In a world increasingly driven by technological advancements, integrating spiritual wisdom is not only beneficial but essential

New Delhi

On November 30, the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi became a hub of intellectual and spiritual synergy, hosting a groundbreaking conference organized by the Swami Vivekananda and Nikola Tesla International Foundation (SVNTIF). This unique event brought together scientists, philosophers, researchers, and spiritual leaders from across the globe, united by a profound purpose: exploring the intertwined legacies of Swami Vivekananda and Nikola Tesla.

The bond between Swami Vivekananda, the revered Indian spiritual leader, and Nikola Tesla, the brilliant Serbian-American scientist, represents a fascinating intersection of spirituality and science. This enduring legacy was the focus of a recent conference at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, organized by the Swami Vivekananda and Nikola Tesla International Foundation (SVNTIF). The event brought together luminaries from diverse fields—scientists, philosophers, spiritual leaders, and authors—to explore the timeless relevance of this unique collaboration.

A Shared Legacy Across Continents

Peter Ljubicic, the Croatian Ambassador to India, highlighted the profound global impact of these two figures. “Swami Vivekananda’s philosophy influenced Nikola Tesla, who laid the foundation for many groundbreaking technologies. Their legacy bridges India, Croatia, Serbia, the US, and beyond,” he remarked. Ljubicic emphasized the harmonious development potential their collaboration exemplifies, offering a model for uniting spiritual insight and scientific innovation.

The Hidden Connection Between Vivekananda and Tesla 

Manash Deka, president of SVNTIF, elaborated on the lesser-known aspects of their relationship. Swami Vivekananda introduced Tesla to the concepts of Vedanta and the unity of all existence, influencing Tesla’s revolutionary ideas about energy and the universe. “We aimed to delve into these hidden aspects and spark a global discussion on their shared vision,” said Deka.

Global Perspectives on Science and Spirituality 

The conference resonated with insightful addresses by esteemed speakers. Lazar Y. Vukadinovic, Deputy Head of the Serbian Embassy in Delhi, underscored how the collaboration between Vivekananda and Tesla offered a template for balanced development. “Science and spirituality, when integrated, provide a roadmap for progress that avoids destruction,” he said.

Swami Yajnadharananda of the Ram Krishna Mission further debunked the perceived conflict between science and spirituality. He emphasized their shared quest for truth and the potential societal benefits of focusing on their commonalities.

Professor Velimir Abramovic, a noted Serbian scholar, reinforced the necessity of spiritual direction in scientific endeavors. “Modern science must learn from Vivekananda and Tesla to achieve harmony, as science devoid of spirituality risks leading humanity astray,” he cautioned.

Leadership and Spiritual Practice

Iva Mia Kruslin, a Croatian author and leadership expert, illuminated how spiritual practices shaped iconic leaders like Vivekananda, Tesla, and Mahatma Gandhi. Highlighting their transformative global impact, she drew parallels with contemporary leaders, including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who embrace spirituality as a cornerstone of meaningful leadership.

Honoring Contributions to Humanity

The conference culminated in lifetime achievement awards for individuals advancing the legacies of Vivekananda and Tesla. Honorees included Professor Velimir Abramovic, Dr. Sushil Kumar Jain, Nada Laji, and Pundit Devendra Dubey. Their efforts underscore the enduring relevance of the spiritual-scientific synergy envisioned by these historical figures.

A Global Call to Action

Through this event, the SVNTIF successfully kindled a global dialogue about the harmonious interplay of science and spirituality. As the speakers reiterated, the philosophies of Vivekananda and Tesla are not relics of the past but guiding principles for addressing contemporary challenges.

This conference serves as a reminder that, in a world increasingly driven by technological advancements, integrating spiritual wisdom is not only beneficial but essential. By looking to the legacy of Swami Vivekananda and Nikola Tesla, we can aspire toward a future where innovation is balanced by introspection, ensuring progress that uplifts humanity.

