Coronavirus: When Tali and Thali Failed, Modi Asks People to Starve

Even after the coronavirus threat – which is going to persist for many months – people will not be able to recover from Modi’s reckless lockdown decision.

By Rakesh Raman

Instead of having a foolish king, you should prefer to have a donkey or a monkey as your ruler. This rule particularly applies to India’s PM Narendra Modi who has crossed all limits of stupidity during the current coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

In a long and winding harangue on Tuesday (March 24), Modi asked people to stay under a curfew for 21 days (until April 15) to prevent the spread of coronavirus. But in his meaningless speech, he could not tell people how they will survive after locking themselves up in their homes for 3 weeks.

Today, there are millions of daily-wage workers who live from hand to mouth. They and their families will starve to death if they stayed at home without work. An estimated 800 million people in India’s population of 1.4 billion belong to this poor category.

Blabber Modi could never think about all such poor families while talking about coronavirus. His suggested cure is worse than the disease. Plus, Modi did not give any solution to people who will lose their jobs in a country which is already facing the unemployment scourge under Modi’s 6 years of rule.

As Modi is an uneducated, clueless man, he has simply ignored the fact that millions of people are homeless in India. How will they stay at home and how will Modi stop the spread of coronavirus through these poor, homeless people?

With his utterly useless advice, Modi is throwing millions of Indians into a pit of starvation. Even after the coronavirus threat – which is going to persist for many months – people will not be able to recover from Modi’s reckless lockdown decision.

Modi had made a similar demonetization announcement in 2016 when he arbitrarily stopped the circulation of Indian currency notes. His demonetization decision broke the backbone of Indian economy which is still in doldrums.

Modi – who behaves more like a Hindu demagogue than a wise leader – is so illiterate that he is not trained to manage any area of governance that requires professional competence. With his hunger for cheap publicity, he often appears to deliver useless monologues instead of holding press conferences to handle pointed questions. During 6 years of his rule, Modi has not addressed even a single press conference.

Earlier, in one such monologue last week, Modi asked his fool followers to hit their utensils (Thali) with spoons and clap (Tali) eccentrically on Sunday to shoo away coronavirus – which is the deadliest disease on earth.

A number of blind Modi toadies followed his foolish advice and even ignored the very basic precaution of social distancing that one is required to observe to stop the spread of virus. They stood and danced like cannibal tribes and put to risk the lives of millions of people as the coronavirus contagion happens with closeness.

As Modi and his illiterate group of followers failed to understand the threat that this virus poses, according to official data the number of coronavirus cases in India has crossed 500 as on today (March 25).

But these are false, understated figures. While the government does not have proper hospitals and healthcare infrastructure to test and count the coronavirus cases and casualties, it is giving some random, off-the-cuff numbers about the disease. Modi government is known for giving fudged figures.

Actually, the number of coronavirus patients and deaths in India is far higher – probably in thousands – than what is being reported. While hospitals lack resources to treat coronavirus patients, with his lockdown decision Modi has put people into solitary confinements which are more dangerous than the disease. The lockdown attempt can work only if it is supported by a robust plan to weed out the virus. But unfortunately Modi does not have any such plan.

Coronavirus will probably kill only a few thousand people, but Modi’s crude advice may kill millions of Indians. And millions more will keep suffering in poverty as coronavirus will further destroy the Indian economy which is already on the deathbed because of Modi’s incompetence.

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.