The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:
The Kerala floods have bought out the best in lakhs of people across India. They have also bought out the worst in scores of “liberals” across India too. Unfortunately, this small bunch of people have access to so many newspapers and web publications, that their noise drowns out the stories of countless sympathetic Indians.
At the forefront was Shekhar Gupta, publishing article after article calling South India rich; calling North India as a tax burden on South India etc. I had tweeted and even written about this divisive agenda many months back ( Extreme left radical website The Wire had lit the divisive fire then).
If funds from a rich state should not be used for development of a poor state, why then should the logic stop at the state level? Why should funds generated in Hyderabad be used for development of tribal areas in Adilabad? Why should funds generated in Vijayawada be used for development of backward areas in Srikakulam? Why should funds generated in Mumbai be used for developing Latur? Or funds generated at Noida be used for development of Gorakhpur?
Wait, why stop at city level? Why should funds generated from “Hitech City” of Hyderabad be used for development of roads in “Old City” of Hyderabad? But then it is futile to expect logic and liberals to walk together.
Sensing a great opportunity here, other members of the ecosystem furthered some more lies that only South Indian states have given funds to Kerala. Once that lie was busted, the members of the ecosystem ignored the factthat even the North Eastern states, despite having flood problems of their own, have contributed to the relief. Prominent journalists were on the forefront of trying to spread these rumors too.
Seeing the barrage of criticism being mounted against them with respect to this flimsy argument, the “liberals” changed track. They now moved on to saying how Modi government gave only 100 crores. As and when Kerala government proceeded to seek more funds, the central government was open to disbursing funds. The Prime Minister announced a further 500 crores. The Home Ministry released a further 320 crores. All this adds up to 920 crores. But the “liberals” stuck to either 100 crores or 600 crores. And are now trying to tell the country that while UAE is offering 700 crores to Kerala, central government is offering 600 crores only.
What the “liberals” didn’t tell you is that there are some things money can’t buy. Like the nearly 100,000 metric tonnes of relief material (Rice, water, milk etc) sent to Kerala. Like the nearly 65 helicopters/aircrafts the Indian defence forces have deployed. Like the 30,000 lives the Indian defence forces have saved so far. Like the nearly 300 boats deployed. Like the GST sopsannounced by the Central government. Like the nearly 20 special trains being run by the Railways. Like getting the Naval strip in Kochi ready for commercial flight operations.
The liberals then start propagating that the while Kerala asked for 20,000 crores, Centre gave only 600 crores. First, no one knows the source of the 20,000 crores amount. What we did come to know was that when the Uttarakhand floods happened, the state government then had requested for nearly 14,000 crores as help from the center. Subject to correction, the central government gave about 1000 crores. Also, important to note here that both the center and state was governed by the Congress party then. Did you see so much noise at that point of time? Not just by these liberals – then opposition parties also did not make this an issue – because the opposition was more responsible then. Every one who could help, came forward to help without shouting about no help from the center! Equivalent help in terms of resources was provided by the center at that point of time too. However, since logic and liberals can’t walk together, it is now an uphill task to propagate these facts across.
The center has been equally steadfast in supporting the Karnataka government when the Kodagu region is also going through similar flood damage. However, the liberals cannot further their agenda if these facts are also bought to the forefront.
Even the Kerala CM has expressed satisfaction at the way the central government has reacted and assisted the state government. This hasn’t dampened the campaign by the liberals even by a wee bit. They are marching on, trying to foment their divisive agenda. Each time we think the liberals cannot stoop further down, they compete to prove us wrong. The Kerala floods have indeed exposed the worst amongst this gang.
0 comments:
Post a Comment