Read: Dada Jashan Vaswani – A Scientist, Philosopher, Spiritual Leader and Great Humanist

__________________

Courtesy: Tesliarium

Source / Photo: Pratidin Time / Chau Zingnu Namchoom Instagram

The post Bridging Science and Spirituality: The Swami Vivekananda and Nikola Tesla Legacy Conference first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Monitoring Desk

New Delhi

A 3-day consultation on Single Women was organized by Jagori at the India International Centre from 26th- 28th February 2024 in New Delhi with the objectives of refocusing the spotlight on the need to collectively evolve the definition of “single women” to include all those outside the patriarchal institution of marriage and be inclusive of single women across identities including Dalit, adivasi, devadasi, sex workers, lesbian, trans, women with disability etc., critically assess policy gaps, discuss grassroots-level perspectives and develop concrete action plans at both the national and state levels to serve as roadmaps.

The consultation kicked off with a trip down history with renowned feminist activist and Jagori founding member, Abha Bhaiya, who spoke about one of the first surveys conducted with single women by Jagori in the 1990s, how the discourse surrounding single women’s rights and identities has changed, how there is an erosion of the rights of women outside the institution of marriage, and which identities hold power and privilege. Against this context, set brilliantly by Abha Bhaiya, gender and development researcher Ranjani Murthy walked the participants through the diverse identities of single women, lack of agency or rights-based approaches to single women’s development and the current policy context.

Single women and organization representatives from Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Assam, Rajasthan and Delhi made presentations on the status of single women in their regional contexts as well as lack of policies for single women at the national level. Single women across identities and on the margins highlighted the criticality of truly intersectional approaches for both policy and practice and shared their lived experiences of exclusion, physical, sexual and emotional violence, negative impact on mental health, difficult access to entitlements, and denial of agency, integrity, voice and choice.

In the true spirit of co-creation, the group collectively charted the way forward, amplifying policy and recommendations and collating a charter of demands. Some of these included social security for single women recognizing the unique needs of single women across identities, the need for disaggregated data on single women along the categories of caste, class, age, occupation, gender and sexual identity, disability etc., priority to single women in government schemes, de-linking scheme benefits for women with marriage, self-governed welfare boards with multiple representation etc.

Read: Stakeholders’ Alliance formed for Empowerment for Women Agricultural Workers in Sindh

This consultation brought Jagori back full circle as it was one of the first organizations to take up the issue of ‘single women’ (‘ekal aurat’) as a definitive category of women outside the institution of marriage and bring it into the women’s movement. The motto of “Single but not alone,” evolved by Jagori will only become a reality when there are concentrated and sustained effort by stakeholders at multiple levels and a strong mechanism to hold them accountable. Towards this end, this national consultation on single women aims to be a significant step towards addressing the unique challenges faced by single women in all their diversity in India.

Contact person: Jushya Kumar, Senior Project Officer jushya@jagori.org

___________________

Courtesy: Counter Currents

The post Single, but not alone! first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Abu Dhabi

The Muslim Council of Elders (MCE) concluded its participation in the New Delhi World Book Fair, held from February 10th to 18th, with notable success and a large turnout from various segments of Indian society who praised the MCE’s stand cultural events and diverse intellectual publications.

During the fair, the Muslim Council of Elders presented an impressive array of over 220 publications in the fields of Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh), Prophetic biography, Islamic sciences, and literature, available in five languages: Arabic, English, Hindi, Urdu, and Malayalam. The works of His Eminence Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and Chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders, were particularly well-received, with his publications being available in these five languages. They attracted considerable interest from students of Islamic studies at New Delhi universities, as well as from professors and researchers. Noteworthy titles included “For Peace,” “The Concept of Jihad in Islam,” “A Message to the Youth,” “Al-Azhar and the Unity of Muslims,” “A Conversation on Peace,” and “A Perspective on the Dialogue between East and West.”

