Meet the Death Merchants in the Covid World
All of these autocrats ignored the scientific advice to deal with the virus and mercilessly allowed the poor populations in their countries to die with the infection.
By Rakesh Raman
Coronavirus is causing apocalyptic damage in the dictatorship states such as the U.S., India, Brazil, and Russia. More than 50% of the total 28 million Covid cases of the world are in these four countries.
These nations ruled by the autocratic rulers – Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, and Vladimir Putin – operate under the garb of democratic systems. They win elections by hook or by crook and then operate as cruel kings. So, the democracy in these countries has been reduced to a mere farce.
All of these autocrats ignored the scientific advice to deal with the virus and mercilessly allowed the poor populations in their countries to die with the infection. While the judicial systems have collapsed in these countries, these rulers are using the police and security forces to crush all those voices that question their despotic decisions.
Moreover, the international organizations such as the UN and other law-enforcement agencies have completely failed to hold these authoritarian leaders accountable for the crimes against humanity that they are committing during the pandemic. Here is a snapshot of their misdeeds.
Donald Trump: As Trump always said that the virus will disappear miraculously, he never made sufficient testing and other medical arrangements for the patients. Instead of taking advice from his health experts, Trump – like a salesman – promoted an untested malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and even asked people to consume disinfectants to treat the coronavirus disease.
He refused to wear a face mask and held political rallies where his blind supporters appeared without masks and did not follow social-distancing norms. Read Related Stories
Narendra Modi: Since Modi is an uneducated religious demagogue, he does not understand any subject that needs the application of intellect. He asked his followers to bang their kitchen utensils and burn candles to deal with coronavirus.
Modi has also created a dubious PM CARES Fund to collect money worth thousands of crores of rupees (or millions of dollars) to tackle the virus. But the Modi government refuses to divulge the details of the Fund while thousands of Indians are dying in dirty hospitals.
Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown when there were hardly any Covid cases and lifted the lockdown completely when millions of people are getting infected. Read Related Stories
Jair Bolsonaro: A slew of global celebrities warned that the coronavirus infection will cause genocide in Brazil if despotic President Jair Bolsonaro kept ignoring the havoc that the virus is wreaking in the South American country. Bolsonaro ignored the Covid devastation while dead bodies piled up in the city of Manaus, northern Brazil. The local health system has collapsed and gravediggers are burying the dead in mass graves known as “trenches.”
A former army officer Bolsonaro – who openly admires dictatorships – never took the virus threats seriously and allowed thousands of people to die in his country, while his supporters protested on roads against the social-distancing and quarantine rules which were never enforced lawfully. Read Related Stories
Vladimir Putin: The Russian dictator used the pandemic period to expand his political power. Putin organized a dubious poll on July 1 to accept constitutional changes that will allow him to stay in power until 2036. Subsequently, thousands of people protested in Russia’s Far East in July to express their opposition to President Putin.
Defying social-distancing norms and without wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic, the protesters in Russia’s vast hinterland chanted “Putin Resign” slogans. Now. Russia is accused of “attempt to murder” in a case of possible poisoning of Putin’s opponent Alexei Navalny. Read Related Stories
If these four troublemakers are not tamed immediately by using some international legislation, hundreds of thousands of more people will soon die with coronavirus.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
