“I don’t think it’s good to criticize a doctor while treatment is still underway”
Izvestia, 28.04.2020
By Natalia Portyakova
Indian Ambassador to Russia, Venkatesh Varma spoke on criticism of WHO, the country's success in the fight against coronavirus and global changes after the pandemic.
India is ready to contribute to the discussion on reforming a number of international institutions, including the World Health Organization (WHO). However, this should be done in an apolitical manner and only after the end of the coronavirus pandemic, and not in the middle of it. This was stated by Venkatesh Varma, Head of the Indian diplomatic mission in Moscow, in an interview to Izvestia. The Ambassador also spoke on whether the regime of 40-day lockdown in a country with a population of 1.3 billion was justified, the impact of measures to combat COVID-19 on the Indian economy and the good news for Russians stuck in Goa.
By virtue of lockdown
- India entered the final week of 40-day lockdown introduced to curb the spread of coronavirus. Should these strong restrictive measures be considered effective? In general, how successful is India's fight against COVID-19 compared to other countries?
- To date, the coronavirus epidemic has affected almost all countries in the world, and India is no exception. Moreover, with 1.3 billion population, we have our own challenges: we are a developing country, we are a democracy with a number of states and regions, which are responsible for health care. But in general, the Indian experience was quite positive: we have registered only about 27 thousand cases of the disease with more than 800 deaths.
The mortality rate in India of Coronavirus is 3.1%. This is a relatively small number. Even though it is not quite the same as in Russia, where this number is less than 1%. However, India copes with the crisis much better when compared with many Western countries, where the death rate is from 5 to 15-20% of all cases of infection.
Basically, it was the lockdown that provided for control of the outbreak. Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeatedly appealed to the people, explaining the threat of the coronavirus and trying to solicit support of the population. People responded well: they understand that their contribution to the fight against the epidemic is to stay at home and not spread the virus. One study notes that if India had not taken isolation measures in the past four weeks, the number of cases in the country would have reached not 27 thousand, but 1.3 million. Therefore, the lockdown, which was introduced by Prime Minister Modi, can be considered a success.
- Today, one of the common problems for all countries is the state of the economy amid pandemic. How badly was the Indian economy affected? What incentives did the Government use?
- Isolation proved to be an effective measure in terms of saving lives. This was shown by the example of India and other countries around the world. However, it also affected Indian economy, and, of course, the well-being of our population. The Government took a number of measures to support the population, for example, it allocated $ 24 billion to be spent on free food, loans, support for small and medium-sized businesses. This year, according to IMF, the growth of the Indian economy will be only 1.9% due to restrictive measures, but already in 2021, according to the forecasts of the same IMF, the Indian economy will again grow by 7% per year.
- Today, one of the common problems for all countries is the state of the economy amid pandemic. How badly was the Indian economy affected? What incentives did the Government use?
- Lockdown proved to be an effective measure in terms of saving lives. This was shown by the example of India and other countries around the world. However, it also affected Indian economy, and, of course, the well-being of our population. The Government, under PM Modi, took a number of measures to support the population, for example, it allocated $ 24 billion to be spent on free food, loans, support for small and medium-sized businesses. This year, according to IMF, the growth of the Indian economy will be only 1.9% due to restrictive measures, but already in 2021, according to the forecasts of the same IMF, the Indian economy will again grow by over 7% per year.
Good news
- When the epidemic in India started, many tourists stuck in the country, including Russians, began to complain of outright discrimination by the locals. Are Indian authorities doing something to prevent the attacks on foreigners?
- The Indian government has taken a number of measures to facilitate the return of foreigners to their homeland. In the beginning of the epidemic, there were more than 50 thousand foreigners in the country, including Russians. More than 2.1 thousand citizens of the Russian Federation have already left for their homeland, more than 4.5 thousand still remain in India, mainly in Goa. And in the coming days, regular outgoing flights will be organized for the Russians. By the way, the good news is that the state of Goa today has not recorded a single new case of coronavirus, so this is a relatively safe place from an epidemiological point of view.
There were unpleasant incidents, but in general the situation is under the full control. And as far as I know, the Indian Government and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs are providing full support to the Russian embassy in Delhi. And when last week [Russian Foreign Minister] Sergey Lavrov spoke on the phone with our Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, he expressed the gratitude for the support that India provides to Russian citizens. We are very friendly towards Russians in India, and I don’t think that there is a real problem.
- India recently decided to export to a number of countries, including Russia, a drug for malaria, which is also considered effective for the treatment of coronavirus. What are the other ways of collaboration between India and Russia in the fight against the epidemic?
- At the end of March, an extremely positive conversation took place between Prime Minister Modi and President Putin, which was continued last week by a telephone conversation between Ministers Lavrov and Jaishankar. The other day, a telephone conversation was held by the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov and Foreign Secretary of India Harsh Vardhan Sringla. All this suggests that contacts are ongoing. You yourself know that the presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, expressed gratitude to India for its willingness to deliver 100 million tablets of the antimalaria drug hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol to Russia.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, India has made a very significant contribution to the fight against the virus: we have provided medical support to our neighbors, Africa, Latin America, countries of Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. We provided several tons of medicines to the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Seychelles and the Dominican Republic, and sent teams of doctors to the Maldives and Kuwait. In this sense, India praised the support that Russia provided to other countries, including Italy, several Central Asian states and the United States. This showed the important role of Russia in the overall fight against the pandemic.
The pandemic has now become an area of international relations, prompting our countries to work together both bilaterally and at the multinational level - within the framework of the G20, as well as in the BRICS and SCO formats which Russia is currently chairing.
We all face the question of how to improve international cooperation, strengthen the multilateral approach and learn from the failures that occurred at the initial stage, including WHO reform. I see that Russia and India have common interests and approaches both at the level of ministries of health and at the political level. Therefore, there are prospects for cooperation between the two countries that are relatively successfully in coping with the pandemic.
Many changes to come
- - You mentioned the reformation of WHO, being criticized now. What does India think about this, do you share these estimations?
- WHO is a multinational organization, and it is as strong or weak as its member countries want it to be. But the pandemic showed that the response could be much better - both at national levels and internationally. After the pandemic is over, India would like to see how we together, in a spirit of cooperation, could strengthen international structures, including WHO. Right now, I don’t think it’s good to criticize a doctor while treatment is still underway. But then we’ll think about it - after all, this is not only a matter of national priority, but also a health issue of the whole world. India is ready to contribute to the discussions on this subject in an apolitical manner.
- Now everyone is vying to say that after pandemic the world will no longer be the same. How will it change, especially in the geopolitical sense, if you look at it from an Indian perspective?
- It is difficult to predict the damage from a typhoon when it is still in full force. But it is already clear that there will be many changes. One of them is to accelerate already emerging trends. There will be elements of both: conflict and the need for more cooperation. And in such situations, as in Russia, the position of India has always been that we should seek to minimize the possibility of conflicts and increase the space for cooperation. And this will be another topic on the agenda for the leaders of Russia and India.