Also read: UAE’s National Library and Archives participates in Cairo International Book Fair

Among the most popular publications at the stand were “Islam and Good Governance” in its English edition by Professor Muqtedar Khan from the University of Delaware, USA, and “The Grand Imam and the Pope: A Thorny Path: A Testimony to the Birth of the Human Fraternity Document” by Judge Mohamed Abdelsalam, Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Elders. The latter was showcased this year at the Council’s stand at the New Delhi World Book Fair in five languages. Additionally, books on the interpretation (Tafsir) of the Holy Quran, as well as “Love in the Holy Quran” by HRH Prince Ghazi bin Al-Hashemi, a member of the Muslim Council of Elders, were highly sought after.

The seminars held by the Council were well-attended, featuring distinguished speakers representing major Indian religions and denominations, and experts in peaceful coexistence and human fraternity. Discussions covered various topics, including the teachings of religions and their role in fostering tolerance and peaceful coexistence, ways to achieve respect among religions and acceptance of others, the significance of the Document on Human Fraternity in nation-building and ensuring a better future for current and future generations, and the challenges of promoting human fraternity and peaceful coexistence across different communities and nations.

Also read: From Book Fair to Book Fear: Improving Reading Culture

The Muslim Council of Elders’ participation marked its second consecutive year with a special stand at the New Delhi World Book Fair. The Council’s debut in 2023 was met with great enthusiasm from the Indian community, who actively engaged with the Council’s publications and the array of cultural and intellectual events and activities, all aimed at promoting dialogue, tolerance, and mutual coexistence.

Published under the International Cooperation Protocol with Middle East Business | Life Magazine

________________________

The post Muslim Council of Elders participates in New Delhi World Book Fair first appeared on Sindh Courier.

From Correspondent

New Delhi, India

The 6th Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize reached its pinnacle today (Tuesday, Dec 19, 2023) honoring exceptional achievements in both literary and social spheres. The ceremony, attended by Copenhagen-based Peter Bundalo, the revered Founder of the Tagore Literary Prize, commemorated the outstanding contributions of Abhijit Banerjee, the Nobel Prize laureate for Economics, recipient of the Tagore Prize for Social Achievement 2023, and Sukrita Paul Kumar, Poet, Critic and Translator won the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize.

This prestigious award, paying tribute to Rabindranath Tagore’s enduring legacy, not only recognizes literary brilliance but also celebrates remarkable accomplishments in social arenas.

The Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize, an annual celebration of literary eminence, continues its tradition of honoring exceptional talent across diverse genres. This year’s accolades commend Abhijit Banerjee for his remarkable contributions to societal welfare, alongside Sukrita Paul Kumar for literary brilliance that transcends boundaries, echoing the spirit of this esteemed award. Their achievements align profoundly with the ideals upheld by previous laureates such as Raj Kamal Jha, Shobhana Kumar, and Sudeep Sen.

Sukrita Paul Kumar reflected on the literary honor, stating, “Receiving the 6th Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize is a deeply humbling experience. This recognition not only validates my artistic journey but also emphasizes the universality of storytelling in connecting diverse cultures

Here is the Judges’ commentary on the winner of the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2023:

‘The Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2023 laureate “Salt and Pepper” by Sukrita originates from a place of serene and profound insight. This collection of poems is a product of a strong sense of self, garnered through exceptional spiritual intuitiveness and deeply female experience.

Sukrita is a poetess who appears to have found her grounding wisdom in acknowledgement that meaning is as fleeting as it is universal, ultimately found in its pursuit.

In her choice of words, she is discerning and exacting, determinedly revealing that the journey towards meaning is synonymous with truth. This profound honesty that forms the essence of her poetry, this innate and superior grace that remains so remarkably devoid of literary affectation, is the quality that renders her verses almost mantra-like, genuinely whole and reminiscent to deeply true aphorisms that consistently resonate.

Sukrita’s poetry is felt both in the heart and bones.

