Column: This Bothers Me
By Krishnan Chittur
NEW YORK, June 28: Pandemic coverage has dominated the news media for awhile, and illustrates a fundamental problem with the U.S. media’s coverage of India: misleading headlines, unsupported (or even contradicted) by the article itself. These headlines, as they circulate, swell and metamorphose into an outrageous charge.
No wonder, trust in news media is at an all-time low: a pathetic 29% in the U.S. itself, as Sujeet Rajan reported recently.
In this respect, Reuters – covered in my last column, https://www.indiaoverseasreport.com/the‑feeding‑frenzy‑on‑india‑pm‑modi/ – has lots of company. The Washington Post and The New York Times follow the same pattern.
Grossly Misleading Headlines
U.S. Media headlines have been routinely skewering India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi for shortages, vaccine distribution, and everything else concerning the COVID-19. But what’s missing is a critical element: a factual basis for any of these charges! Most commonly, they convert a passive fact into an attention-grabbing headline with a preposterous allegation against Modi. Further, the U.S media never even mentioned the Government of India’s Herculean efforts in the face of insurmountable challenges and desperate lack of resources.
Consider this headline by The New York Times (June 23, ‘21): Thanks to Modi, India Had a State-Orchestrated Covid Massacre. Seriously? Modi massacred, i.e., intentionally killed, millions (of his own followers) through a state-orchestrated machinery? Like Adolf Hitler or, more recently, Slobodan Milosevic? Can anyone imagine anything more offensive or astoundingly irresponsible? Where the report is that ‘police found a dead body in the street’, can the headlines scream ‘X murdered innocent man’? This is the height of irresponsible journalism.
Compare this: As of June 27, ’21, the U.S. had 619,343 deaths (as against India’s 396,113), with 1,860 deaths per 1 million population (as against India’s 285 per million). Trump publicly did everything contrary to scientific recommendations; several respected experts have publicly held Trump responsible for 40% (or 188,400) of the 471,000 COVID-19 deaths (as of Feb. 11, 2021). Nevertheless, not one media outlet – responsible or otherwise – accused Trump of orchestrating a COVID massacre.
Would the New York Times dare publish such a headline against the Israeli Prime Minister just because a lot of people died (Israel had a death rate of 689 per million)?
Here’s another New York Times headline (May 25, ‘21): Indian Police Visit Twitter Offices as Modi Goes on Pandemic Offence
But the report itself conceded, though the Modi government controls the Delhi police, it was not clear that the failed mission at the Twitter office had happened at its behest. In other words, the New York Times had no basis to accuse Modi of anything concerning the police Twitter visit.
Here’s yet another headline, this one from The Washington Post (May 24, ‘21), As covid-19 devastates rural India, Modi and his ministers focus on covering up their incompetence. The report was about corpses floating in the Ganges, deaths and lack of health care in villages in Uttar Pradesh, and COVID-19 spread by migrant laborers being COVID-19 carriers when they returned home to vote (seriously). Not a word about just what was Modi’s (or his ministers’) incompetence. Or what did they cover-up. Or how. Again, converting a corpse-finding into murder.
And one more New York Times headline (June 3, ‘21): India’s top court criticizes Narendra Modi’s government for a sluggish vaccination program. But the report said nothing – not one word – about sluggish vaccination program. What did the Court say about how the vaccination program was sluggish? New York Times didn’t say. The program may well have been sluggish – we don’t know – but that’s not the issue.
Illustrations could be multiplied, space permitting. But the pattern of misconduct is clear.
Was GOI recklessly indifferent to the Potential for a COVID-19 Surge?
The U.S. media’s glib condemnation of Modi for reckless indifference to the potential COVID-19 danger – an undercurrent in almost all COVID-19 coverage recently – is equally egregious. For example, the New York Times asserted (June 17, ‘21), ever so casually, that the Modi government’s callous disregard triggered the latest surge, faulting Modi for the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage. It also cited massive election rallies, but we’ll address that in another column.
The Kumbh Mela, an extremely holy trek for Hindus occurring every 12 years, attracted (as it usually does) millions of pilgrims. It occurred in Hardwar, in the State of Uttarakhand, in April, with the holiest days being April 12, 14, and 21. Pilgrims would come at the rate of a fifth of Uttarakhand population (11.4 million) every day, and up to five million of specific holy days. Apart from its towering religious significance, the Kumbh Mela has always been, and remains, crucial economically as well as politically.
At that time, COVID cases were dramatically down. Orthodox Hindus very strongly believed that their religious faith would overcome COVID (such people are part of every society). A humongous number of such orthodox pilgrims, with death-defying, unshakeable faith, were already preparing for the Mela. The severe consequences and economic hardship of the lockdown during the first wave of March 2020 were still raw: “Starvation will kill us before COVID does,” was a common feeling among the millions of low income earners. And the widespread riots spreading through Europe established that a complete ban, or a lockdown, was not just viable. And GOI’s Principal Scientific Advisor did not recommend that. By no standard can the GOI’s decision to avoid banning the Kumbh Mela be termed “reckless”.
So what exactly did PM Modi or GOI do (or didn’t do) in connection with the Kumbh Mela? Did they just ignore it, and facilitate millions of pilgrims congregate unrestricted in Haridwar? Here are the facts.
