labs, companies and young engineers are innovating to make ventilators, splitters for ventilators, fumigation chambers, protective gear for medical staff, smart stethoscopes and sanitiser trunks. Households are making and distributing masks to the needy. In Pakistan, NGOs are denying food and rations to poor Hindus and Christians suffering from Coronavirus, an act that has angered even its Muslim neighbours. Long suffering Balochistan complains of neglect; medical staff lack Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and quarantine facilities are disgraceful. The silence of the hyperactive international media is deafening.
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What makes India’s response unique is the Union Cabinet’s decision to reduce salary, allowances and pensions of all Members of Parliament (MPs) by a whopping 30 per cent for one year, with effect from April 1, 2020. The President, Vice President and Governors voluntarily took a similar pay cut as social responsibility. The MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) has been suspended for two years (2020-21 and 2021-22); all money saved will go to the Consolidated Fund of India. This scale of personal sacrifice is unmatched in the world so far; even children have been inspired to give their savings (for bicycle, birthday) to feed the needy.
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Most noteworthy is the speed with which India evacuated its stranded citizens, first from Wuhan (epicenter of the outbreak) and then from other cities: Milan and Rome; Tehran; Manila and Singapore. Of the 890 people evacuated from COVID-19-affected countries, 48 hailed from the Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China, the US, Israel, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa and Peru. They were evacuated at the request of their Governments.
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Special efforts were made to rescue 124 people quarantined on board the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship off the Japanese port of Yokohama, which included five nationals from Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa and Peru. India did offer to rescue Pakistani students from Wuhan but Islamabad rebuffed; seven Maldivians were evacuated.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video conference with leaders of the South Asian nations and launched a fund, with an initial contribution of $10 million, to check the spread of the pandemic in the region. India also responded to requests for emergency medical equipment from Bhutan and the Maldives. The country also participated in the G-20 video conference to discuss containment strategies and the economic impact of the outbreak, especially unemployment.
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Our country has already taken the lead in the struggle to develop a vaccine and on April 11, the Department of Science and Technology agreed to fund Seagull BioSolutions Pvt Ltd to develop Active Virosome Vaccine and Immunodiagnostic kits for COVID-19. As the largest manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), currently considered a life-saving drug for fighting Coronavirus, India is supplying it to 30 countries, including the US, and ramping up production for future needs. However, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) used to manufacture HCQ comes from China, which continued supplies throughout the crisis but in the coming days, we will have to revisit our domestic manufacturing strategy.
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The anti-tuberculosis BCG vaccine is emerging as another potential cure. India’s low death rate is said to be due to its universal immunisation schedule that includes BCG and a fair amount of population immunity to malaria. An ongoing research at the New York Institute of Technology shows that countries that discontinued the BCG vaccine (the US, Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Iran and the UK) have proved very vulnerable to COVID-19.
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Comparisons are undesirable at this apocalyptic moment in human history but given the uncalled for attacks on India from some responsible quarters, some points are in order. India saw its first case of Coronavirus in the last week of January, around the same time as Europe and the US. After initially claiming the disease would go away on its own, US President Donald Trump said on March 30 that administration estimates show that COVID-19 could kill 100,000 to 200,000 people in America and such a toll would indicate that his administration has “done a very good job.” Imagine an Indian leader saying such a death toll is acceptable and surviving. At the time of writing, the world had 1,853,327 cases and 114,250 deaths; India had 9,152 cases and 308 mortalities.
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The pandemic has inflicted deep pain, disrupting incomes of those dependent on daily wages, creating havoc among small businesses and manufacturing units and triggering mass unemployment. Sadly, India is looking at an extension of the three-week lockdown imposed on March 25 because thousands gathered at the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz in Nizamuddin, Delhi, including 280 from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan, to attend a meeting on March 13, defied prohibitory orders.
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Many left and spread the disease to other States and countries. Police escorted some to the airport after the March 22 janata curfew but they returned surreptitiously; the authorities were called only on March 30 after one person died. Thereafter, the behaviour of many in hospital has been unmentionable. Yet, Indian medical staff have served them with exemplary dedication and moral fortitude; all talk of the “sectoral targetting of a particular community” is invidious and deserves outright condemnation.