Sukrita articulates evolutionary wisdom and plays with the contradiction that is the essence of our existence in her often laconic, masterful verses that are destined to resist obsolescence—eternally relevant and true.

We exist in the singular and the dual, we exist in the past, present, and future, we transcend time as we are both within it and beyond it. We are intertwined with the stars and embedded in our daughters’ DNA.

Sukrita, your poetry is so beautifully crafted, it elevates.’

______________________

The post Indian poetess Sukrita wins Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2023 first appeared on Sindh Courier.

From Correspondent

Moscow| New Delhi

The XXIV UNESCO World Poetry Day will be celebrated in Moocow, Russia and New Delhi, India on March 20 and 23, 2023.

On March 20 at 17:00 in Moscow (Russia), the XXIV UNESCO World Poetry Day will be celebrated. The poetry concert organizers are Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly, World Organization of Writers (WOW), LIFFT Foundation with the support of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO.

The celebration of the XXIV UNESCO World Poetry Day will begin with a musical greeting. First with Chopin “Nocturne”, Rachmaninoff “Prelude” (Gnessin Academy, Marina Vulson); Russian romances (People’s Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan Eduard Treskin); song of the Aquarium group “Golden City” (Egor Vasiliev and Roman Khairullin, MGIMO); and composer Milyaush Khairullin “Yaulyk”, violin (Panov Anatoly, MGIMO).

The concert will be opened by Margarita Al; the Director of the International Literary Movement LIFFT-2015-2035 “We are people of one planet”, President of the World Organization of Writers (WOW), Chairman of the Literary Council of Writers and Readers of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly.

Welcoming remarks will be made by Andrey Belyaninov, Secretary General of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly, Alexandra Ochirova; UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, Co-Chair of the General Council of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly, and Grigory Ordzhonikidze ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Executive Secretary of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO.

Poetry readings will be initiated by Konstantin Kedrov; a poet, Doctor of Philosophy, the first laureate of the Eurasian Literary Festival LIFFT-2016, laureate of the Manhae Prize, initiator of the UNESCO Poetry Day in Russia.

The poetic concert will also be attended by poets Alexandra Ochirova, Margarita Al, Ko In (Republic of Korea), Ashraf Aboul- Yazid Dali (Egypt), Rati Saxena (India), Zhang Zhi (China), and writer Wale Okediran (Nigeria).

Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Russian Federation of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Egypt, Nigeria, Colombia, the Republic of Korea, India, Mali, China, Syria and other countries of the world are invited to the awarding ceremony of the Laureates and Diploma winners of the Eurasian Literary Festivals “LIffT 2016-2023”. The other 3 parts of Volume 1 will follow, as well. The address for this poetry concert: Moscow, st. Povarskaya 52/55, building 1, Rostov House, ASPI.

Poetry lovers will witness presentation/premier scheduled for March 20, 2023 at 10:15 of the first volume / part No. 1 Live anthology of writers of the world. This first part has recordings recited by their authors: Margarita Al, Russia, Konstantin Kedrov, Russia, Olzhas Suleimenov, Kazakhstan, Varis Yolchuev, Azerbaijan, ugrul Tanyol, Turkey, Ashraf Aboul-Yazid, Egypt, Ko Un, South Korea, Wale Okediran, Nigeria, Alexandra Оchirova, Russia, Paolo Ruffilli, Italy, Juan Carlos Tajes Baddouh, Uruguay / Netherlands, Hamid Larbi, France, Mamta Sagar, India, Eldar Akhadov, Russia, Bronislava Volkova, Czech Republic, Alexander Selimov, USA, Ismael Diadié Hadiara, Mali, Francisco Azuela, Bolivia, Szatrawski Krzysztof Dariusz, Poland, Sergey Biryukov, Germany, Jochen Kelter, Switzerland, Rubén Darío Flórez Arcila, Colombia, James Tian, China, Desmond Egan, Ireland, Rati Saxena, India and Ayo Ayoola-Amale, Nigeria.

