M K Bhadrakumar |
It was three decades ago that a senior American diplomat Robin Raphel, who had served in New Delhi in the early 1990s, famously boasted that she needed only three minutes to rake up a controversy in India. The raging controversy over the Modi government’s policy on receiving the aid offer from the United Arab Emirates shows how little India has changed since then. If anything, the furious 24×7 media reportage and the hopeless political polarisation in the Indian opinion, especially in the most recent years, have made matters worse.
There has been a tidal wave of criticism about Modi government’s policy on receiving foreign relief aid almost entirely due to prejudices, vanities or acts of dissimulation. None of the critics appeared to be aware while making free-wheeling opinions that the Modi government indeed has a well-laid policy on the topic of disaster management.
Looking back, the Delhi-based so-called national media started all this ruckus by putting out the fake news citing so-called sources that India rejected the UAE Crown Prince’s offer of help that was conveyed personally to Modi
And they included a central and state minister, top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India(Marxist), and surprisingly, even two ex-foreign secretaries who, in particular, should have known that while opinions may vary, facts are sacrosanct.
Leaving behind the ad-hocism of successive past governments, the government unveiled its National Disaster Management Plan, a 200-page document in May 2016 – by the way, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s signature. The policy document unambiguously says that while India will not solicit foreign help, it will accept aid offers and it goes on to spell out the modalities of receiving relief assistance from abroad.
Read more: Saudi Arabia bans fruit and vegetables from India’s Kerala state
Significantly, the Ministry of External Affairs had even issued a clarification as recently as on August 22, obviously taking note of the silly public discourse taking place, that aid is welcome for Kerala’s flood relief although the government of India is committed to addressing national disasters out of own resources.
There is not a single Malayali who has not been affected directly or indirectly by this tragedy, ensuing from a monsoon that has been the heaviest in a century, exceeding the average rainfall by almost 50%
Ironically, while the controversy was raging all around us, an Emirates Air Cargo flight landed in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday, bringing 175 tonnes of relief goods to Kerala donated by the UAE leadership, “government entities, humanitarian organizations, residents, and businesses in their support of Kerala.” Thirteen more flights are expected. Haven’t our self-styled opinion makers made asses of themselves?
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Fake News
Looking back, the Delhi-based so-called national media started all this ruckus by putting out the fake news citing so-called sources that India rejected the UAE Crown Prince’s offer of help that was conveyed personally to Modi. This was despite Modi’s own tweet in plain English stating his appreciation of the offer from the UAE in which there was no trace of vanity or regret that his government intended to spurn the offer:
A big thanks to @hhshkmohd for his gracious offer to support people of Kerala during this difficult time. His concern reflects the special ties between governments and people of India and UAE.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 18, 2018
One senior journalist with a national daily based in Delhi added masala to the fake news by writing: “It would be ridiculous to expect the present government to suddenly reverse that policy and accept foreign aid. Successive Indian governments have also discovered that once you open those gates, you end up with a lot of unnecessary diplomatic obligations, doubtful assistance, and very little upside.”
Read more: India warns of ‘extremely grave’ crisis as flood toll rises
Regrettably, sections of the CPI(M) state leadership in Kerala seized on the fake news to pillory the central government for its discriminatory policies toward the state, while on the other hand, the BJP state leaders whom the fake news put on the defensive, went overboard to justify why India should not accept foreign aid offer. The rest is history.
Media’s Role
Major foreign media organizations picked up the story as presaging a first-rate political confrontation shaping up between the Kerala state government and the central government including New York Times, Fox News, Deutsche Welle, etc. There is not a single Malayali who has not been affected directly or indirectly by this tragedy, ensuing from a monsoon that has been the heaviest in a century, exceeding the average rainfall by almost 50%.
No one anticipated it and it was simply impossible for anyone to anticipate it – and we are, therefore, reduced to a sad situation of having to pick up the broken threads of life where the receding monsoon left them behind. People who live outside Kerala and have not witnessed what the residents of the state have gone through during the past fortnight have a choice between either keeping quiet and mutely witnessing the calamity (and what is still unfolding) or preferably, doing something in financial, material or practical terms to help in the state’s rehabilitation and reconstruction.
“It would be ridiculous to expect the present government to suddenly reverse that policy and accept foreign aid. Successive Indian governments have also discovered that once you open those gates, you end up with a lot of unnecessary diplomatic obligations, doubtful assistance, and very little upside.”
The decent thing, of course, is not to complicate the situation under any pretext. All in all, it is abundantly clear that this has been an utterly wasteful controversy that we all could have done without. The bottom line is that Kerala needs all the help it can get from the Centre and from any other sources, given the sheer magnitude of the tragedy.This includes his Onam greetings on Saturday where he tweeted:
May this Onam give further strength to the people of Kerala to overcome the adversities they have been facing for the past few days. The entire nation stands shoulder to shoulder with Kerala and prays for the happiness as well as prosperity of it’s citizens.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 25, 2018
There is not a single Malayali who has not been affected directly or indirectly by this tragedy, ensuing from a monsoon that has been the heaviest in a century, exceeding the average rainfall by almost 50%. No one anticipated it and it was simply impossible for anyone to anticipate it and we are, therefore, reduced to a sad situation of having to pick up the broken threads of life where the receding monsoon left them behind.
Read more: More than 320 dead in India flood crisis
People who live outside Kerala and have not witnessed what the residents of the state have gone through during the past fortnight have a choice between either keeping quiet and mutely witnessing the calamity (and what is still unfolding) or preferably, doing something in financial, material or practical terms to help in the state’s rehabilitation and reconstruction. The decent thing, of course, is not to complicate the situation under any pretext.
M. K. Bhadrakumar has served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, with postings as India’s ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-1998) and to Turkey (1998-2001). He writes extensively in Indian newspapers, Asia Times and the “Indian Punchline”. This piece was first published in Indian Punchline. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy.