Editor,
In his letter, “Counter to a false argument” (ST, Jan 2, 2020), Kajal Chatterjee aptly highlighted the secular legacy of Bangaliana. It is indeed a legacy of the idea of harmony of Lalan Fakir, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Nazrul Islam and many great souls of Bengal. Hemanta Upadhaya in his letter, “Lesson from infiltrators of West Bengal” (ST, Jan 3, 2020) agreed that the people of West Bengal are tolerant. But he added that others have been taking advantage of their non-aggressive nature. This raises an important question whether the tolerance or the idea of harmony is at all practical and wise for a country’s development and progress.
To find an answer to this question let us focus our attention on two real stories ~ the first about Leo Varadkar and then about “Willkommenskultur” (welcome culture). Ashok Varadkar had moved from India (Maharashtra) to England in the 1960s. He started working in an English hospital as a junior doctor. There he fell in love with Miriam who was also working at that hospital as a student nurse. They married and came to India. After a short stay in India, they went to Ireland with their first child Sofia.
The birth of their second and third child namely Sonia and Leo happened in Ireland. Like his father, Leo became a doctor. Leo showed his inclination towards politics from an early age, which pleased his father who took pride in calling himself a socialist. Two uncles of Leo were involved in the freedom struggle in India against the British. One of them served a year in jail as a political prisoner during the British Raj. But how far can an immigrant’s son go in Ireland? The people of Ireland have indeed accepted him as their Prime Minister a couple of years ago! And he still remains in that coveted position. But is it prudent for a country to have such a liberal attitude? The 2019 Human Development Index shows the answer. Ireland has got the third place in HDI with a high score of 0.942. The life expectancy at birth in Ireland is 82.1 years and the mean years of schooling is 12.5 years.
Hitler taught European countries a bitter lesson of the dangers of pursuing an idea of hatred after labeling the people of a particular religion and communists as bad elements. Hitler left Germany in tatters. Now, Germany has embraced the idea of harmony with zero hatred against Jews, minorities and communists to such an extent that German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders in 2015 for Syrian refugees. This event has been described in political debates as “Willkommenskultur” or welcome culture. It portrayed a perfect picture of humanity. Germans took refugees to meetings with authorities in their own cars, taught them German, acted as nannies to their children, opened up soccer clubs, schools and kindergartens for refugee kids. However, incidents of corrosive racial attacks on refugees took place in Germany but the general public demonstrated against the racial attacks across the country. It was as it were an act of atonement for the past wrongs of the Germans at the time of the Holocaust.
According to UNHCR data, many Syrians moved to Germany and applied for asylum between 2011 and 2017. As a result, Germany’s Muslim population rose from 3.3 million in 2010 to 5 million in 2016. But is such an extreme tolerant approach good for a country’s progress? Again we can get the answer from the 2019 Human Development Index. By adopting such a liberal attitude, Germany has actually moved from the nadir it had tasted after the Second World War to the fourth place in the HDI with a score of 0.939. Life expectancy at birth now in Germany is 81.2 years and the mean years of schooling is 14.1 years.
Secular ideals have been ridiculed as “sickular” and humanitarian approaches are branded as utopian whereas machismo and majoritarianism have been regarded as panacea for ages. But history teaches us that exactly the very opposite of this is true. From Holocaust to KKK to Taliban to ISIS to Neo Nazism everywhere the idea of hatred only spelled disaster. On the other hand, the road to tolerance, harmony and fraternity took countries to prosperity.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata
Death due to negligence
Editor,
It is extremely shocking to learn that 100 infants are reported to have died in Kota, Rajasthan though the reasons for the death are still eluding the authorities concerned. The Centre on Thursday dispatched a high-level team to probe the deaths. Meanwhile, Congress President Sonia Gandhi summoned the party’s state in-charge to Delhi over the issue and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot sent a detailed report to her.
With the death toll of infants mounting, the state government constituted an inquiry committee to probe these deaths. The Committee submitted its report to the Government after investigation on December 30. In this report, hospital administration and doctors have been given a virtual clean chit.
The Investigating Committee found that the death of infants was not due to lack of treatment, but cold. However, the committee noted that oxygen is usually provided in the ICU through cylinders, while oxygen must be delivered through pipelines. Carrying the cylinder back and forth increases the risk of infection. The committee also found that over 70 children were being treated in 53 beds of the ICU in JK Lon Hospital, which could cause infection.
JK Lon Maternal and Child Hospital and New Medical College Hospital in Kota, Rajasthan is a government-run hospital, which claims to have specialty in treating children. Between December 23 and 24, 2019, as many as 10 children died in this hospital. Five of these were newborns, while the rest were less than two years old.
It may be recalled that the series of deaths of children have been going on in this hospital for a month. But when 10 children died at the same time, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan swung into action and gave a statement, which was termed as ‘insensitive’ by social media and the Opposition. It is worth noting that the health service infrastructures at the primary level in Rajasthan is not satisfactory. Besides, people do not go to hospitals in far-flung areas. Many deaths occur at home. However, these days people have started reaching the hospitals gradually. If such deaths are to be prevented in the state, people have to be provided better services at the ground level, as patients often reach hospitals too late.
The state government admitted that some of the incubators at the hospital used for newborns were not in working condition. Coupled with this, the extreme cold has made it tougher for babies to survive their illness.
A deeper analysis of the problem reveals that people, especially villagers in Rajasthan are illiterate in health matters and they often are hesitant to go to hospital for treatment. They rely on traditional medicine for their primary health and fatalities happen when they even keep trying traditional medicine on the dying. This situation must change and people have to be given awareness about health and sanitation. The basic problem here is also economic. Most villagers don’t have the wherewithal for a decent living. The Government must focus its attention on providing basic infrastructure to people like motorable roads, electricity, potable water, good houses. Once the infrastructural facilities start coming to the villages, people will start living more decent lives.
Yours etc.,
TK Nandanan,
Via email