MyVoice is to lift up the voices and experiences

Don't blame doctors alone

Doctors and diagnostic labs fleece patients in the dengue scare, declare the headlines. It is sad to see how the medical community gets a bad name when it is trying its best to handle the epidemic.

Specific examples become gross generalisations in an unfortunate attempt to sensationalize. Each year epidemics repeat; dengue, malaria, or chikungunya; and each epidemic is an example of a massive governmental failure of its health and sanitation responsibilities.

The media keeps silent in addressing this sadly. Remove the potholes, improve the constant and widespread filth all around, and supply good clean water for the population; and guaranteed, all epidemics would disappear. Citizens and the media should be demanding this from our politicians and administrators.

Instead of addressing the issue why repeated epidemics occur, and why the civic problems just come to the fore with each rainfall, the typical response of the politicians and unfortunately propagated by the journalists is that somehow doctors and labs end up making tonnes of money.

The private hospitals and doctors are working overtime just as their colleagues in the government sector, which is on the verge of collapse handling the overwhelming numbers.

I challenge any person- citizen, politician, or journalist- to sit quiet during this epidemic having paracetamol and bed rest and not visiting any doctor or lab for testing. In these circumstances, even the bravest would want professional help.

Shifting blames and attributing ulterior motives in times of stress is hardly positive journalism. Even in difficult times, the doctors thus end up withstanding the worst of an ill-directed wrath.

IMA (Indian Medical Association), Warangal is conducting free fever camps for its population, and covering that would perhaps give a moral boost to the doctors.

Dr Pingali Gopal, Warangal

HC shows a mirror to KCR

The decision of the HC in stalling the state government to raze Erramanzil for constructing a new assembly building is laudable.

First it reinforces the need to protect and preserve heritage structures. Second, it puts brakes on the whimsical and fanciful enthusiasm of CM in such matters.

The existing premises is in good shape and there is no need to go for massive expenditure to construct new buildings particularly when the state is said to be under debt burden.

Ignoring the protests and well-meaning counsel of many KCR decided to bulldoze his way to construct new assembly building by demolishing Erramanzil, an imposing heritage structure of majesty and grace.

He seems to be under a phobia that he is an eternal Maharaja and can do whatever he pleases – be it getting his pictures engraved on temples or destroying heritage buildings or berating his opponents.

It is time he opens his eyes and shed such fanciful projects without standing on any prestige. If his spree allowed to continue unabated, no surprise even if he covets the Golkonda fort to construct a sprawling residence for himself.

Vinay Bhushan Bhagwaty, Hyderabad

Brand Modi in full flow

The hyping up of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday and the scheduled Houston event in the media has come as no surprise, given his charisma and mass appeal.

It should further bolster his public persona and by extension Brand Modi. The fulsome praise of Modi would certainly make his supporters feel good. His worshippers are sure to get a vicarious thrill out of watching his 'gestures and gesticulations'.

It does not matter to them that the bonhomie that he displays with his 'foreign counterparts' sometimes looks a bit laboured and simulated.

At the same time, the 'shows', applauded by sufferers from 'Modi worship syndrome' are not of much value to the impoverished masses.

His fondness for publicity is on full display when he takes or allows legions of press photographers when he visits his mother to seek her blessings.

Otherwise why anyone should make as private a thing as meeting one's mother a public event is not clear. Modi's weakness for the camera is one of his strengths.

His supporters will pounce on you if you tell them that he does all this for self-promotion. Birthday celebration is something that eludes most Indians.

he Houston event, billed as "Howdy, Modi! Shared Dreams and Bright Futures" is blown up out of all proportions and hailed for US President Donald Trump condescending to share the stage with Modi.

Actually, it gives Trump an opportunity to woo the Indian American voters exploiting Brand Modi. Trump's not allowing India to buy oil from Iran, his offer of mediation on Jammu &Kashmir, its rightness or wrongness apart, and his anti-India stand on trade and tariffs are underplayed to cast no shadow on the Indian Diaspora's gala.

This is not to underrate the Modi-Trump joint rally's value as a riveting cultural extravaganza.

One TV channel extended the greeting - "Howdy" or 'Hello, How are you" - to "Rowdy Pakistan". We expect the Prime Minster to organise Houston-type gala events in India's backward regions as well.

Modi's rise in politics from being a small-time leader like Praveen Togadia to being 'the world's third most powerful leader' as a BJP spokesperson put it is a compelling story that tells the power of what he represents - Hindutva - in these days of Hindu revivalism and not his 'individual talent'.

Interestingly, Vadnagar railway station where Modi helped his father sell tea attracts no fewer visitors than the Sabarmati ashram.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's admonitory counsel to follow 'raj dharma' and Modi's refusal to wear a skull cap, his 'puppy remark', his reference to 'shamshan and kabristan' and his chanting mantras in a cave temple when some parts of the country voted in his chequered political career - all political signals to be seen and accepted as a symbol of Hindu revivalism - are reflective of his personality.

G David Milton, Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu