Disasters In India

"Stay at homes, wash your hands regularly and only go out from in exigencies while covering your mouth with mask, stole or cloth. This could be the best example of patriotism and cooperation against the fight with the virus."

"Mere courage and collaboration between our regular citizenry – the medical professionals, researchers and scientists — is insufficient by itself to combat a pandemic such as COVID-19. It is equally important that our governments take quick and robust decisions and implement effective policies."

"After the outbreak of Covid-19, one was hoping that the global calamity will be combated on top priority without any consideration of race, ethnicity and religion. But matters took such a turn in India that even the United Nations had to state that race, ethnicity and religion should be no consideration in dealing with the crisis. Narendra Modi, India’s Prime Minister, said late in the day that the Novel Coronavirus does not see the barriers of religions or caste. Even the RSS Chief, though very late in the chronology of events, also said that whole communities should not be targeted for the mistakes of a few. By this time the damage was already done."

"Overall, during the last couple of months, the hate-filled atmosphere has taken a sharp upturn and the popular talk is veering towards shun Muslims and boycotting their trades. This does remind some of the boycott of Jew traders before the "" was put into action in Germany. Already the myths, stereotypes and biases against Muslims in particular and partly against Christians abound in the society. A hate-creation mechanism is already in place. This mechanism has become robust during last few years. The roots of this mechanism are fairly deep and it has been actively nurtured by communal elements. That a human tragedy like Covid-19 could have boosted divisive processes was unthinkable a few years ago."

"The health care system will soon be placed in a very difficult situation where they have to make a choice between who to provide care to and who to simply say, 'sorry, we can’t do anything for you'."

"The moment that the Chinese scientists and doctors announced that the coronavirus could be transmitted between human beings on Jan. 20, 2020, the socialist governments went into action to monitor ports of entry and to test and trace key parts of the population. They set up task forces and procedures to immediately make sure that the infection would not go out of control amongst their people. They did not wait till the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic on March 11. This is in stark contrast to governments in the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, India, and other capitalist states, where there has been a hallucinatory attitude towards the Chinese government and the WHO. There is no comparison between the stance of Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and U.S. President Donald Trump: the former had a sober, science-based attitude, while the latter has consistently laughed off the coronavirus as a simple flu as recently as June 24."

"A drug to treat head lice and worms will now be administered to Covid-19 patients and those at high risk of infection in Uttar Pradesh. The anti-parasite drug, ivermectin, has been used in clinical trials in Delhi hospitals but Uttar Pradesh is the first to approve its statewide use in the Covid-19 prevention protocol. .. The idea is that its immunomodulation properties — activating the immune system — could help stave off Covid-19. “Ivermectin has been used for several years to treat many infectious diseases … It has low adverse effects. We have been providing the drug to Covid-19 patients in our isolation ward. Positive results were achieved,” said Dr Sanjay Kala, principal of SN Medical College. And the range of its use has been considered worth exploring. “It has antimicrobial, antiviral and anti-cancer properties. It has shown effective results in Covid-19 studies,” said Dr Prashant Prakash, professor of pulmonary medicine at the college."

"Even though Pfizer has created a promising vaccine, the logistics for making it available to every Indian need to be worked out. GOI has to define a vaccine distribution strategy and how it will reach every Indian."

"It is the vaccine or vaccines that will win the war against COVID-19, not the government or mythological beliefs."

"What is the problem in giving Pfizer and Moderna vaccines approvals for use in India?"

"Why has clearance been denied to Pfizervaccine ? Let all vaccines become available in the market and let consumers decide. “ Atmanirbhar” should not become 1970s style protectionism."

"Government must immediately provide funds to ramp up production in India and increase supplies. Government must also authorise the use of more approved vaccines and allow their manufacture or import."

"We have a duopoly of two vaccines, but they are hardly sufficient to vaccinate a nation of 138 crore people."

