Modi Govt Uses Coronavirus to Open Corruption Floodgates in India
While the Modi government has earmarked public funds worth billions of dollars to combat coronavirus, it is not spending money even to provide the basic healthcare facilities in the hospitals to treat coronavirus patients.
By Rakesh Raman
The coronavirus (COVID-19) health crisis has come as a blessing in disguise for the corrupt Indian bureaucrats and politicians in the government. The State governments and the Central government have announced massive relief packages for the poor who are dying with hunger and the disease.
But all these relief announcements exist only in official files while the cash as well as non-cash benefits are not reaching the poor. In order to steal money worth billions of dollars, the governments have not made any transparent auditing systems to track the money.
Take, for example, the Rs 1.70 lakh crore ($22 billion) relief package under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana for the poor to help them fight the battle against coronavirus. As the Indian government headed by PM Narendra Modi has not revealed the process to spend this money, there are huge chances of misappropriation of funds.
Similarly, the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) was created on 28 March 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic in India. But there is hardly any transparency in the management of this fund.
While the Modi government is not using the taxpayers’ money collected through different funds for improving the healthcare infrastructure to combat the disease, research shows India may have 1.3 million coronavirus cases by next month – May 2020.
| The Modi government is not spending the allocated money transparently to tackle the coronavirus crisis. |
People who want to hold the Modi government accountable argue that there was no need to create a separate PM CARES Fund when the existing Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund has a balance of 38 billion rupees (or $498.6 million) which can be spent to tackle the COVID-19 crisis.
While the Modi government has earmarked public funds worth billions of dollars to combat coronavirus, it is not spending money even to provide the basic healthcare facilities in the hospitals to treat coronavirus patients.
According to Reuters, shortages of protective health gear in India are forcing some doctors to use raincoats and motorbike helmets while fighting the coronavirus, exposing the weak state of the public health system ahead of an anticipated surge in COVID-19 cases.
The Reuters report adds that several junior doctors have refused to treat patients without adequate safety equipment. They have also established an informal COVID-19 fund, to which each doctor contributed 1,000 rupees ($13.27) to buy masks and other face coverings.
Instead of spending the collected public money to provide the test and treatment facilities in hospitals, Modi – who is an uneducated religious demagogue – is asking people to hit their kitchen utensils to encourage the doctors who should keep working in high-risk hospitals to handle the coronavirus patients.
| As India is among the most corrupt countries in the world, corruption has become the lifeblood of Indian bureaucrats and politicians. |
As the Modi government has completely ignored the health and safety concerns of Indians during the ongoing coronavirus crisis, PM Modi is issuing superstitious diktats for people to face the virus menace. For example, after asking people to bang their utensils, Modi asked all Indians to light candles, lamps, and torches at 9 pm on Sunday (April 5) to fight coronavirus.
[ Defunct Supreme Court Won’t Ask Modi Empire to Save Poor Workers from Coronavirus ]
In other words, the Modi government is not spending the allocated money to tackle coronavirus. Then where is the money going? In the absence of transparency, it appears that the Indian bureaucrats – who are highly corrupt – will siphon off the coronavirus funds.
And a bigger portion of the money will be stolen by the government politicians who use such money frequently these days to purchase legislators in horsetrading deals to topple the elected state governments in India and form their own governments unscrupulously.
The Modi government’s record shows that it will not make the coronavirus funds data public. However, if the government is honest, it should create a web-based tracking facility that should show the collection and movement of funds in real time.
| If the Modi government is honest, it should create a web-based tracking facility that should show the collection and movement of funds in real time. |
As Modi himself is not quite educated, he must take help from experts to make technology-based systems for supply chain management to provide succor to the poor, inventory management for distributing protective gear in the hospitals, and auditing processes to ensure transparency in the accounting systems for managing coronavirus funds.
But unfortunately Modi – who does not have any understanding of these moderns subjects and prefers to work alone – is giving very generic, meaningless advice such as lighting the candles and hitting the utensils to people which even a wild boor can give.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications and research reports on different subjects.
