Delhi; 30 April 2021 (UMMN): In an online meeting with Indian ambassadors and high commissioners spread around the world, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that the negative narrative about PM Modi’s incompetence in handling 2nd wave of deadly Covid-19 pandemic must be countered.
Narrative in international media — that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government had failed the country by their “incompetent” handling of the second Covid-19 wave — must be countered, said Jaishankar.
According to The Indian Express; the meeting came in the wake of strong editorials, commentary and reports in leading international newspapers such as the New York Times, Guardian, Le Monde, and Straits Times, and on TV channels, blaming the Modi government for ignoring warning signs, holding an extended election in West Bengal, and for not cancelling the Kumbh Mela.
International TV channels have run visuals of waiting ambulances and patients outside hospitals, and cremations in Delhi and elsewhere, to underline India’s lack of preparedness.
Message from Jaishankar was not to get overpowered by the “negative” media reports but to take charge and project the government’s side of the story. Participants were also told to disseminate that there could be no connection between the elections, campaign rallies and the spike in numbers.
He did not touch upon the subject of Kumbh Mela, which has been been described in every international report as a “super spreader” event.
Although the participating diplomats had questions, no one asked about the consequences of holding the Kumbh. Nor were there any questions about the messaging from crowded election rallies addressed by the Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah, in violation of social distancing norms, or any of the institutional failures pointed out by the international media, wrote said The Indian Express.
Jaishankar also did not touch upon Vaccine Maitri, under which India shipped 66 million vaccines to other nations. None of the participants asked about this either.
According to The Indian Express, among suggestions made by envoys was that there was no need to counter every media criticism with a rebuttal of the kind written by the deputy high commissioner to Australia in response to ‘The Australian’ report headlined “Modi Leads India out of lockdown…and into Covid apocalypse”.
