Below we publish the statement initiated by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and signed by world political parties, on April 1. The CPI(M) has also signed this statement.
TODAY, as Covid-19 is spreading rapidly across the globe, it constitutes the most urgent and serious challenge to both the health of the humanity and world peace and development.
AS I write this column (April 2), Covid-19 is crossing a million infected cases in the world and nearly 50,000 dead. In India, the total infected cases are more than 2,000, with 51 deaths. It is clear that all countries are affected. It is a matter of time before a set of clusters or hot spots form and Covid-19 takes off in the country. Once it takes off, we are in exponential growth with a doubling rate that very soon makes the numbers look frightening. This is where Wuhan was six weeks ago, Italy entered about 3-4 weeks back and the US is in now.
THE first one week of the lockdown in India, out of the declared three weeks, has once again displayed the callous and lackadaisical attitude of the BJP led Modi government towards the poor workers of the country. The sudden announcement of the lockdown, giving hardly a few hours’ time for the people to prepare themselves for it, and without the needed preparation by the government to minimise people’s, particularly the poor unorganised and migrant workers’ sufferings, led to utter chaos in many states.
LEFT parties and mass organisations in West Bengal are busy fighting corona disaster and its fall outs, in a courageous and energetic manner. While abiding by the restrictions imposed through lockdown, they are out to help the needy in multifarious ways.
THE tragic irony could not have been more complete. The country is under lockdown, but thousands of migrant workers are thronging bus stands or marching on the roads, making a mockery of it; the aim of the lockdown is to prevent the spread of the pandemic, but the mass exodus can now carry the virus to the hitherto-unaffected rural India where the healthcare system is pathetic; the idea is to prevent a virus-caused human tragedy, but an immense human tragedy is now unfolding.
PUNJAB state secretary of the CPI(M), Sukhwinder Singh Sekhon, on March 29 wrote a letter to the chief minister of Punjab, Captain Amrinder Singh, regarding the plight of the migrant workers, transporters and other sections of the society in Punjab and demanded his intervention to address the woes because of the ongoing lockdown in the state.
THE country has experienced one week of the lockdown and a few things can be noted. The first is that citizens of India have been responsible, by and large, following government instructions. In spite of great hardship caused by the sudden announcement of lockdown, people have united to play their role in taking the required steps to prevent India from going into the third stage, which is that of community transmission. Across the country, in every state, people have rallied round.
HINDU and Muslim communalists considered India to consist of two nations – divided on the basis of the religious beliefs of people – Hindus and Muslims. It is for this reason that both Savarkar and Jinnah did not find any problem with the two-nation theory advocated by each other. When the Congress had given the call, ‘Quit India’ in 1942, Muslim League had called, ‘Divide India and Quit’.
THE central government’s order, defining the domicile law for Jammu and Kashmir is criminal, said Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, Central Committee member of the CPI(M). In a statement released to the press on April 1, Tarigami termed the act of the central government as criminal, as the country is battling against Covid-19, but the BJP is busy in manipulating its agenda in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the BJP leadership has befooled the people of Jammu and Kashmir with the changes being brought out in the domicile law of the J&K.