Health Minister Mangal Pandey flagging off ambulances in Patna on Friday.

Patna: Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey on Saturday flagged off 28 ambulances to tackle Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in seven districts in the state.

Wuhan, China

After nearly two months in the bunker cutting off all social contacts, we are told 3,506,924 people (at the time of writing) got infected with coronavirus worldwide. This has claimed the lives of 247,473 including those of 65,000 in the USA alone. Nearly 1,125,255 patients (32%) recovered, but the pandemic has taken a huge toll on all aspects of people’s lives.

Jinnah and Gandhi

Ever since 15 Dec 2019 when a peaceful protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that turned into disruption and arson around the Delhi Jamia Millia Islamia campus, posters or placards featuring Gandhi were widely displayed.

The ‘Covid-19’ is one of the newly coined words that have come into fashion. For some months there’s hardly been any day when this word does not pop up when watching TV or reading news or reports on health.

World Health Organization (WHO)

In a recent unthinkable move, Trump Administration halted the funding to World Health Organization (WHO) while a review is being conducted to assess its role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of coronavirus and for failing to adequately obtain, vet, and share information in timely and transparent fashion.

Buddha Jayanti

भारत में बोद्ध-धर्म के प्रभाव के कम  हो जाने के कारण पर प्रकाश डालते हुए डॉ. भीमराव अम्बेडकर कहते हैं - ‘जब मुस्लिम शासक बख्तियार खिलजी ने बिहार पर आक्रमण किया, तब उसने पांच हजार से अधिक बोद्ध भिक्षुओं का क़त्ल किया. बचे हुए बोद्ध-धर्मी चीन, नेपाल व तिब्बत भाग गए. बोद्ध-धर्म के पुनर्जीवन के लिए हिंदुस्तान के बोद्धधर्मियों ने नए धर्मपीठ खड़े करने का प्रयत्न किया, परन्तु तब तक ९० प्रतिशत बोद्ध फिर से हिन्दू धर्म में चले गए थे, इस कारण ये प्रयत्न बिफल हो गया.’ [डॉ. अम्बेडकर और सामाजिक क्रांति की यात्रा; पृष्ठ- ३२१]

Empty roads in India due to coronavirus.

We are in global catastrophe and in this unprecedented time, fear & anxiety is prevalent everywhere. It is the most trying time for most of us. Since this ordeal has begun, we are at WAR with the outside world and the world inside us.

A vegetable shop in Patna.

Let us take an example of consumerism in rural India in the agricultural context. In a village in Bihar, a farmer is not able to transport its tomatoes to even small towns as the truck drivers are not operating because they have gone to their native village.

As the novel coronavirus is taking its deadly toll on lives and economies all over the globe, the Indian voters at a time are now imagining and expecting that the focus of the government would be on containing the spread of the virus and coming up with the measures to reduce the burden of the people.

With coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world taking over 200,000 lives worldwide and claiming about 1800 lives in India as of this writing on Saturday; and the entire nation, like most parts of the world, in a state of lockdown, there is one individual in Bihar who has managed to shield himself from the virus attack better than any person in the state, or maybe even in the entire nation.

Coronavirus effect on pollution in Delhi (before and after image of Raj Marg).

Coronavirus is taking lives of the human beings all around the world and we can all see its effects on our lives. But there seems to be a deeper meaning to that. And this meaning is significant for the man as well as for all other living things on this planet.

Coronavirus treatment in Bihar.

After Mumbai Bandra incident, Bihar was trending at No.1 position on Twitter. Most twitterati expressed concern about the abysmal low number of positive COVID-19 cases amid lack of testing in the state. A detailed analysis of the facts highlights the irony of social media wherein net citizens unknowingly become a part of larger fake news propaganda.