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(Writer: Sandhya Jain; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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Lockdown extension was inevitable but without specifics of a bailout, Modi’s speech remained anodyne
There is a visual that is far more telling than that of our pater familias Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking to his family of soldier citizens whose sacrifice, pain and toil he acknowledged. What was unacknowledged was the destitution of a man and street dogs licking the milk off the tarmac that had spilt from a tanker on a road in Agra. Nobody is disputing the fact that given India’s particularities — clustered populations, frail healthcare systems and a resource-starved management — a lockdown was necessary, even its extension. But this in the end is just a holding out operation. As the spiral of cases continues with increased testing, though it is not at the aggressive pace as is required, there is a spread that even lockdowns may not be able to prevent all too much. Yes, we have been slow in acting against the Coronavirus pandemic, we should have suspended international flights at least two weeks ago, the screening of passengers was limited to just thermal scans (the quarantine condition came much much later), the lockdown was imposed abruptly without preparation and because of still low testing, our disease burden is difficult to fathom. Although Modi countered such claims, all of which are by the way based on official data, saying India had acted much earlier than any other country, this is not the time for comparatives. There will be more deaths due to job losses, food riots and prolonged suspension of economic activity. This is anyway India’s lost year and lost opportunity. It is appreciable that Modi knows a nation ardently waits to listen to his words of wisdom in times such as these and he plays to the gallery. But he ought to have acted more like a father figure and given us an economic package that everybody was looking forward to, talked of a plan B of living with the virus till a vaccine is found, mentioned fund disbursement from all the PM’s relief funds that have been set up overnight to close gaps in the COVID-19 war room and given a directive on supply-chain management that would ensure the food reaches the beneficiaries it is intended for rather than being wasted on a hot summer day. In short, he had to be more specific than asking us to look after the old and the poor. The civil society knows what it has to do, the PM does not have to remind us of that but he needs to give us a direction that we do not know about.
The point is there was no mention of an increased GDP allocation to aid liquidity and working capital for industries that have already gone under. Other countries have done it and some experts have even suggested borrowings. Although the Opposition Congress doesn’t have much political or emotional heft now, it did raise the right questions about “targetted monetary injections; Keynesian spending, loosening the FMRB and so on.” Also, by saying that districts that do well in containing the spread might see lockdown relaxation from April 20, Modi spelt out no plan for those that are worst-hit. Are people living here to be condemned for their geographical choice or are they to be tested aggressively, treated and the infection-free made to sign up for zonal work permits with given protocols? But there was no such assurance or even interest for those locked out indefinitely. They almost seemed like being a test subject under surveillance in China. While rural harvesting and agricultural work have been resumed in places, industrial units and infrastructure projects need to be started in uninfected areas immediately. Zoning and phasing production with certified staff need to start as well. You may hold fleeing migrant labourers and daily wage earners in camps but things are not so welfarist there either. There are complaints of inadequate rations, cramped conditions and common toilets which they want to escape in the absence of gainful employment. They would rather be healthy in the subsistence economy of their village homes than risk it in alien cities and towns that were the first to turn them out. Job losses are not only about the unorganised sector, they are happening in the organised sector, too. Be it hospitality, tourism, retail majors or media, the vapourisation of visible products has meant that companies are slashing salaries, furloughing employees or retiring those on the cusp of their sunset years. Small businesses have all but wrapped up. And this is just three weeks. If indeed the spiral merits an extended lockdown, then an economic package must be in place. It cannot come in a piecemeal manner or a measured way to gain political mileage later. Modi, the PM, has to appear as everybody’s benefactor, not of his constituents. A pan-India TV speech is the best platform to do it, rather than telling employers not to sack people.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The media is a tertiary industry and as a result will face more trouble before things improve. Which may take years
News about salary delays, cuts and outright layoffs are rampant on groups of journalists. The seemingly heavy-handed cutbacks, which are being blamed on the Coronavirus, have affected both veteran journalists and rookie reporters. Lest it be upon us to judge the decisions made by other media groups, every single media entity is in a spot of financial trouble, including this newspaper, as revenue sources — be it from the Government or the private sector — have completely dried up during the lockdown. At the same time, costs for printing and distribution as well as salaries have remained the same. Then virulent misinformation about the spread of COVID-19 through newspapers has prevented distributors from giving them out in all areas. Newspapers are still better off than their brethren in the magazine sector, where in many cases, printing presses are shut as news stands, which are the primary source of distribution for many magazines, are empty. In a way, the Indian media is responsible for some of the crisis, thanks to the “price wars” of the 1990s that have driven down the subscriber costs of newspapers, making them more dependent on private sector advertising.
