FIGHT AGAINST CORONA

D. RAJA

General Secretary CPI

The lock down has completed a week and two more weeks to go. By the time one hopes thelakshmanrekha will be wiped off by Modi, who gloomily declared the lock down and before on 19th March about janata curfew and thalibajao campaign to morally support medical community involved in combating Corona...

Communist party of India supported the measures of government to keep people safe from Corona Pandemic despite apprehensive of more misery to workers, migrant or otherwise, poor farmers, and homeless and other down trodden. Unfortunately all our apprehensions came to be true...

Corona started as a viral epidemic and World as well as WHO started noticing it almost by the end of December, 2019. Even till February first week, no thermal testing was introduced at airports in most of the places in our country. No proper assessment was made about how many hospital beds, masks, diagnosis equipment, ventilators, trained medical personnel etc., are required incase corona reaches India through Air travellers, knowing fully well that both domestic and international Air travel has immensely increased during the last ten or twenty years. Modi and his home minister were busy happily first with abrogation of article 370,imposing heavy restrictions on Kashmiri people and leaders, then Constitutional amendments to polarize people along communal line, then creating a scare through NPR and NRC, and then vicious communalized election campaign in Delhi.

So, when Corona ultimately reached India as pandemic, government is desperate, no public funded hospitals in good number, no public funded medical colleges in sufficient number (communist party of India opposed the act governing the medical education passed by Modi government that further privatized medical education. Added to all this, public distribution, public transport everything public was ruthlessly killed by Modi government.

Even while fighting corona Pandemic, communal fascists are not keeping communalism out.Latest example of communalisingNizamuddin incident. Yes around 21 hundred devotees remained there including hundreds of foreign devotees. Some of them are already infected and with ten people dying, the enormous nature of problem is in front of us. But by using dangerous words like intelligence failures, foreigners.With almost accusation of deliberately neglecting instructions to follow in case of corona Pandemic.Corona virus does not infect people looking at their community or caste. All those who are suspected should voluntarily offer for testing. 

There is a possibility of enhancement of infected cases in the coming days.  Do we have enough medical power ready?.All of us are awarethat  the unscientific atmosphere intentionally created by communal fascists during the last 6 years particularly led by Modi himself. We remember his great statements in front of gathering of scientists like Indian science Congress and on other occasions.. We know how the urine of cow was paraded as the remedy against Corona even in first two weeks of March.

The Prime Minister doing video conferencing with state Chief Ministers shows the lack of preparedness and prior consultations and coordination between Centre and the States. Centre should be held responsible for this.  The Kerala LDF government has taken several measures well in advance.

The humanityin fact is confronting a health disaster of gigantic proportions. The Corona pandemic has been infecting and affecting people of every nation from Asia (China) to America and from Europe to Africa.

The worst hit is the poor and working people in every country. This pandemic has exposed the inherent character and cruelty of the Capitalist social order.

The capitalism at its neo-liberal stage now has led to an unprecedented inequality and injustice. Housing, health care, education and employment are not guaranteed as fundamental rights of the people. Neo- liberalism has been promoting consumerism and individualism ruthlessly.  It has been destroying the social consciousness of human beings to have concern for the fellow human beings. Private property and profit cannot uphold the ideal values such as  ‘we and ‘’ours’.

The corona pandemic has raised many fundamental long term questions about the alternatives before the humanity and immediate issues to tackle the current crisis. Socialization of health care, housing, education and means of production has become a fundamental questionin the present context.

If some ideologues argue whether it is not socialism, yes it is. The present situation has shown that capitalism is unjust and irrational. Not to quote Marx and Engels but one has to take note what Winston Churchill said way back in 1954, ‘the inherent vice of Capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries’.

It is becoming more and more evident that Socialism is the alternative. It is the future and hope.