GOI Directives, Field Visits, Warnings
The State Government of Uttarakhand was primarily responsible for measures to prevent COVID-19 spread, and ensure prompt public health response to an outbreak. GOI’s role was supportive. Conventionally, the Kumbh Mela was held over 4 months; it was reduced to 45 days.
As early as January 23, 2021, GOI issued a Directive of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) on preventing spread of COVID-19 during Kumbh Mela. The Directive, while providing precautionary measures to be adopted in addition to specific measures to be taken, warned expressly that mass gathering events, such as this, have the potential to facilitate the transmission of the virus and potentially disrupt the gains made by the country in COVID-19 management.
The seven page Directive provided details of several specific measures, including for example, restricting entrance to devotees with COVID-19 negative test certificates less than 72 hours old.
India’s National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the equivalent of the CDC of the United States, monitored these. Established in 1963, NCDC functions as a national center of excellence for control of communicable diseases. It provided expertise to state governments on rapid health assessment and laboratory services, and provided surveillance of communicable diseases and outbreak investigation.
NCDC made field visits to Hardwar multiple times. On March 17 – long before the April zenith of Kumbh Mela – an NCDC team visited Hardwar to review the public health arrangements for Kumbh Mela. Dr. S. K. Singh, Director, Dr. S. K. Jain, Additional Director, and Dr. Meera Dhuria, Deputy Director, led the team; it wasn’t a bunch of inconsequential lower division clerks with no responsibility for NCDC.
The team’s purpose was to focus on the status of implementation of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Kumbh Mela issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) in the context of implementing preventive measures to contain spread of COVID‑ 19 during Kumbh Mela. This team will also review the implementation of its field level recommendations given to the state during its last visit, a month back.
Earlier, the NCDC had already made field level recommendations in February 2021.
As a result, thermal screening checkpoints were set up. All restroom and sleeping quarters were to be sanitized. Strict protocols for participation in Kumbh Mela were issued, including a limited time period of 30 minutes for each of the massive 14 akharas (sects) to bathe. And after April 1, all visitors to Kumbh had to produce a COVID-19 negative certificate less than 72 hours old.
On March 21, 2021, four days after the NCDC visit, GOI wrote to the State Government strongly highlighting the concerns raised by the NCDC after its visit. Referring to the 10-20 pilgrims and locals being reported positive daily, GOI warned – again – of the potential to rapidly turning to an upsurge. GOI advised several specific measures to be implemented immediately.
But eventually, the State Government machinery was completely overwhelmed by the deluge of pilgrims. They could not rigorously enforce the COVID-negative certificate restriction. The Uttarakhand Inspector General of Police commented on the impossibility of enforcing the COVID-19 restrictions. A stampede-like situation may arise if we would try to enforce social distancing at ghats.
So when COVID cases started surging, on April 17, Modi asked that the Kumbh Mela only be symbolic to strengthen COVID-19 fight, and even called one of the top seers for this. That top seer promptly urged his followers (and everyone else) not to come to Kumbh Mela, and if they did, to follow all rules.
I won’t detail the State Government’s efforts and lack of resources, because the focus is whether the U.S. media’s universal condemnation of Modi (“state-orchestrated massacre”) had anything to it, let alone even an element of fairness.
The U.S. Media’s Abysmal Failure
Not one word about these massive preparations featured in any of the U.S. media’s coverage. The silence is deafening – and conclusive of what we’re saying here.
Perhaps these directives issued by Modi and GOI specifically for Kumbh Mela were insufficient. Perhaps something more was needed. Perhaps issues existed about the the NCDC Team. Those would have been legitimate grounds for comments. But obviously, they were (and remain) of no interest to the U.S. media.
The Reality
India’s COVID casualties were undoubtedly catastrophic. But this was as much an Act of God as cyclones, earthquakes, floods, or tsunamis. We don’t blame any official for the resulting damages from any of these; damages which are usually catastrophic. Not until we have evidence of a failure, such as, for example, failing to repair a dam despite dire warnings or issuing permits for high rises in an area heavily earthquake-prone.
Modi is not, and has never claimed to be, an infectious disease expert. The only way he could prepare for or respond to COVID‑19 was (and is) by relying on competent scientific advice. Thus, the ONLY issue is – and can be – whether Modi acted consistent with the advice of his Principal Scientific Advisor, Dr. Vijay Raghavan. Indisputably he did. As the Advisor candidly confessed, everyone had been caught by surprise at the intensity of the second wave. The U.S. media has completely ignored these facts in its drumbeat of “state orchestrated massacre.”
Consider this: New York State has lifted ALL restrictions on COVID‑19, pursuant to CDC guidelines. And it’s holding primaries, election rallies, and everything else. Meanwhile, a Delta variant is spreading, and has already infected over 46% of those already vaccinated. Many infectious disease experts are warning –every day – of the serious risks posed. If, say, such a variant hits New York with a vengeance, so that in three weeks once again the New York situation is desperate, with corpse‑filled trucks parked in the streets. Would it be appropriate to blame Gov. Cuomo for that?
Let me be clear. The issue is not whether Modi is competent or not. Rather, it is whether the U.S. media reports facts concerning India fairly and responsibly; they don’t. Our trust in media is based on factual reporting, not twisting facts to buttress their personal agenda. That’s what bothers me. Can the U.S. media be fair and responsible, report with as much depth, on issues concerning India as it does concerning U.S.? We hope so!
(Krishnan Chittur is a New York-based attorney, working for international peace and justice)