As the world continues to hold a series of crises at an unprecedented scale from Corona Virus pandemic to the protests against racism as George Floyd’s death in Police custody in the US, the conversations in public domain have started to come decorated with prejudiced filters which alter the picture of realism. Anand Ranganathan, a College alumnus from Cambridge, who is currently serving as an Evolution and Pathogenesis scientist in JNU has come to the public discussions on and off the primetime television as country’s foremost voice of reasonability. Jan Ki Baat CEO Founder Pradeep Bhandari had a conversation with him on a range of issues.Whether the Nationwide Lockdown is working or not Anand says that the country needed the lockdown ‘because we had to find out that are we in the same basket as west, because the west had very high number of COVID cases and as well as deaths.’ Highlighting the fact that many epidemiologists who came up with terrifying forecasts that India will have millions dead by July, he says that ‘for those who were saying India is just two weeks behind the US. Now the US has over 1,15,000 deaths, and we are at more than 7,000 deaths.’ “The numbers speak the truth,” says Mr. Ranganathan, while adding that through social media, ‘it’s the anecdotal worry about COVID which is spreading like wildfire.’
"CONTROVERSIAL" CONVERSATION WITH ANAND RANGANATHAN https://t.co/awUlQrzRlg
— Pradeep Bhandari(प्रदीप भंडारी) (@pradip103) June 9, 2020
What is happening in Delhi? Is situation in Delhi being understood correctly?
The forecast of lakhs of cases in Delhi by July-end by Delhi’s deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, has spread awave of panic in and out of the capital. The Delhi government wanted to ascertain that whether there is Community transmission of the infection or not. The ICMR has said again and again that the situation is far from being in the Community Transmission anywhere in the country. So when asked how Kejriwal government is doing on the face of this pandemic in the capital, Mr. Ranganathan says that ‘Kejriwal government is doing as good and as bad as any other state though better than many states. This is a city of 30 million population and 51% of Delhi lives in high density slums.’
Mr. Ranganathan highlights the Delhi government app which shows the real time availability of COVID beds in city’s hospital, alongside fine testing numbers.
USA: George Floyd controversy
The visuals of George Floyd in USA’s Minneapolis being pushed to death by the Police have raged thousands across the globe against the systemic racial discrimination So when asked on the selective outrage which is generated on issues, with, comments in public domain by the likes of Aakar Patel that “why are people not on streets?,” Mr. Ranganathan quotes American actor Will Smith’s reaction:
‘Racism isn’t happening for the first time but it is being videoed for the first time.’
Mr. Ranganathan says that what happened to George Floyd was nothing short of a ‘murder’. Yet, the problem comes with the ‘selectivity’ of the whole brand of Outrage.
Connecting the dots of selective outrage in Indian context, Mr. Ranganathan says that, ‘We’ve been suffering this for six years.’
‘Lynchistan was coined by a famous journalist who also talked about the famous coup, without going into the history of the term, ’ he adds.
Mr. Ranganathan says that Outrage is fine but, ‘it’s just when you only talk about one side and that you start to peddle agenda.’
Anand Ranganathan, further said that,
‘Those who talk about only one side of things they are the real danger. Through scare mongering they make up their narrative and then one thing leads to another all of which originates from selectivity.’
He further adds -” It is a pity that we have not been able to provide factual objective account of our history. This governmemt should have done that “. He also expressed his displeasure and pain on not seeing Kashmiri Pandits return back to their homes in the valley. Finally he said that that wider accepted notion of Jawaharlal Nehru being a tolerant democrat is factually false. He recalled and enlisted multiple instances in history where voice of dissent were jailed during the time to ex PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
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