After sending ‘hazaar laanat’ to the bullet that took photojournalist Danish Siddique’s life, NDTV’s Ravish Kumar is now trying to send ‘hazaar laanat’ to BJP IT Cell for questioning the Kerala government for a surge in Covid-19 cases.
In a long rant on Facebook, Kumar accused BJP’s IT Cell of everything, even the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, but not once did he mention the ‘not-so-successful’ Kerala model. On the other hand, he questioned the so-called “IT Cell” and BJP supporters for questioning the Kerala government. Did not make much sense? Well, that is the point.
Here is how Ravish Kumar’s monologue made very little sense and seemed like a childish squabble of ‘you did it..no you did it.’
Kumar began his post by claiming that the ‘IT-Cell’ is running a campaign on social networking platforms heckling media for its silence on Kerala. Without uttering a single line on the current worrisome situation of the state, Kumar quickly cross-questioned by asking why this IT-Cell was in hiding during the second wave of the pandemic.
He also claimed that they refused to help the people in need. Now we are not too sure who Kumar considers as IT-Cell because for the left a 10-year-old referring to Prime Minister Modi as ‘ji’ could also be listed as an IT-Cell. Anyway, assuming Kumar here is referring to BJP leaders and supporters, it was for all of us to see how from a supporter to a karyakarta to a Union Minister responded to as many SOS calls as possible.
In fact, it will be interesting to note how many SOS calls did their favourite youth leader respond to amidst the crisis.
Also for the benefit of the Magsaysay Award winner, with immense efforts and gumption, most of the country is past the second wave. The call for questioning the Kerala government is to ensure that we are not hit by the third wave because of the sloppiness of one state.
Just like Ravish Kumar had focused all of his ‘Hazaar laanats’ not on the Taliban which killed Danish but the bullet, here he is accusing the “IT-cell” for questioning the Kerala government, but not the Kerala government which is clearly failing to control the Covid cases in the state.
Doing what the lobby is best at, Kumar once again asserted that the government is hiding Covid-19 data. Without citing any source, Kumar alleged that the deaths due to the coronavirus could be well above 40 lakhs and added why did the IT-Cell not question the government then.
In a shameful and blatant attempt to fearmonger, Kumar conveniently missed the fact that data collection and health management is a state affair. Oh sorry! The recent ‘no deaths due to lack of oxygen’ spin had unravelled their propaganda already.
Kumar, plausibly concerned about the ‘idea of India’ also questioned why the same IT-Cell chooses to remain quiet on alleged Pegasus snoopgate and rise in petrol prices.
Kumar, in an ironic ending to his sermon, said, “No government must be shielded on their failure of tackling corona. Not even the Kerala government. Modi government’s failure in the second wave is evident. We cannot discount that.”
How to pin the blame on someone for someone else’s failure, is an art to learn from the left lobby.
To conclude, Kumar recommended a ‘must-watch’ TheWire exclusive (not-so-explosive one this time) interview. In this, one expert from the US who claimed the worst was over in February, blames the Modi government for the second wave of the pandemic.
In a 50-minute interview to Karan Thapar, Bhramar Mukherjee who as TheWire quoted is “one of the United States’ most highly regarded professors of biostatistics, epidemiology and global public health, who has done path-breaking work on India’s COVID-19 experience at the University of Michigan” claimed that the second wave could have been averted if the Centre acted on time.
Mukherjee in the interview said, “To summarise, had action taken place at any time in March, it is plausible that more than 90% of observed cases and deaths between March 1 and May 15 could have been potentially avoided.” We reported earlier multiple times on how the Centre had alerted states of the plausible second wave including special meetings with Maharashtra which was the one to be affected by the second wave.
While Mukherjee blamed Assam’s election rally for the rise in cases in the North East (conveniently leaving out West Bengal), she provided a ‘balanced view’ on the current situation in Kerala, still claiming that it protected its people better than the other states.
