The New York Times‘ Amelia Gentleman has a story in today’s issue on the flood havoc in Bihar, and has these paragraphs:
“At a national level, the plight of these flood victims arouses little compassion. In early August, when the United Nations declared the floods the worst in living memory, the miserable condition of the 31 million people affected in India was covered internationally but was neither front-page news in New Delhi newspapers nor featured on national news channels. Instead, bulletins were dominated by the sentencing of a Bollywood star to jail.
“Such apathy is not unusual. Newspapers in India often neglect the suffering of the rural poor, more preoccupied with the triumphs of the emerging India than with the familiar stories of extreme hardship experienced by hundreds of millions of Indians living on the land.”
Read the full story here: After the deluge, the reality of deprivation
Look, in Karnataka when some parts are affected by floods, our so-called elected representatives are visiting to understand development in China.
There are so many Shankars in Karnatake too…we shed tears and only tears…thereafterwards everything is left…
Good one at the right time!!
This is true color of Indian media. They are just behind celebrities and hypes.
Even the govt is busy negotiating with LEFT for its N-deal, leaving thousand homeless.
What good did the economic reforms have done to these people.
I think we have change our mindset and think in a different paradigm.
It is a timely article which pin points the lopsided priorities of the Indian media. We have lost sensitivity to human suffering. The proposal to set up an emergency fund to help the terrorist victims on the line of Natural calamity fund clearly indicates the acceptance of our unwillingness to tackle the problems once for all. It is the lack of long term perceptive that is responsible for all the casual approach towards such burning problems.
The study tour of Karnataka legislators to china, high pitched hype of left parties over the nuclear deal, senseless shouting of secularist over the non issues are reflection of our indifference towards the real issues that affects the poor and down trodden
Most of our experts in water resources talk endlessly of depletion of ground water table, rain harvesting and diversion of rivers all through the summer months. Can any one think of a plan to harness the flood water? Relief measures provide only temporary succor. It is wiser to prevent recurrence of disease rather than providing subsidized medicine
A sort of insurance to recoup the loss due to floods may usher in awareness to prevent the on set of disaster. It is a problem of grave nature and should be tackled with at most seriousness.
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