The XXIV UNESCO World Poetry Day will also be celebrated in India, Delhi, as the Russian Center of Science and Culture (24 Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi, on 23.03.23, at 17:00 PM. The 2nd Poetry Concert program will have a Music Lounge as well. The event organizers will be honoring the Laureates of the Eurasian Literary Festival LiFFt-2016-2023. Three more poets from India will join the first nine poets. The contributors of the New Delhi poetry concert are Konstantin Kedrov,   Alexandra Ochirova, Margarita Al (all from Russia), Ko In (Republic of Korea), Ashraf Aboul- Yazid Dali (Egypt),   Zhang Zhi (China), and writer Wale Okediran (Nigeria) with Rati Saxena,  Mughda Sinha, Sukrita Paul Kumar  and Neha Bansa (the four of them are from India).

__________________

The post UNESCO World Poetry Day Celebrated in Moscow and New Delhi first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Nazarul Islam

I have often wondered what the purpose remains of a country that shares its rising number of Covid related demises. At a time when we are frequently told by our relatively ‘betters’ in the media, and all those in the halls of government fame—to ‘follow the science’, of what could be more unscientific than a figure which, even when nobody is dying. This is something that looms above us as a warning that danger is ever present and nothing has improved. Should we bow down humbly, before its power, because there’s nothing else to be done?

Take the number of people who are unemployed. Here’s a figure (statistics) that has reached terrifying proportions without any sophistry or assistance from the behavioral science people. In fact, a lot of effort is expended on gently ‘massaging’ this number down from the actual amount to levels which are considered more palatable for public consumption.

However, let’s also imagine that we calculated the number of people who are unemployed by concocting a total of all the people who have been unemployed, at any time and for any duration, during the past 14 months?

Or let’s assume, since unemployment began, a running total of all the people who have been unemployed ever?

What function that number would serve?

Might it help prevent future unemployment? Might it better inform us of the skills and training required for our workforce? Might it be useful for analysis and reporting? I really have doubts that any civil servant in a western country, who proposed such an idea would be on fast route to an  early retirement, as popular with politicians as those who do breathalyzer ‘duty’ outside public buildings.

Yet that’s exactly what we do with the running death total (and its near-twin the running case total). If the purpose of this number was to show us where we currently stand amidst the ebbs and flows of the pandemic, then surely a monthly or a weekly total would do the job better. We could then, as we do with the unemployment figure, compare this month to last (or this week to last) and judge which way we’re going. Are we moving steadily forwards? Are we tumbling hopelessly backwards? Do you get the idea?

So far…Why haven’t we ever had a running total of deaths from cancer, heart attacks or diabetes? If we’d started even a year ago, these numbers would be at impressive levels now. They’d give the Covid tally a run for its money. There would be opportunities for new betting markets based around causes of mortality, although spread bets might be distasteful for the contagious diseases.

For many of us ‘Worlds Meter’ is the central hub of running Covid death totals. At this very moment, it trumpets a formidable 659, 873, deaths for the United States, a daunting 129,782 for the United Kingdom.

However….what do these frightening numbers refer to? Well, they refer to the number of Covid-19 deaths. So what’s all the fuss about? The fuss is about what constitutes a Covid-19 death. And what is meant, exactly, by a Covid-19 death? Ah, now that’s where it starts to get a bit complicated.

On 16th April 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a document entitled “International Guidelines for Certification and Classification (Coding) of Covid-19 as Cause of Death”. This document provided strict rules for the registration of Covid-19 deaths, rules which were fundamentally different to those which were in place for the registration of deaths from other causes.

Obviously, some doctors had expressed concern about what they felt would give a misleading picture of causes of mortality.

These rules, they said, were unprecedented: they would lead to the over-reporting of deaths from Covid-19 and the under-reporting of deaths from other causes. Their warnings went unheeded and, for the most part, unreported. There was no place for prudence and common sense amid the frenzy and hysteria of the early days of the pandemic.