Yet, it is not just the print media that is suffering. Layoffs and salary cuts are taking place in television as well. Flawed distribution strategies by channels and policies by the regulator have meant many news channels are free-to-air and, thus, survive on advertisements. With India’s industry shut, that source of revenue has dried up. While people may believe that the web is a land of milk and honey, much advertising revenues are swallowed up by the likes of Facebook and Google and eyeballs are not equal to revenue. Indeed, the high establishment cost of several start-up media sites will ensure that many might not make the cut once COVID-19 is dealt with, leaving a scarred and empty media landscape. Can the Government do much? For one, supporting the media through advertising as well as relaxing the wage board for print will be a start. Despite that, cutbacks will be brutal, many journalists and managers in the media will be out of a job and almost no journalism graduates will be hired for the next year. Our role in the media will be job preservation and creation and for that, the Government has to think out of the box and cut the industry some slack.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
China bank’s stake in HDFC shouldn’t set alarm bells ringing. The Govt must be wary of the Chinese industry
Let us be honest, the collapse in the value of several top-notch companies over the past two months has meant that there are some very good value blue chip stocks available in the market. So, one should see the People’s Bank of China (PBoC)’s acquisition of one per cent stake in the country’s largest private home loan lender, HDFC, as a savvy move. In fact, the PBoC only acquired 0.2 per cent of HDFC this time round, to add to the 0.8 per cent it already held. PBoC, which manages the People’s Republic of China’s sovereign wealth fund, must have felt that the 40 per cent reduction in HDFC’s share price represented good value, just like ordinary punters, who are doubling down on blue chips right now. Shouldn’t India be worried about Chinese investments in Indian companies? Yes it should be but not in this particular case. Because China’s sovereign wealth fund isn’t the single-largest holder of financial assets to own a stake in HDFC. That would be Singapore with 3.3 per cent. In fact, the Abu Dhabi Government and the Norwegian Central bank hold larger stakes in HDFC than China. So China’s extra investment should actually be seen as a vote of confidence in Deepak Parekh, the promoter of HDFC, and in the Indian economy, once we emerge from the Coronavirus episode.
That said, there are some worrying trends about China that Indian policymakers should be wary of. The first is that there is a genuine fear among Indian manufacturers, large and small, that Chinese companies will use their head-start in opening from the lockdown to dump products on them. The Indian economy, particularly small and medium scale manufacturing, may take time, perhaps, till the end of the monsoon, to get back to normalcy. And while countervailing duties are anti-consumer, the Government should look long and hard at imposing such duties if for nothing else to protect manufacturing in the country. Then there is the other issue. Chinese firms have an overweight investment presence in several areas that are strategically important, such as in the financial services space with Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group being the largest shareholder in PayTM. Similarly, in educational technology and several other start-ups, India has allowed wanton investment by China. While Chinese money will bail out the world to a great extent after this incident, India is no exception. We should welcome those investments like the recent one in HDFC. But we have to protect industries and sectors, which are strategically important for India, from undue Chinese influence. This requires strategic thinking as well as an understanding of China, which is buying influence across the world. As the saying goes, there’s no free lunch.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The race to win the White House this November has come down to two old, White men. Not a perfect match
So Bernie Sander’s second shot at a political revolution was stillborn yet again. Some may blame the Democratic Party’s establishment for sidelining him, others will point to the fact that Sanders was backed by polarising figures such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, the two rookie members of the US Congress, whose views are considered an anathema to “middle” America, a very important vote-bank which propelled President Donald Trump to power. However, Joe Biden, the winner of the race to stand against Trump, the 45th President of the US, may not be the best candidate. Sure, he will have the backing of former President Barack Obama, the man under whom Biden served as Vice President, and the entire Democratic Party establishment as well as much of the celebrity and media world, who are desperate to see the back of Trump. But say what you will about Trump and the Republican Party, the ground game that “team Trump” has is tremendous as is his ability to focus the media narrative on himself.
The fact is that the longer Trump stays in power, the more focussed his voters become on keeping him there. He is a lightning rod for many media issues and say what you will about his often mindless foreign policy and his verbal gaffes, Trump always has had a point about the duplicitous nature of the Chinese dragon, which is now on full show during the Coronavirus crisis. The fact is also that strangely for a Republican President, he has never had to actually resort to huge acts of American military aggression. Indeed, he has been less trigger happy than his predecessor, the aforementioned Obama. Defeating Trump will take a sharp focus and gritty determination. And Biden, who is actually older than Trump, despite his five decades of public life, might not have what it takes to beat Trump. However, even a day is a long time in politics and the American response to the Coronavirus crisis might help either side much more than they expect. And then there is the American Presidential election system, flawed but fair at the same time, giving some smaller States an outsize responsibility in choosing the winner and discarding larger ones completely. Voting is not at all easy for some minorities across the US; some States have actually made it harder. And if Bernie Sanders supporters or “Bros,” as they were pejoratively known, don’t come to the polls this time as they did in the last election, things will definitely not be all that great for Biden.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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An ill-advised section of Muslims is disregarding precautionary measures against Corona, thus imperiling safety. There’s history but no reason why that view should guide their choice
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Does it seem like a déjà vu? In December 1849, cholera was detected in Beylik of Tunis (now Tunisia). Ahmad I ibn Mustafa (1805-55), a progressive ruler, left the capital city of Tunis terrified. He moved to a gardened villa of the then Prime Minister Mustapha Khaznadar in Carthage along with a personal retinue and armed guards. From his new camp office, he deployed Italian doctors from nizam jadid (new European-style Army of Tunisia) for treatment in temporary hospitals set up in the barracks. Daily statistics of the infection, deaths and recovery were compiled, which along with instructions of hygiene, were printed in Italian and Arabic language. These were distributed in the mosques and churches for the edification of the people.
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Then came the inflection point during the Mawlid al-nabi (the Prophet’s Birthday), which fell on January 27, 1850. Ahmad I ibn Mustafa was in dilemma regarding the celebratory congregations and the advisability of his joining them in view of the outbreak. Ultimately, he sent a communiqué, ordering the celebrations to be held as usual and for oil to be sent to the minarets. The event was held; canons fired; and two verses of the Quran were read to “comfort the people in times of difficulty.”
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Within days, the epidemic was raging the Muslim quarters, and before long, the entire city of Tunis was in the grip of cholera. Muhammed Sharif, a notable figure of Tunis, passed away on February 6, which was followed by the death of several of his family members and those who had come in contact with him. This incident has been described by Nancy Elizabeth Gallagher in her insightful book, Medicine and power in Tunisia, 1780-1900 (1983, CUP).
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The worst was yet to come. The epidemic polarised public opinion in Tunis. Many blamed the European doctors, by extension, their line of treatment. Several doctors were abused and manhandled. Ahmad I ibn Mustafa, advised by his personal Italian physician, Abraham Lumbroso, put himself in medical isolation. His extreme measures annoyed some of his Ministers. One day, a Group of Ministers politely told him that precaution by means of quarantine was nowhere to be found in Islam and is an invention of Christendom, whose knowledge of diseases and medicine is inferior to Islam.
