Taking Covid guard; Elusive China unplugging; Dump Taliban
Opinion Watch
Taking Covid guard
China could never deal effectively with the Covid-19 outbreak. Worse, China’s President Xi Jinping blundered on two counts by staking personal pride in vaccine nationalism and ‘Zero Covid Policy’. He led China into a devastating outbreak of pandemic, with bodies piling up at morgues and crematoriums running overwhelmed. This disaster has the authorship of Xi, for he packed the Chinese Communist Party politburo with those who had been utter failure in managing the pandemic in their provinces.
Most of the dailies have come out with Editorials after the government suddenly woke up to the Covid-19 threat. The Covid tsunami hit China not in a day, but it has been going on for several days. It was the Chinese expatriate activists, living abroad, who flooded the internet with videos to make the world aware of the pandemic havoc, kept under wrap by Xi, as is his wont, for he had kept the global community in the dark in January 2020 also. One may wonder what kind of intelligence India has that the government here needs to go in a huddle after the internet breaks the news to the world. Certainly, India has not taken lessons.
The Economic Times in its Editorial noted that India has reported at least four cases of BF.7 Omicron sub-variant, while stating that the government’s direction for genome sequencing and mask mandate is reassuring. The daily also stated that 70 per cent of the people are fully vaccinated, but only 27 per cent have taken the booster doses. On this count, debate is still on, for some of the virologists are arguing that taking repeated vaccines world over has not given favourable results, while underlining that India now has herd immunity along with natural infections.
Elusive China unplugging
‘Make in India’ was meant to make India a manufacturing base. But China and Indian traders were more cunning than the bureaucrats in the government. China set up shops in countries with friendly ties with India such as Asean and scaled up exports to India, and the cunning traders in India overnight became manufacturers with ‘Make in India’ lable on Chinese assembled goods. This explains ballooning trade deficit with China.
The Times of India in its Editorial has taken note of the fact that the Indian manufacturers did not take the benefit of the production linked incentive scheme of the government for API (active pharmaceutical ingredients). The daily has stated that only 25-30 per cent of the companies who were approved for the PLI scheme have begun manufacturing. Now, the prices of APIs have shot up in India at a time when China may curb export of the essential ingredients for the making of the medicines.
Dump Taliban
A thug will always be a thug. A terrorist will always be a terrorist. The Taliban are not just thugs and terrorists, but morally corrupt and mentally deranged community. Irony is that the champions of human rights, the western nations, surrendered Afghanistan to the rogue Taliban and ran away from the Kabul airport in a scene which may only describe cowards.
The Hindu in its Editorial has called upon the government to curtail its relations with the Taliban. India, it may be recalled, had hurried to meet the top leadership of the Taliban after a senior official was sent to Kabul to open the technical consulate. The Taliban have shunted out the women now from colleges and universities.
At a time when 80 per cent of the people in Afghanistan are starving, the ruling Taliban are busy bashing the women. It may remain a puzzle, how could such insanity be accepted by any.
About The Author
