COVID-19 DEVASTATING COVERAGE

It is unlikely that there will be a leadership challenge to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi but his political capital will not escape unscathed from the pandemic, writes Riyaz Wani

- Riyaz Wani

The ongoing catastrophe in India has attracted a hell of lot of bad press internationally. Major foreign newspapers, portals, and television stations have blamed the Indian government for creating and precipitating the current crisis. This is the second time after the revocation of Article 370 in August 2019 that foreign media has been so roundly critical of Delhi.

In one case, the foreign ministry issued a rebuttal to an article published in The Australian. The article was originally published in the British newspaper, The Times is written by Phillip Sherwell with the headline, Modi leads India out of lockdown and into a Covid apocalypse. It was reproduced in the Australian newspaper with the title — Modi leads India into a viral apocalypse.

The Indian High Commission’s rebuttal accused The Australian’s coverage of India’s Covid crisis as “motivated and malicious reports” helping in “spreading falsehoods” and urged the paper to “refrain” from publishing “such baseless” articles.

HELD PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE

Though The Australian’s headline stood out for its punchiness, reports by the other major papers have been even more unsparing. A commentary published in Foreign Policy has directly blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the crisis.