[Marxistindia] letter to PM by Sitaram Yechury on Covid Measures

[news from the cpi(m)]

April 26, 2020
Press Release

CPI(M) General Secretary, Sitaram Yechury, has written a letter to the  
Prime Minister detailing the measures that need to be put in place in  
order to fight and defeat the Covid-19 pandemic.

The full text of the letter sent yesterday, is being released for publication.


For CPI(M) Central Committee Office

*******
Full Text of the Letter Dated April 25, 2020


Dear Pradhan Mantriji,

Unfortunately, I am constrained to write to you once again during this  
lockdown. My previous communications to you listing out various  
measures that the central government must undertake to alleviate the  
sufferings of a vast section of our people during the lockdown have  
gone unanswered. In fact they have not even been acknowledged, which  
is unusual.

I am seeking to once again draw your attention to the pressing issues  
facing the country and the majority of our people.

We are now entering the last week of the forty-day nation-wide  
lockdown that you had announced suddenly and abruptly with a mere  
four-hour notice. This left both the people and the state governments  
completely unprepared to meet the grave consequences of the sudden  
lockdown.

1.	Migrant Workers: Since the lockdown, the urge among the migrant  
workers to return to their homes has seen surging crowds in huge  
numbers seeking to leave for their homes as they have lost all means  
of livelihood and shelter. This in itself negated one of the  
objectives of the lockdown, of maintaining physical distancing in  
order to contain community transmission of the pandemic. Hunger,  
malnutrition and homelessness continue to plague the lives of crores  
of our people. Since the announcement of the lockdown we had suggested  
that the Central government must immediately provide free food to all  
the needy. Huge stocks of foodgrains are rotting in our central  
godowns. These should be sent to the states for free distribution.  
Neither of these demands have even been considered by the government  
with you as the Prime Minister.

2.	Unemployment: It has been estimated that the absolute number of  
unemployed rose from 340 lakhs to 880 lakhs between February and  
April, i.e., an additional 540 lakhs of people lost their livelihood.  
In addition, another 680 lakh people have moved out of the labour  
force. Since the outbreak of the pandemic a staggering 12.2 crores of  
people have lost their jobs and livelihood. During the six weeks  
coinciding with the lockdown from early March to April 20, the  
unemployment rate shot up from 7.5 per cent to 23.6 per cent. It is  
imperative that immediately the Central Government transfer Rs. 7500  
per month for the next three months to all who have lost their  
livelihoods. Surely, if a staggering Rs. 7.76 lakhs of crores of loans  
taken by the superrich and corporates can be waived off by your  
government during the last five years, there should be no shortage of  
funds to feed and support the majority of our people.

3.	Cooperative Federalism?: The states are in the battlefront in  
combatting the pandemic. They require both adequate finances and  
supplies of foodgrains and other essential commodities. No such  
support has been forthcoming from the central government so far in any  
meaningful manner. A crisis has been created by the rapid announcement  
of a nationwide lockdown for the migrant workers. You are now asking  
the state governments to provide shelter, food and maintain physical  
distancing and other restrictions of the lockdown. This is patently  
unfair. Even the outstanding dues of the state governments over GST  
collections have not been paid to them yet. Indeed, funds must be  
liberally transferred to the states forthwith.

4.	Finances: Thousands of crores of rupees are being collected in a  
fund by a private trust that bears your name. It has been officially  
stated that this fund shall not be audited either by the CAG or any  
other government-appointed auditor. Deductions from salaries of  
government employees and others are being forcibly transferred to this  
fund even if they are formally donated to the official Prime  
Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund. These funds must be immediately  
deployed to meet the requirements to strengthen the fight against the  
pandemic.

5.	Stop Wasteful Expenditure: It is amazing, bordering on criminality,  
that the central government plans to continue with unnecessary  
wasteful expenditure like its central vista project with a new  
residence for the Prime Minister and other public relations exercises  
at the time of financial distress to meet this grave medical  
emergency. The legacy of this government during the last five years of  
spending money on statues, bullet trains, propaganda campaigns etc.  
instead of public health care, education etc. must be stopped  
forthwith. The requirements of battling the pandemic must be  
prioritized.