"Pfizer and Moderna are the best vaccines. They have been out since Dec-2020. Why don't we have them in India yet? Do we not deserve the best? Don't we buy defense equipment from abroad? Is this not a war like situation? Why does the vaccine have to be made here and only here?"

"Remember, we need global help right now to get the vaccines. The person who needs the help cannot have ego. Ego never served anyone anyway, but if we keep ego or fake pride now, when we need help, we won't succeed. Heads down, get to work, source and administer the vaccines."

"Oh but why couldn't Pfizer agree to our terms, some say. Well, we needed Pfizer's vaccine more than they needed us. We could have saved lives if we kept our ego down and said 'how can we make it work Pfizer' rather than 'why can't you listen to us.' Lives could have been saved."

"Today, whichever CM will be able to source and vaccinate their entire state will become a national star. Great political opportunity that will save lives too!"

"The Pfizer vaccine, one of the best ones, used in most developed countries, applied for permission in India in Dec-2020. India instead asked them to do more studies here. Pfizer withdrew its application in Feb-21. Imagine lives saved if we allowed the vaccine from December itself."

"We need 70% entire population to get herd immunity. Not just adult population. Virus doesn’t check your Adhaar card. It maybe more than 70% even as the vaccines we’ve used have lower overall efficacy than mRNA vaccines. Define the problem properly to solve it."

"I have a fascination with getting my entire country vaccinated. For that we need all the vaccines we can get and we will need them all. Nothing to do with nation of origin."

"Keep asking on the vaccine plan. How much vaccine? By what date? What %age of pop vaccinated by May 31, June 30,July 31? Real numbers. Abuse me, troll me, demean my work, doubt my intentions, mock me. But keep asking on the vaccine plan. For the sake of my country. 🙏🏻"

"Firefighting is good. That's what's happening right now. But solution is in vaccines. Enough vaccines.It's not which vaccine. Our vaccine. Their vaccine. It's enough vaccines. If we don't have enough, mayhem won't stop. Swallow pride. Accept mistakes. Get 'enough' vaccines."

"Top-3 national priorities right now, where the entire country should be focused: Vaccine. Vaccine. Vaccine."

"The best news of the day. Pfizer vaccine (a major trial was under progress) is 90% effective. Victory for science and humanity. Stock markets soaring across the world. Seems like the real deal this time."

"World’s leading vaccine manufacturer, now vaccine shortage across states. No vaccinations in Mumbai for next 3 days. So much for starting 18 plus vaccine drive from May 1. On vaccines, Centre has made just too many botch ups. Will anyone say Mea culpa?"

"People elected him to govern, they presumed the Prime Minister will rise to the occasion to help people in crisis. What has Modi done to expand vaccine production? There are 13 vaccines available in the world; has the Prime Minister talked to those manufacturers for making them available in India? Has he any concern for the people?"

"After failing as a part-time politician, has Rahul Gandhi switched to full time lobbying? First he lobbied for fighter plane companies by trying to derail India’s acquisition programme. Now he is lobbying for pharma companies by asking for arbitrary approvals for foreign vaccines."

"Reports from across the country speak of the scarcity of Covid-19 vaccine as also of important life saving drugs including Remdesivir in different parts of the country."

"Vaccines are our foremost hope. Sadly, most of the states are left with a stock of just three to five days. While it will be necessary on one hand to substantially ramp up our domestic production capacity, it will also be prudent to allow emergency use authorisation of all the vaccine candidates that have the required clearances without any further delay."

"This is precisely what happened in India, in June 1975, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi brought democracy under an eclipse by bringing India under Emergency Rule. Nineteen months later, the eclipse disappeared as the result of a glorious struggle launched by the people of India against the Congress party’s authoritarianism. If the Emergency was the darkest period in India’s post-Independence history, the righteous struggle for the restoration of democracy was undoubtedly the brightest. It so happened that I, along with tens of thousands of my countrymen, was both a victim of Emergency and a soldier in the Army of Democracy that won the battle against it."

"You were merely asked to bend, but you chose to crawl."

"Emergency was declared. Sanjay Gandhi took over. He created an army of morally corrupt, foreign-educated intellectuals with no track record. Their biggest strength was their unconditional loyalty to the Gandhi family. This tradition has continued. Loyalty over merit. Scheming over competence. Loot over contribution. Corruption grew. Guilt grew. Fear grew. With every scam, the family started making the intellectual wall bigger and bigger. Today this wall is full of scammers, crooks, agents, brokers, pimps, lobbyists, character assassins, land sharks etc. disguised as lawyers, journalists, NGOs, feminists, advisors, professors, socialists etc. Simply put, beneficiaries of Congress’s largesse."

"The Indian and Western elite did not regard any of Nehru’s successors as ‘thinking’ leaders. Indira Gandhi tried hard to win over India’s intellectual elite, but the Emergency broke a nascent link. When men like P.N. Haksar and P.N. Dhar were hounded out of her inner circle, India’s intellectuals deserted her. Rajiv Gandhi was never taken seriously by this elite. Narasimha Rao may have been a scholar in his own right, but he was an ‘outsider’ to India’s metropolitan elite. In Andhra Pradesh, among the Telugu-speaking elite he was known as an ashtavadhani, a literary master. But Delhi’s elite tended to conflate his intellectual achievements with the fact that he was fluent in many languages. Vajpayee too was a highly regarded poet. Indeed, Rao and Vajpayee enjoyed the company of intellectuals and could count many professors among their friends. But in the snobbish world of the metropolitan elite, an Oxbridge type like Dr Singh was regarded as a class apart from these home-grown politician-intellectuals."

"Freedom became one of the beacon lights of my life and it has remained so ever since. Freedom with the passing of years transcended the mere freedom of my country and embraced freedom of man everywhere and from every sort of trammel—above all, it meant freedom of the human personality, freedom of the mind, freedom of the spirit. This freedom has become the passion of my life and I shall not see it compromised for bread, for security, for prosperity, for the glory of the state or for anything else."

"The question before us is not whether Indira Gandhi should continue to be prime minister or not. The point is whether democracy in this country is to survive or not. The democratic structure stands on three pillars, namely a strong opposition, independent judiciary and free press. Emergency has destroyed all these essentials."

"The Emergency that followed in June 1975 was by no means an ad hoc idea accepted for meeting an abrupt situation. The idea of imposing an authoritarian regime on the country had been maturing for a long time in the minds of the communist mafia that Pandit Nehru had promoted. The situation, too, was being shaped in the same direction by the self-righteousness and consequent high-handedness which accompanied the idea. The seeds sown by Pandit Nehru were bearing fruits. All those who stood up against Mrs. Indira Gandhi's guiles and greed were denounced as agents of the CIA. The "progressive" flock was one again in the forefront of the "fight against forces of fascism". And by the time Mrs. Indira Gandhi realized what was happening, much mischief had been done."

"In his book My Eleven Years with Fakhruddin Ahmad, Mr. Fazle Ahmed Rehmany quotes an incident which throws interesting light on the psychology of secularism and its need to keep Muslims in isolation and in a sort of protective custody. During the Emergency period some followers of the Jamaat-e-Islami found themselves in the same jail as the members of the RSS; here they began to discover that the latter were no monsters as described by the 'nationalist' and secularist propaganda. Therefore they began to think better of the Hindus. This alarmed the secularists and the interested Maulvis. Some Maulvis belonging to the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-i-Hind met President.. Fakhruddin Ahmad, and reported to him about the growing rapport between the members of the two communities. This 'stunned' the President and he said that this boded an 'ominous' future for Congress Muslim leaders and he promised that he would speak to Indiraji about this dangerous development and ensure that Muslims remain Muslims."

"During the Emergency, many socialists were left untouched by Indira, while the RSS was made to bear the brunt of the repression. But when the Janata government was formed, the same socialists, who had come to power on the blood and sweat of the RSS workers, demanded that the RSS members of the government choose between their seat and their RSS membership. There was no come out in their defense, no front or committee of intellectuals of expose the utter dishonesty and absurdity of the whole dual membership issue. Everybody thinking was moulded by the Left, and had no affinity or sympathy with RSS thought. Everybody felt some allegiance to socialism and would not go against a socialist demand. And in shame the RSS people were sent into the wilderness."

