As the nation is battling with the novel coronavirus crisis with states like Maharashtra having to undergo a virtual lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a heartwarming address to the country’s citizens this Thursday.
Prime Minister Modi in his address emphasized that people should stay away from rumours and unsubstantiated information about coronavirus that is being circulated on social media sites. Since the coronavirus pandemic hit India, social media sites like facebook are full of posts depicting a doomsday scenario for ordinary people because of this pandemic. The ‘educated elite’ of India are constantly sharing a barrage of such posts on social media, many of which incite panic. Even the international media is playing a highly negative role with regard to India’s coronavirus crisis. While the country is battling the crisis judiciously and effectively so far, international media outlets like BBC , Al Jazaeera, etc are forcefully trying to create a negative impression and incite panic by carrying reports like how India is not doing enough testing, that how community transmission might have just started in India and all that.
Without placing extreme curbs on the movement of people officially , Prime Minister Modi rather said that the onus was on the people of India to do self – policing and practice social distancing. He specifically requested the elderly to try and stay mostly indoors for the next couple of weeks. The Prime Minister also requested citizens to avoid visiting hospitals for routine check-ups and postpone any surgeries that are not urgent, for atleast a month.
The most important component of Prime Minister Modi’s speech was the announcement of the ‘Janta curfew’. Instead of forcefully imposing a curfew on citizens, the Prime Minister came up with a rather innovative strategy in which he appealed to the common people to observe ‘’janta curfew’ that is peoples’ curfew on Sunday, 22nd March.
We might be a developing country with relatively limited resources. But we have a long culture of unity, solidarity, kindness and compassion through which we have seen through many disasters and calamities. Prime Minister Modi emphasized in his speech that the onus was on the people of India now to act responsibly and selflessly in these difficult times.