Since then however, more and more medical professionals have added their voices to this dissenting chorus. The latest is the official coroner for New Delhi who has expressed his discomfort at official reporting of Covid-19 deaths in this country: “I think numbers that are recorded as Covid deaths may be inaccurate and do not have a scientific basis”, he said earlier, in a tone full of sarcasm and helplessness.

Nazarul Islam

The Bengal-born writer Nazarul Islam is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America. He is author of a recently published book ‘Chasing Hope’ – a compilation of his 119 articles.

The post Rising numbers speak louder… first appeared on Sindh Courier.

 Today, New Delhi has resembled the New Armageddon, where Ambulance sirens blare through the night – a constant reminder of the unbelievable tragedy unfolding in the city.

As people die from want of oxygen, citizens have come together to support one another. They make thousands of calls to find oxygen, lug heavy cylinders around from one refilling point to the other, deliver cylinders to people’s homes, and, when needed, bring people to hospitals and bodies to crematoriums.

Will Modi pay the price for complacence?

By Nazarul Islam

Historically, paying the price for their government’s mistakes is something Indians have come to know fairly well. When their prime minister locked down the country with only four hour notice in March 2020, thousands of homeless and daily wage laborers went hungry. In the absence of immediate government assistance, ordinary citizens had to band together and help each other.

Today, as people die from want of oxygen, citizens have come together to support one another. They make thousands of calls to find oxygen, lug heavy cylinders around from one refilling point to the other, deliver cylinders to people’s homes, and, when needed, bring people to hospitals and bodies to crematoriums.

Today, New Delhi has resembled the New Armageddon, where Ambulance sirens blare through the night – a constant reminder of the unbelievable tragedy unfolding in the city. India is currently experiencing a devastating, record-breaking second wave of COVID-19, with the capital especially hard hit. Every night ushers in a now sadly familiar ordeal. Desperately sick patients go from hospital to hospital, begging for oxygen.

The hospitals, with only hours of oxygen to spare for their own patients, turn the afflicted away. Relatives and friends post urgent pleas on social media, trying in vain to source the third most abundant element in the universe. But not for love of God or money is there any oxygen to be had in the city.

By morning, a long line of corpses trails outside the Nigambodh crematorium. Relatives of the deceased, many of them infected with COVID-19 themselves, wait for four hours or more in the scorching summer heat for an overworked priest to become available to perform the last rites. In one crematorium, the heat of the ovens burning uninterrupted for so long has melted iron grills.

In another, workers are burning bodies on the pavement. Friends in other cities and states—Lucknow, Mumbai, Gujarat—share similar horror stories. That grim detail is the human face of a statistical catastrophe.

India is now breaking records for new cases of COVID-19 every day. Nearly 0.4 million cases were recorded on April 26. According to the World Health Organization, one of every three new COVID-19 cases in the world is currently in India. But even that staggering figure is likely an undercount, as the real total of new COVID-19 infections in India is thought to be much higher.

Likewise, the current count of around 2,000 deaths per day is in all probability a gross underestimation. Experts predict that India will reach a peak of one million cases per day (and thousands of deaths) by mid-May. This is the nightmare scenario envisioned by public health officials around the world at the beginning of the pandemic: the disease rampant and devastation at an unimaginable scale.

This was NOT supposed to have been this way. The government of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) invited this carnage through its obfuscations, missteps, and complacency. In February, the party passed an internal resolution congratulating “its leadership for introducing India to the world as a proud and victorious nation in the fight against Covid.” But Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government ignored numerous red flags in the first three months of the year and disregarded scientific opinion.

Many factors have contributed to this gargantuan second wave, but at the heart of the disaster is the government’s refusal to see it coming.

Last year in autumn, India was recording some of the lowest case totals in the world, despite the immense size of its population. Many Indians were convinced that the pandemic was on its way out, that the country’s relative youth protected it from the scale of death apparent, for example, in European countries with older populations, and even that people in India possessed natural immunities that helped stave off the virus. Hospitalization and death rates had fallen, and the government promised that an indigenous vaccine was just around the corner.

True, Indians watched in horror as patients flooded hospitals in the United States over the winter, unable to imagine that their own hospitals would soon witness far worse scenes. The news from Brazil angered and frustrated Indians—why wasn’t President Jair Bolsonaro taking COVID-19 seriously? At least Modi was still wearing a mask and saying all the right things about fending off the disease. Even Modi’s habitual critics acknowledged that the country had fared reasonably well under his watch—India had been spared the worst.

However, unknown to many Indians, a new strain of the virus had emerged in the country in October 2020. The government watched the B.1617 variant take root but didn’t allocate the funds required to support COVID-19 testing with the necessary genome sequencing to track it. Officials made little attempt to understand this new foe.

Not surprisingly, numbers of new cases and deaths remained low as autumn gave way to winter. Unperturbed, many Indians donned their finery and began gathering in large numbers for the famed wedding season in northern India. The government halfheartedly put caps on the number of guests permitted at weddings but did not warn people of the dangers of this new strain.

Unfortunately, the government doubled down on triumphalism, buoyed by the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines in India. It inaugurated the largest vaccination drive in the world in January. At the end of that month, Modi addressed the virtual World Economic Forum, looking gleeful as he told the attendees that their predictions about India were wrong; the country had dealt with COVID-19 swiftly and was now poised to help end the pandemic around the world by exporting millions of vaccine doses.

Again, the prime minister did urge vigilance and insisted that it would be necessary to prepare for a second wave. But that rhetoric did not match his actions. In 2020, Modi had set up a fund to battle the pandemic called PM Cares, which received donations from around the world. Officials insisted that the fund would be used to set up 162 plants that would manufacture oxygen cylinders. It took the government over six months to start inviting bids for the construction of these plants; as of this month, the government has built only 33.

Giant India also exported twice as much oxygen between April 2020 and March 2021 than in the previous year; it did not generate sufficient stockpiles for domestic consumption in anticipation of a second wave.

Unbelievable, as it may seem—Modi’s bravado at the forum had damaging consequences. Certain government-friendly media networks and newspapers amplified the notion that India had vanquished COVID-19. To the horror of scientists and medical professionals, Indians began shedding their masks and ignoring social-distancing guidelines. As a result, new COVID-19 cases ticked up; India recorded over 11,000 cases on February 1, and the curve has risen upward ever since.

An arrogant Hindu nationalist government did not heed the warnings of the scientific community; it consistently dismissed actual scientific opinion in favor of quackery. On February 19, Harsh Vardhan, the health minister, appeared alongside a mask-less spiritual leader named Baba Ramdev to launch Coronil, a supposed cure for COVID-19 produced by Ramdev’s company. Case numbers continued to rise as the government dithered. The journalist Vidya Krishnan revealed in a recent investigative report in The Caravan magazine that the country’s national scientific task force on COVID-19, which is supposed to advise the central government on its response to the pandemic, did not meet even once between February and mid-April.

Shockingly, the government exacerbated the spread of the disease by allowing large religious festivals and pilgrimages to proceed.

Again on March 11, this year when new daily cases had reached nearly 50,000, Modi welcomed, via tweet, pilgrims to the banks of the Ganges River in the state of Uttarakhand for the Kumbh Mela. The Kumbh Mela is an important festival that, on certain days, draws millions of pilgrims who crowd in close quarters on the banks of the sacred river.

Predictably, COVID-19 ripped through the gathering. A top seer died of the disease, thousands of pilgrims tested positive, and the authorities in the BJP-run state insisted they could do little to arrest the spread.

