Gujarat govt move for fewer Covid-19 tests 'pushing' people to edge: Activists, academics

Mallika Sarabhai, Prakash Shah, Fr Cedric Prakash, Prof Navdeep Mathur

By A Representative
About 100 concerned citizens, including top social activists and experts, have strongly protested against the Gujarat government’s alleged move to “dictate” the medical community to “reduce” Covid-19 tests in order to suggest that the state has fewer number of cononavirus positive patients, stating, this is nothing but “criminal negligence” which would “push people towards death without their knowledge.”
Signed among others by well-known danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, litterateur Prakash Shah, human rights activist Father Cedric Prakash, and Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) professor Navdeep Mathur, in a letter to chief minister Vijay Rupani, they said, the “decision” to have fewer tests was taken after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) revealed that 80% infected patients of Covid-19 were asymptomatic, and testing alone across cross sections could help identify infected patients and new clusters in order to stop spreading the pandemic.
Contending that the state government has been negligent towards the Covid-19 crisis from the very beginning, the letter said, before the ICMR insistence on tests, these were being conducted in a very selective manner. Worse, doctors and nurses were not being provided with safety gears, and the lockdown was enforced with the aid of police and drone.
Currently, the letter said, the situation is that a fear psychosis of getting infected is prevailing among medical, paramedical and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) staff, adding, working day and night, without any protective equipment, our saviours are under duress and are in dismayed.
Though attempts are made to “bury” the dangerous spread of Covid-19, in the last 10 days, the number of cases has doubled and the recovery rate in Gujarat is as low as 9.8%, one of the lowest in India and has been decreasing day by day, the letter said, adding, the situation has come to such a pass that the Ahmedabad municipal commissioner has gone so far as to say that by May 31 over 8 lakh cases of Covid-19 positive could be reported in Ahmedabad alone.

The letter comes amidst a state-run centre claim that high Covid-19 mortality rate in Gujarat could be due to the dominance of the L-type strain

The letter comes amidst the state-run Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) claiming that the high Covid-19 mortality rate in Gujarat could be due to the dominance of the L-type strain of coronavirus, found to have been more prevalent in Wuhan in China, where the outbreak started. Gujarat reported 133 deaths till April 27.
Pointing out that the commissioner’s statement is extremely scary, with people wondering what would befall their, the letter said, this situation is building up amidst “punitive measures” taken by police and administration, with “abiding citizens” being booked “under various penal clauses, arrested and fined”, and efforts to “communalize and politicize” the pandemic.
Asking the government to come up with a clear roadmap to fight the pandemic in the post-lockdown period, the letter demanded “safety gears in sufficient quantity to doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, cleaners, ambulance drivers, police and others.”
Also demanding increase the rate of Covid-19 testing, the letter said, there should be “sufficient arrangements for the indoor patients in the hospitals as well as corona care centres”, with private hospitals being asked to provide free treatment and care to all. At the same time, it added, sufficient “food, ration, cash doles and other necessities” should be provided to the poor and the needy.”

---

Click here for signatories

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

'Restructuring' Sahitya Akademi: Is the ‘Gujarat model’ reaching Delhi?

By Prakash N. Shah* A fortnight and a few days have slipped past that grim event. It was as if the wedding preparations were complete and the groom’s face was about to be unveiled behind the ceremonial tinsel. At 3 PM on December 18, a press conference was poised to announce the Sahitya Akademi Awards .

Search This Blog