Published 16:56 IST, April 21st 2020
Irony or anti-India?: Lockdown reportage exposes Western media bias
The world’s largest lockdown in India has had a tangible impact in arresting the crisis in the country, but that is not what the Western media is reporting.
The coronavirus crisis has hit over 200 countries. There have been over 24,96,518 cases globally and over 1,71,235 deaths. At this moment when the need of the hour is for global unity to win the COVID-19 battle, Western media has refused to change its ways. The world’s largest lockdown in India has had a tangible impact in arresting the crisis in the country so far, but that is not what the Western media is reporting.
Here is a series of contrasting reports that show how the same western media houses that demanded a lockdown in their countries, have condemned, castigated and criticised India for having the foresight to implement it. Is this irony at play, is it ignorance or is it simply a deep-rooted anti-India agenda at play? This is for the readers to decide:
The reportage by the New York Times
The Editorial Board of the news portal on March 24 published a piece titled “Coronavirus Is Advancing. All Americans Need to Shelter in Place". This article assertively demanded a lockdown. One line read, “The worst of the pandemic is yet to come. Listen to the medical experts. It’s time for a national lockdown."
The same media portal, 6 days later on March 30, denounced the lockdown imposed in India. The headline now read, “For India’s Laborers, Coronavirus Lockdown Is an Order to Starve".
The reportage by The Atlantic
The Atlantic, a Washington based website on March 31 almost lamented about how it was tough to impose a nationwide lockdown in the US. The article titled “Why There’s No National Lockdown” said “Enforcing a large-scale quarantine would be legally murky, even if it’s what the country needs to slow the spread of the coronavirus".
Interestingly, the same website had on March 27, published an article pontificating on the lockdown in India. This article, however, was titled “The Callousness of India’s COVID-19 Response”. It claimed, “The government is showing how not to handle a pandemic".
The reportage by The Washington Post
The Washington Post on March 12 published articles headlined “First, China. Then, Italy. What the U.S. can learn from extreme coronavirus lockdowns". Interestingly, when India imposed a national lockdown, the Washington Post headline read, “As India goes into lockdown, fear spreads: ‘Poverty may kill us first’”.
The reportage by The Telegraph UK
On April 16, the UK based website The Telegraph was almost endorsing the lockdown in the UK. Articles were being published that were titled “Five things Britain must put in place before it can exit lockdown”.
Meanwhile, the same UK based website was also writing about the lockdown in India. On April 3, it put out an article headlined, “Why India’s coronavirus lockdown threatens to turn into tragedy”.
(The views and opinions expressed within the article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing do not reflect the views of Republic TV/ Republic World/ ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd.)
Updated 16:56 IST, April 21st 2020