"“… I came under obvious suspicion within days of my arrival in the country (India)… After arranging meetings by telephone, odd characters would turn up to observe who I was seeing each morning, others would be waiting in red settees in the entrance of the Delphi Hotel. People I spoke to openly would be later stopped and questioned. At least twice my hotel room was broken into and searched…” Sweeney further recounted: “When I complained of the continued harassment by Government agents and asked Mr Haksar (A N D Hakasar was the chief government spokesperson) to explain why it had been necessary to organise breakings to my hotel rooms, he replied that unless I left the country, as soon as possible, there would be a ‘further prospect of physical inconvenience’.”"

"“The shock troops of the movement [against the Emergency] largely come from Jana Sangh and its ideological affiliate, the RSS, which claim a combined membership of 10 million (of whom 80,000, including 6000 full-time party workers, are in prison).”"

"“…Pro-CPI (Communist Party of India) journals in India are being given some latitude by the censors because the party is in favour of even stronger measures to suppress the non-communist opposition.”"

"“The underground campaign against Mrs Gandhi claims to be the only non-left wing revolutionary force in the world, disavowing both bloodshed and class struggle. Indeed, it might even be called right wing since it is dominated by the Hindu communalist party, Jan Sangh and its ‘cultural’ (some say paramilitary) affiliate the RSS. But its platform at the moment has only one non-ideological plank; to bring democracy back to India. The ground troops of this operation (the underground movement), consist of tens of thousands of cadres who are organized to the village level into four men cells. Most of them are RSS regulars, though more and more new young recruits are coming in. The other underground parties which started out as partners in the underground have effectively abandoned the field to Jan Sangh and RSS.”"

"“We were not able to capture even 10 per cent of the RSS workers. They all have gone underground and the RSS did not disperse even after the ban, on the contrary it was striking roots in new areas like Kerala”."

"“Among the groups which carried on this work with heroic persistence the RSS group stands out for its special mention. In organizing satyagraha, in maintaining the all-India communication network, in quietly collecting money to finance the movement, in arranging distribution of literature without any bottleneck and in offering help to fellow prisoners even of other parties and other faiths, they proved that they constitute the nearest answer to Swami Vivekananda’s call for an army of sanyasins to take up social and political work in this country. They are a constructive force who has won the admiration of fellow political workers and respect of even their erstwhile opponents.” (Ibid)"

"“When elections were announced the one anxiety that filled my mind was , who are the persons who will carry the message of freedom to the people and make them aware of the things at stake? The workers of RSS came forward in thousands and my anciety was set at rest. Even prior to elections the main burden of the struggle was borne by them. It is they who had kept up people’s morale. More than 80 per cent of the fighting cadres had been drawn from the RSS. I have personally seen thousands of their youngmen solely inspired by a spirit of idealism, without any desire or expectation in return, plunging into the struggle. Often they had nothing to eat, no place to rest, but their zeal remained unabated.”"

"A large part of the rationale for the Emergency, it must be remembered, stemmed from the Congress claim that it was protecting the nation from the fascism embodied by the RSS and its allied forces."

"Forced sterilisation was by far the most calamitous exercise undertaken during the Emergency. The IMF and World Bank had periodically shared their fears with New Delhi about the uncontrolled rise in population levels. India’s democracy was a hurdle: no government could possibly enact laws limiting the number of children a couple could have without incurring punishment at the ballot box. But with democracy suspended, the IMF and World Bank encouraged Indira to pursue the programme with renewed vigour."

"Congress is known for stifling democracy. It did so in 1975 while imposing an Emergency on the country. And you may have witnessed today, for its own agenda, Congress has arrested one of the biggest journalists of India and assaulted the fourth pillar of democracy."