Indian High Commission in Australia slams 'The Australian'- rejoinder to the newspaper for an article criticising the Indian leadership’s handling of the pandemic

The country’s only national broadsheet, the newspaper carried 'The Times' article titled 'Modi leads India out of lockdown and into a Covid apocalypse'

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Special Correspondent   |  TT  |  New Delhi   |  27.04.21: The Indian High Commission in Australia has sent out a bristling rejoinder to The Australian newspaper for an article criticising the Indian leadership’s handling of the pandemic; clearly borrowing a leaf out of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency copybook when Indian missions would issue counters to negative news in foreign publications.

On Monday, the Indian mission in Canberra wrote to The Australian — the country’s only national broadsheet — objecting to it carrying The Times article titled “Modi leads India out of lockdown and into a Covid apocalypse”.

Urge @australian to publish the rejoinder to set the record straight on the covid management in India and also refrain from publishing such baseless articles in future. @cgisydney @CGIPerth @cgimelbourne @MEAIndia https://t.co/4Z3Mk6ru3W pic.twitter.com/4bgWYnKDlB

— India in Australia (@HCICanberra) April 26, 2021

The mission has described the article as “baseless, malicious and slanderous” and said it seems to have been “written only with the sole objective of undermining the universally acclaimed approach taken by the Government of India to fight against the deadly global pandemic at this decisive moment’’.

The letter then cites the steps the government has taken over the past year, and also subsequent to the surge, which has literally left the nation gasping for oxygen.

“Coverage of such motivated and malicious reports in your publication only helps in spreading falsehoods and undermining humanity’s common fight against the pandemic,’’ India’s deputy high commissioner to Australia P.S. Karthigeyan wrote in the rejoinder which he wants published in the newspaper.

Arrogance, hyper-nationalism and bureaucratic incompetence have combined to create a crisis of epic proportions in India, with its crowd-loving PM basking while citizens suffocate. This is the story of how it all went so terribly wrong #coronavirus https://t.co/bL8VXkz5RD

— The Australian (@australian) April 25, 2021

It is astonishing to see that your respected publication has chosen to reproduce a completely baseless, malicious and slanderous article without bothering to check the facts of the case with any authorities in the Government of India….

- P.S. Karthigeyan, Indian deputy high commissioner, in a letter to Christopher Dore, editor-in-chief, The Australian

Reacting to the rejoinder which was also posted by the Indian High Commission on its verified Twitter handle, columnist Vir Sanghvi said: “I do wish we didn’t put our professional diplomats into situations where they have to make excuses for our politicians. The last time this happened on a regular basis was during the Emergency.”

Meanwhile, Australian cricketer Pat Cummins on Monday announced a donation of $50,000 to the PM CARES Fund to purchase oxygen supplies for Indian hospitals, making him the first person from the well paid game of cricket to publicly pledge money to help India battle the second wave of the pandemic.