6.	Grave Shortage of PPEs: It is universally acknowledged that  
lockdowns are to be used to aggressively test the people and to  
provide personal protection equipment to our doctors and health  
workers so essential to contain and defeat the pandemic.  
Unfortunately, despite a long lead time that India had compared to  
many other countries, necessary preparations were not undertaken. Even  
now after a month of lockdown our testing rates remain one of the  
lowest in the world, shamefully even lower than Pakistan. Health  
workers do not have the required PPEs and tragically some have  
succumbed to the virus. Even at this stage, it is imperative that  
equipment for both testing and PPEs must be provided on a war footing.

7.	Universal Healthcare: While the central focus is to battle the  
Covid pandemic, India cannot afford to see a larger number of  
non-Covid deaths because of lack of medical attention to those  
suffering from non-communicable diseases. Reports estimate that more  
than 3 lakh children and lakhs of pregnant mothers have been deprived  
of crucial life saving vaccines during the lockdown. More than a lakh  
cancer patients and 3.5 lakh diabetics have not got the required  
treatment. Even programmes like Malaria eradication and TB have shown  
huge decline in the last five weeks. There are reports of huge  
shortfall in blood supply in blood banks, so crucial for people with  
blood disorders like thalassemia, hemophilia and sickle cell disease.  
Surely, such a situation cannot be acceptable and must be corrected  
forthwith.

8.	Priorities of Governance: The grave situation of accelerating of  
positive cases in states like Madhya Pradesh with huge fatalities are  
directly connected with the naked lust for political power by the BJP  
violating all norms at a critical time of a public health emergency.  
The toppling of an elected government and the swearing in of a BJP  
government had left the state without any political leadership and the  
ordinary people are paying the price for this alarming spread of the  
pandemic.



9.	Dismal Governance: By now it has become the habit of the central  
government to issue orders that cannot be understood followed by  
multiple clarifications and even rescinding those orders. We saw the  
track record of such a dismal governance model when demonetisation was  
undertaken. Clearly, the political executive in the country is proving  
its incompetence by kneejerk reactions.

10.	 Communal Polarisation: The battle against the pandemic can only  
succeed when the country and all Indians are united. The  
irresponsibility of the Tablighi Jamaat organisers cannot be the  
excuse for targeting the entire Muslim minority community and  
deepening social divisions and communal polarization.  This only  
undermines India’s strength while spreading communal hatred. The  
impact of such a communal campaign is now being felt in many countries  
of the world where a large number of people of Indian origin work and  
reside. It is upto the political leadership i.e the central government  
to put a stop to this forthwith. Otherwise it would be the greatest  
disservice both to the fight against the pandemic and the people of  
our country.

11.	 Return Migrant Workers to their Homes: The central government had  
correctly evacuated a large number of Indians stranded in foreign  
countries when the pandemic broke out. Special planes were organised  
to bring them back to India. However, it is impermissible for the  
central government not to make any arrangements, if not planes, but at  
least by special trains and buses, maintaining the restrictions of the  
lockdown to transport the immigrant workers back to their homes. This  
must be undertaken at least now.

Further many Indians continue to remain in foreign countries. The  
central government must make arrangements for their return like many  
other countries in the world are doing including airlifting their  
citizens from our country.

12.	 Finally, Mr. Prime Minister, you have shown a singular disdain to  
face the media and reply to the concerns of the Indian people, unlike  
many of your counterparts in the world. Leaders of the government in  
most countries address regular press conferences and answer questions.  
This is the only way to remain accountable and to give confidence to  
the people that the government is both competent and in command of the  
situation. In fact, many state governments in India, do this. The  
Chief Minister of the LDF government in Kerala holds a daily press  
briefing and outlines the measures that the government has taken to  
generate the confidence required for the people to face this  
challenge. Democratic accountability is grossly missing in your style  
of governance.




Yours sincerely



(Sitaram Yechury)


Shri Narendra Modi
Prime Minister
Government of India