That’s a death rate of nearly 4%. What’s significant is more than half of the deaths have been outside China. US President Donald Trump attempted to put China in the dock, labeling the outbreak as a “Chinese virus”, for which he was immediately labelled “racist” by the American mainstream media. Trump does not care, he has always found China a convenient whipping boy to blunt attacks on him by the Democrats and the “failed” media in his neck of the woods, the New York Times and the Washington Post…CNN and MSNBC.

For some reason Trump hasn’t been able to get the mainstream media in his corner like Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been able to. The majority of India’s MSM appears to have sworn allegiance to Modi and never strays from the chosen path. So, according to the mainstream Indian media, the Modi Government, for all the lack of serious community testing, is giving a tough fight to the deadly coronavirus; nothing to worry, Modi has it cornered; just look at the number of corona positive cases and the number of deaths in India and compare them with those in China, Italy, United States and Iran…South Korea, and India is by far in a way better state.

The number of positive cases in the United States was 6500 till March 18, up from 4661 on March 17! The number of deaths rose from 85 to 115 in 24 hours, whereas the numbers in India were 141 Indian nationals and 25 foreign nationals till the morning of March 19.

So, the message that comes across is that there is no need to panic; things will pan out to normal ASAP, ‘Modi Hai Toh Mumkin Hai’. The ICMR released the total figure 168 including foreign nationals at 12 noon on March 19. These numbers are bound to rise by 8pm Thursday night when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation!

Does that make you feel like shutting yourself in the panic room? The last time Modi “addressed the nation” high value currency of certain denominations died an instant death and people got a taste what standing in queues can do to a human body. Curiously enough, as with coronavirus, demonetization also affected the elderly more than the youth. Senior citizens fell dead at many queues. Demonetization also was also announced at 8 pm!

The big chunk of mainstream media apart, the Modi government also has the back of bodies like the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which tweeted Thursday noon that all the 826 it “community tested”, not a single case was found positive. So we can assume that India has not broken into Stage 3 of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, if certain government sorts are to be taken at face value, what we have in India is an outbreak and not an epidemic.

Definitely not a pandemic because we have sealed our borders and “Hindustan Mein Koi Parinda Bhi Par Nahi Maar Sakta”. That said what Narendra Modi will tell the people in his address to the nation Thursday night will set the tone and tenor of India’s response to the global and domestic crisis brought about by a virus with no Roman leanings! Why else will this “Chinese origin” virus with a Latin name be so vindictive against Italians?

Some of those Italians landed in India and are now in quarantine along with the driver of an Ola cab they hired. Attempts by some saffron-types to link Italian with the Indian National Congress could not find many or any takers and the attempt fell flat. This when politics in India refuses to be cowed down by the coronavirus. If anything, politics has only intensified and you can blame that on the Modi Government.

The Modi regime’s decision to appoint former CJI Ranjan Gogoi to the Rajya Sabha just four months after he retired and four and half months after the Supreme Court gave “government-favourable” verdicts on the Ram Mandir and Sabarimala issues has placed the government in the dock and the question asked the most is: “Why, is it quid pro quo; is it reward for favourable verdicts?”

Of course, the government and the BJP are quoting “precedent” and another former CJI, Justice Ranganath Mishra, harking back to the Indira Gandhi era, and justifying the presidential appointment as “business as usual”; if Indira Gandhi could do it, why cannot Narendra Modi, aren’t the two Xeroxes of each other except that one has a beard and the other had a bob-cut? And both bearded Pakistan in its den!

Meanwhile, news and views coming from across the Pacific and Atlantic is that the trick to beat the coronavirus is to behave as though you already have it! Besides, a new study by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the United States, reports that people don’t really know how contagious the virus actually is? It can remain “viable and infectious” in droplets in the air for hours! And on plastic and stainless steel for three days!!!

Is India fighting this "fire" blind-folded like the head of the WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said? Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi please stand up and clear the air? It's about time. (IPA Service)