Kerala Model Exaggerated, Gujarat Model defamed!

The trending topics often see battles whether Kerala or Gujarat has a better governance model.

Is it just limited to a comparison of policies and prowess of decision-making in both the states?

Does the constant assessment reveal a deep division of political idiosyncrasy of analysts?

Does it reflect a blindfolded love for selected political grounds?

Senior Journalist Rajeev Sardesai often drops to twitter, as he did recently, to throw heavy criticism on Gujarat government’s COVID management.

Utterly, his social media followers share a deep anti-Modi niche and that is completely fine in democracy.

A few so-called intellectuals hailed his critical viewpoint and somewhere these sort of behavior earns him a gradually growing albeit permanent fan base. He has been shooting arrows at Modi as early from 2002 Gujarat Riots and far-reaching to connect Modi in JNU violence, Delhi riots, Rafael Scam, and so on.

Even if a snake bites someone, Modi is the only one to blame.

His rampant attack on PM deciphers a subject more than just being a responsible media person. It seems he has bull’s-eye on Mr Modi as the universal villain of his journalistic genres.

Does that mean he unduly favors Antonio Maino’s run Congress Party?

A big yes for the timing, since both of them have a common enemy.

Wondering where Kerala drops in their agenda?

Kerala has drastically worked to flatten the graph of Corona Virus spread.

Undoubtedly, it is good news.

However, the national media, especially those holding anti-BJP marches, exaggerate the success story of Kerala to defame the governance in BJP-ruled states. We must learn to compare a peacock with peacock and a horse with a horse.

Firstly, the Communist Government in Kerala lures automatic coverage of sugarcoated praises for governance from Left inclined media, unlike the saffron bastion of BJP-ruled Gujarat.

The former state seems the only evidence of Left-leaning ideologies to boast about their government’s working and simultaneously erase the sins they committed when ruling Bengal for nearly three decades.

Secondly, Corona Virus case was first spotted in Thrissur, Kerala. Naturally, the state machinery including health care services were beefed up to control the situation.

When the entire nation was sharing sarcastic memes about COVID-19, Kerala had already achieved a scope to attain immunity for framing policies to check spread.

Thirdly, Gujarat is a multi-dimensional state. Ahmadabad and Surat are amongst the ten most populated cities in India, Rajkot ranking about 27th whilst Kerala’s highest populated city is Kochi that ranks as low as 75. The comparisons are quite absurd for all practical purposes and the hyperbole being created is much of political.

Lastly, Kerala’s success is due respected, yet overrated.

Odisha has been exemplary in restricting COVID-19.

The densely populated cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, both of which have populace exceeding Kochi, have fingertip-counting cases. In less than a month, more than five lakh beds were arranged for treating COVID-19 patients, at hospitals as well as Temporary Medical Centers (TMCs).

Besides, it has ferried more than a lakh migrants laborers back and plans to bring more.

At the same time, it has kept a continuous check at the spread of new cases by drastic contact tracing and responsible lock-down rules. Not even Super-cyclone Amphan could break its undeterred determination to fight COVID-19.

Unfortunately, no single media brand dedicated even an hour of discussion on their channel regarding the success story of Odisha.

Added to miseries, a media channel couldn’t even point the exact location of Odisha in its news story.

Despite this colossal ignorance, the state of Odisha denies throwing tantrums of success stories; neither any highly acclaimed correspondent intends brings to notice.

To sum up, Kerala is the land of spices and the holy home of Lord Padmanabhaswamy.

The beautiful aura of Malabar is historic and it should not be used a puppet of an ideological fight between right-wing and far-Left Marxism.

Abhisek Pani

He received ‘Odisha Youth Awards-2019’ as ‘Emerging Author’ for his debut book ‘The Odyssey of Reunion’.
The author has been a writer, poet, student volunteer, freelancer, social activists, and shares a niche in painting. He has penned a historical thriller ‘The Odyssey of Reunion’ and his upcoming poetry collection ‘The Octahedral Verses’ is scheduled to release this April.