High Commission of India in Canberra has issued a rebuttal to an article published in newspaper The Australian.
The letter undersigned by P. S. Karthigeyan, Deputy High Commissioner of India, stated, “It appears that the article has been written only with the 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 article by Philip Sherwell was first published in The Times titled ‘Modi leads India out of lockdown and into a Covid apocalypse’. It was reproduced in the Australian paper Sunday with the title — ‘Modi leads India into a viral apocalypse’.
The Australian tweeted on 25 April, “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.”
The High Commission of India’s rebuttal accuses The Australian’s coverage of India’s Covid crisis “motivated and malicious reports” helping in “spreading falsehoods.”
The High Commission of India has urged the Christopher Dore, editor of the Australian newspaper, to “refrain” from publishing “such baseless” articles.
The High Commission of India in Canberra has also urged the newspaper to publish a rejoinder.
The letter points to “all possible measures” that “are being taken on a war footing by authorities to tackle the recent surge in Covid-19 cases”.