Volunteers clean a flood-hit home following floods in Kuttanad, in Alappuzha district of Kerala on August 28. Photo: Reuters
Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2162542/claims-religious-divide-indias-flooded-kerala-state-are-fake-news Letters
Claims of ‘religious divide’ in India’s flooded Kerala state are fake news
Volunteers serve tea and snacks to flood victims, at a relief camp set up at Sree Narayana College Cherthala in Alappuzha, Kerala, on August 23. Hundreds have died and at least 800,000 been displaced in the southern Indian state’s worst floods in a century. Photo: Bloomberg
I write in response to the article on the devastating Kerala floods, “Awash with hate” (August 26).
I strongly condemn the hints at a religious divide in the southern Indian state. It is astounding that the author should seek to defame an entire state solely based on the opinions of a few individuals.
Keeping in mind the left-liberal orientation of much of the media, both domestic and international, it is not surprising that this is yet another attempt to malign the reputation of the majority Hindu community. Besides governmental and military organisations, most private relief groups carrying out humanitarian missions in Kerala are Hindu, contrary to what the article tries to portray.
It is also patently false that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejected an aid offer from the United Arab Emirates (“Facing US$3 billion in flood damage, India rejects UAE’s US$100 million offer”, August 23). It was fake news.
But, even otherwise, the policy of not accepting foreign aid for disasters didn’t commence with the present government, but with the previous one led by the Congress party. For example, unlike other countries, India refused to accept any foreign aid for the Indian Ocean tsunami victims in 2004. The truth is India is fully self-sufficient and such outside aid is not needed.
Kailash Singh, Pok Fu lam