While we speak of different Indias residing in one India, it is increasingly evident that we are shifting towards binary establishing just two India. One believes the national television propaganda and the other is trying to gather information from reports that are fair and unbiased. The Russia- Ukraine conflict has further intensified and made this binary more visible.
Hundreds of students are still stuck in a war zone, clinging to their lives and constantly trying to communicate with the Indian government. According to the sources, in Ukraine’s Sumy, there are students sheltered at bunkers, living in apartments without electricity and water. They have already witnessed the death of the students who tried to cross the borders.
On Friday India sought a ceasefire by Russian and Ukrainian troops for evacuation of its citizens from the conflict zones of Kharkiv and Sumy. Around 1,000 Indians out of which 700 in Sumy and 300 in Kharkiv are still stranded in conflict zones in eastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Modi government is leaving no stones unturned to establish the credit of bringing back a few students successfully. A controversial video of the junior Defence Minister giving a short speech, inside an Indian Air Force aircraft, on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s contribution to the efforts to bring home Indian students stranded in conflict-hit Ukraine.
Ajay Bhatt, the Union Minister of State for Defence, had boarded a heavy-lift cargo aircraft of the IAF after it landed at Hindon Air Force Station near Delhi, bringing students from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries.
In the video, Mr Bhatt is seen telling the students in the aircraft, “Don’t worry at all. Your lives have been saved by the grace of Modi Ji. Everything will be all right. Bharat Mata ki jai…mananiya Modi ji zindabad.”
He then gestures to the students to chant after him”Bharat Mata ki Jai“, which the students repeat respectfully. After that, the Union Minister came to the part where he said “mananiya Modi Ji zindabad“. The students seem hesitant to respond to this chant.
This attempt to make students chant for the leader for merely doing his job, students who have survived a near-death experience is raising questions about ethics, empathy and hunger for media attention on the conduct of the BJP government.
This is not an isolated incident. In another video, the civil aviation minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia is getting schooled by a Romanian Mayor for taking wrongful credit for providing food and shelter to the students. In the video, the mayor stops Scindia while he was speaking and is seen shouting, “explain to them (the students) when they will leave home. I provide the shelter, I provide the food and I helped them, not you.”
The students are seen cheering to Mayor.
In Russia, the entire staff of a Russian television channel resigned live on-air after declaring “no to war” in the final telecast. The decision was taken by the staff of TV Rain (Dozhd) after Russian authorities suspended its operations over its coverage of the Ukraine war.
One of the founders of the channel, Natalia Sindeyeva said, “No to war” in its last telecast as the employees staged a walkout from the studio. The channel later said in a statement that it has suspended the operation “indefinitely”.
Meanwhile, the Indian media is yelling at the wrong panellist and trying to whitewash the leader’s every move.
While all this takes place, the fact remains that India has lost one student in Ukraine and there are more to be evacuated.
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