However, this approach contrasted starkly with the government’s reaction to a Muslim convention in March 2020, at the outset of the pandemic. That meeting was a super-spreader event (at a scale smaller than that of the ongoing Kumbh Mela) and spurred fierce government action; authorities arrested attendees and held some in detention for over a year.

Certain sections of the media and the BJP’s own representatives cast COVID-19 as a Muslim disease. A year later, as daily cases crossed the 200,000 mark in mid-April, Modi could muster only the weakest of pleas, urging the organizers of the Kumbh Mela to make the event a “symbolic” one.

Critics in general believe that Political imperatives also brought on the second wave. By early March, the government’s attention had shifted to elections in five key states. Modi himself zipped from state to state addressing massive rallies, often without a mask. In mid-April, when India was recording over 200,000 new cases a day, the prime minister boasted about the size of his rallies in West Bengal.

His deputies and allies appeared on national television to dismiss any connection between the second wave and these large public rallies.

The BJP was the last party to suspend campaigning in West Bengal, calling things off only when it became impossible to ignore the fact that thousands of Indians were dying daily for want of oxygen.

India’s current public health crisis is compounded by an epistemological one: the government’s data cannot be trusted. Experts claim that India is underrepresenting the scale of its tragedy, something that is abundantly clear to those of us on the ground.

The Financial Times reported in late April that local news reports in seven districts across the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh showed that at least 1,833 people were known to have died of COVID-19 over a period of several days, but only 228 COVID-19 deaths were officially reported in that time; in Gujarat’s Jamnagar district, for instance, 100 people died of COVID-19, but only one death was reported.

Epidemiologists have projected an actual mortality rate that is ten times as high as the one reported and are forecasting that India will reach the grim milestone of a million COVID-19 deaths by the end of August. The real toll of the pandemic may never be clear, making it all the harder to hold the government to account.

Indian government’s incompetence and inaction in tracking the B.1617 variant has meant that scientists are only now starting to study it and determine its transmissibility, lethality, and response to available vaccines. Virologists and epidemiologists have believed that it has fueled this second wave of COVID-19. More troubling still, the variant is now ABLE to circumvent immunities to the disease. Many people currently hospitalized in Delhi with COVID-19 had received either one or two shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine, a worrying fact that does not bode well for containing the evolving disease.

Beyond doubt, Vaccination has remains the best way to stave off escalating hospitalization and death rates in a crowded country where social distancing and lockdowns are difficult to enforce—and deeply unpopular politically. The virus is now spreading rapidly through urban and rural areas. The city of Kolkata, for instance, reported a 50 percent test positivity rate last week.

The Modi government has committed to making COVID-19 vaccines available to all Indians above the age of 18 after May 1. A sensible government policy would be to mandate free universal vaccination, but Indians can access vaccines for free only in particular places. Many Indians will end up having to pay for one of the two vaccines available in the country—the indigenously developed Covaxin and Covishield, the Indian-produced version of the AstraZeneca vaccine—under a confusing pricing regime. That system exacerbates the already enormous inequalities in the country.

Certainly, the Rich Indians will get vaccinated, but India’s poorest may find themselves waiting for a long time.

Paying the lofty price for their government’s acts errors and omissions, both negligent and criminal—is something Indians have come to know fairly well.

Like last year, now too, as people die from want of oxygen, citizens have come together to support one another. They make thousands of calls to find oxygen, lug heavy cylinders around from one refilling point to the other, deliver cylinders to people’s homes, and, when needed, bring people to hospitals and bodies to crematoriums.

They cook meals for those recovering at home. They stand in interminable queues at pharmacies to try to find perpetually out-of-stock medicines. Many of these activists say they no longer know the difference between day and night, and their phones never stop ringing.

The light at the end of this long, dark tunnel is the grace of India’s people.

______________________

About the Author

The Bengal-born writer Nazarul Islam is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America. He is author of a recently published book ‘Chasing Hope’ – a compilation of his 119 articles.

The post Analytical Report: India’s Armageddon first appeared on Sindh Courier.