Along with the monstrosity of the Coronavirus worldwide, we are also witnessing a deluge of heartlessness and utter falsehood in our society.
A certain member of the Union Cabinet has made a deadly cocktail of heartlessness and falsehood by bizarrely commenting that "not a single Indian citizen has been left wanting for food"!
Even in "normal" times, around 19 crore Indians are compelled to go to bed on empty stomach despite being a "food surplus" nation! And here amid the pandemonium following the instant lockdown; not any blind BJP zealot, rather none other than a "responsible" minister of the Union Cabinet nonchalantly stresses that "not a single Indian citizen has been left wanting for food"!
With instant lockdown, came instant joblessness! Wage earners and poorest of poor turned instant bankrupt. Innumerable non-migrant poor like street vendors or doing other "petty" jobs got bereft of cash and food leading many of them to commit suicide after feeling absolutely helpless on viewing the starved state of children and family members.
And, the worst was of course reserved for those who got hounded out by the landlords and employers and found themselves on streets desperate to reach home by traversing hundreds of miles or left their shelter after exhaustion of cash! Hundreds of them collapsed on streets permanently following such an unbearable strain on starved stomachs!
The death of hungry 12-year old Chhattisgarh labour Jamalo Makdam while returning from the chilly fields of Telengana and her passing away after traversing hundred kilometres is nothing but a tight slap on the face of the Who's Who of the Central powers always beating the trumpet of the country's "elitism" and "might"!
Far from getting repentant upon the "gift" of hunger starvation and resultant death in such mammoth scale, the concerned member is shamelessly asserting that not a single Indian citizen has been left hungry! What a heartless attitude and mockery of the plight of the poorest of poor!
However, what better can be expected from the concerned authorities which can scandalously boast of leading India to a five-trillion dollar economy despite the country ranking an atrocious 102 among 117 nations in Global Hunger Index last year!
With such self-boasting attitude coupled with Himalayan indifference towards the millions of our own citizens in perpetual hunger and starvation; it is completely natural that lockdown-related hunger will also be scandalously swept under "nationalist" carpet!
Even those who are not completely starving, many have been forced to reduce intake of meals. Many others are selling their possessions, borrowing from moneylenders at steep interest to keep hunger at bay for the time being!
Apart from the "gift" of hunger, deaths (including those from accidents while participating in mass exodus), joblessness with rampant loss of employment and school dropouts and of course over 3,600 deaths directly from COVID-19 with the number of infection and deaths fast increasing, all direct result of much-delayed lockdown that too in merely four-hour notice without minimum preparation; how heartlessly certain elements claim "superb success" in fighting Covid-19 under the "stupendous leadership" of Narendra Modi showing "New Path" to the entire world!
Even amid this national tragedy, the six-year completion of "unparalleled" regime of "Good Days" have also got celebrated by its social media team!
While one stalwart can taunt a Gandhi as "Dramabaz" for his "sin" of arranging transport for the vulnerable poorest of poor left to fend for themselves and "wasting their time" while they were engaged in "national noble duty of walking"; another accuses TMC-led West Bengal government of "preventing entry of Bengali migrants" by "not requisitioning trains" instead of looking into allegation of Government-Builder nexus leading to cancellation of trains from Bangalore so as to prevent exodus of migrant labours!
And when the fact remains that the Bengal government is paying 100 per cent charge to the Railways for bringing home the migrants from the state when it should have been the responsibility of the Central government to transport migrants for free by utilising PM CARES FUND, it is BJP-led Uttar Pradesh which is preventing its migrant labours from returning home by creating all sorts of obstacles so that another Gandhi cannot get credit of arranging buses for labours from Delhi and Rajasthan border!
Even in this civilizational crisis and national calamity, there is no end to heartless politics by exploiting the tragedy to reap political dividend in the 2021 Bengal polls and prevent the Congress from attaining a bit popularity in Uttar Pradesh!
That society indeed is unfortunate where falsehood and heartlessness dominate the show even during severe calamities!
