Stressing on the importance of ‘working together’ and being ‘optimistic’ considering the ongoing deadly second wave of COVID in India, RSS Akhil Bharatiya prachar pramukh (chief of media relations) Sunil Ambekar was careful to not criticise the central government regarding its handling of the pandemic.
“We do not want to say anything about the central and state government, they are doing what they can. The Sangh's attention right now is only on the problems that people are facing. We want to work with the state and central government, people, and others to find a way out of this crisis,” Ambekar said.
In the last few weeks, there has been outrage from certain sections against media reporting the magnitude of the loss, through videos and photos, from crematoriums. This includes coverage by International media as well. The Sangh agrees with allegations that this is affecting the morale of the people and hence should not be done.
“Instead of fear, there should be optimism in people to deal with this pandemic. The media of course needs to report, but then the morale of people should not be affected. Therefore the role of the media is to not scare people right now and create positivity.”
When asked how one can write anything positive at this time he said, “There are scary images that the media often posts. Like reporting from a COVID ward or reporting from the crematoriums. All this is not good for the psychology of the people. It would affect them deeply and hence it is best this is avoided. It should be a guiding principle at the back of their mind.”
When asked if the Sangh had started work in response to criticism that it had been missing in action, Ambekar said, “The Sangh is always working. It does not work based on reactions or orders from people. We worked last year as well. Depending on the situation in states Sangh is swinging into action. This is the only way the Sangh functions.”
Among the twelve activities that the Sangh claims to have begun doing is provide isolation centres, giving food to people, aiding hospital staff in non-medical work in government hospitals, counselling the patients, setting up of local helpline numbers and plasma donation drives.
He said the work had started in different states in different times, as the number of COVID cases kept rising. “In Delhi, the work has been on for about a month when it comes to giving food to people, and the helpline number has been on since the last 15 days. This helpline had been discontinued earlier when the cases had dropped. Similarly, we are responding to states according to the situation.”
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