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The debate over the propriety of quarantine took a theological turn. Prime Minister Khaznadar, a critic of European medicine, condemned the quarantine and declared that Muslims, who died of cholera, were martyrs. Bin Dayaf, Ahmad I ibn Mustafa’s personal secretary, opined that self-preservation by quarantine was legal and no religious text disapproved of it. The two reached out to a certain cleric. Tayyib Al-Riyahi, son and expected successor Ibrahim al-Riyahi, Imam of Great Mosque of Tunis, issued a fatwa that victims of cholera were martyrs by citing the Hadith of Muwatta (the Maliki law book) because they died of internal wounds. Then Khazandar and Bin Dayaf went to Mufti Muhammed bin Salama, who ruled that victims of cholera were not martyrs. At this point, Bin Dayaf ended his discussion by observing that whatever be the reality, even “alims (scholars of Islam) die of cholera.”
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Combating communicable diseases has often been vitiated by theological considerations and confrontations in the past. It took almost four centuries for the Ottoman Empire to have a quarantine policy. Sultan Mahmud II, advised by his Austrian doctor, Anton Lagos, and impressed by the treatise of Hamdan Bin El-Mehrum Osman Hoca, finally adopted quarantine as a measure to combat plague in 1838 even as the disease had bedevilled the Ottoman Empire at least since the mid-15th century. No doubt, had there been men like Idris-i Bitlisi, an Ottoman statesman, and Isameddin Ahmed bin Mustafa Tasköprüzade, a prominent judge way back in the 16th century who advocated a rational approach, there would be precedence. There were prominent medical doctors like Osman bin Suleyman Penah (d.1817) in the reign of Selim III, too. They advocated that quarantine and precautions against plague and epidemic would signify betrayal of Muslim’s trust in divine fate (tevekkul).
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Birsen Bulmus, in his eminently readable, Plague, Quarantines and the Geopolitics of the Ottoman Empire (2012), traces the history of health and medical policies against plague and allied epidemics in the Turkish reign. Bulmus exhibits how it was not only Muslim divines and physicians who doubted quarantines/precautions but in reality, whatever kills a Christian also kills a Muslim. Whatever cures a Hindu, cures a Muslim as well. Physiology is more egalitarian than theology.
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The holy city of Mecca was affected by cholera in 1831, which recurred almost annually during the pilgrimage. Its invasion was particularly serious in 1865, when almost a third of the pilgrims reportedly perished. It was the most dominant issue at the International Sanitary Conference at Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1866. A six-member committee, comprising Arabs and Europeans, drew up a report to regulate the maritime traffic for Hajj pilgrimage in 1867.
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Thus, if Saudi Arabia has now put Mecca and Medina under lockdown and is contemplating on deferring the annual Hajj scheduled for July 28-August 2 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it is only because they know their history better. Mosques are likewise closed to congregations in India. The Ulema has appealed the Muslims to tender namaz at home, including on Friday.
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However, the irresponsible behaviour of a section of the community in India is putting its collective safety against COVID-19 at great risk. The Tablighi Jamat’s grand event at Nizamuddin Markaz Masjid between March 13 and 15 has led to a huge spike in Coronavirus cases. Though there was no lockdown in India at the time of the conference, the Delhi Government had already prohibited all types of gathering above 200 people by then. They continued to hold back more than 2,000 participants in a six-floor dormitory long after the event had ended. The management refused to buckle even after receiving notice from the Delhi Police. It took 36 hours to evacuate 2,361 people from the premises to put them into hospitals and quarantine centres.
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The misinformation campaign over Tik Tok, targetting impressionable young boys from the Muslim community to throw caution to the wind, is sinister. Those paying heed to such evil counsel will jeopardise their own health before they risk someone else’s. If Muslims had really been depending upon the divine will for health instead of modern medicine all these years, the hospitals in Delhi would not have a large percentage of them. Nor would the super speciality hospitals in India receive a large number of “medical tourists” from Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia, among others. Muslims, like anyone else, wear woollen clothes when it is winter and shed them in springtime. Why pass on all responsibility to Allah in the COVID season?
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As Ahmad I ibn Mustafa had said in 1850 cholera season, “If divine decree and fate arrive and I die with the disease, I fear I would say, ‘if only I had observed quarantine, this would not have happened’ because of my belief that everything comes from Allah.”
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(Writer: Priyadarshi Dutta; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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