I rebut recently published article “Modi’s Pandemic Gambit” by Edmond Roy in the Lowery Institute1 on 23 July 2020. This article is flawed and highly biased on many levels, it starts with a decidedly bleak outlook for the COVID-19 deaths in India even though India has lowest death rates3 per capita so far. Secondly, he assumes more infection means some calamity without giving any reference to the Health Authority’s assessment of the situation. This is Edmond’s pure imagination and fear-mongering fabrication with a sound grounding in Science.

The author makes a very baseless and blatant statement that Mr Modi has a vision of a Hindu autocracy in the near future. Neither Mr Modi nor his political party has made any comments in this relation or indication that they are Hindu party or have any aspiration towards the promotion of any particular religion. The author lacks an understanding of the democratic framework of India. Again, the author’s assertion falls flat on the ground. In contrast, ground evidence speaks the complete opposite of what Edmond Roy is trying to portray. In 2019, Mr Narendra Modi’s government announced 50 million scholarships for Muslim Minority of which half of the places are reserved for girls.

Edmond Roy seems to be a confused journalist as he wanders on random topics under the garb of Mr Modi’s COVID-19 response. He raises the issue of lack of doctors in India as if this scarcity has recent creation of Mr Modi’s government. Without going into the depth of the subject, he blanketly holds the present government responsible for the past Indian Congress’s lack of development on all fronts, including human resource development, modernization of hospitals and medical infrastructure.

In the next paragraph, the author randomly raises the issue of a Communist/Maoist support Anand Teltumbde, who is being investigated for instigating massive rioting in the state of Maharashtra in 2018. In the same paragraph, he is attempting to play identity politics of Anand’s identity, which has no relevance in present-day India.  

The article highlights the author’s anti-India, anti-Modi, and Anti-Hindu stance without any reasonable pieces of evidence to support his viewpoints. This is an utterly misinformed piece of work which only shows the lack of journalist rigours and integrity. The blatant and false narrative against Mr Narendra Modi and India needs to be exposed.

References:

  1. https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/modis-pandemic-gambit
  2. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/modi-government-announces-scholarships-to-5-crore-minority-students-in-next-5-years-1546833-2019-06-11
  3. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/seeing-the-invisible/explaining-indias-extraordinarily-low-death-rate-from-covid-19/
  4. https://indiafacts.org/australian-medias-anti-india-propaganda

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