March 9, 2023: Do you have a personal story to tell about the draconian measures imposed by the authorities during the Covid-19 lockdowns? Do you wish to share a photo or video from the dystopian times when absurd restrictive rules were rolled out? If the answer is ‘yes’, then there’s something to look forward to – a platform that will welcome your inputs and experiences about your lockdown experience.
Welcome to the ‘Lockdown & Covid Response Museum’, which is all set to be launched online on March 25 – the third anniversary of the mass incarceration of one-sixth of humanity, that is, the lockdown in India.
The digital museum is a brainchild of the UHO (Universal Health Organisation), a group of critical-thinkers on health issues opposed to the mainstream pandemic narrative and the draconian steps taken by governments around the world.
The museum’s website would be a repository of articles, photos, video footage, audio clips, real-life stories, and news reports about the sufferings of the people due to extreme measures during the pandemic, such as mass-scale and micro lockdowns, distancing diktats, school closures, restriction-related to job losses and damage to business, and vaccine mandates.
Describing the lockdowns as the “biggest peace-time human rights violation in the history of civilisation”, IIT Bombay professor Bhaskaran Raman said the idea behind the lockdown museum is to document the atrocities for posterity. Raman is a member of the working committee of the UHO, which was formed last year.
“This is what the Lockdown & Covid Response Museum strives to achieve. Personal stories of sufferings must be told and saved to be read by future generations,” Raman, a critic of various aspects of the pandemic’s narrative and one of the moving spirits behind the museum, told Empire Diaries. The museum is expecting people from around the world to send in contributions.
“To start with, the museum will be online. However, we encourage people to set up physical museums using the material from this website,” said Raman, who has authored the contrarian book ‘Math Murder in Media Manufactured Madness’.
Some sample passages and images posted on the museum’s website bring out the horrors and tragedies that the Covid-19 counter-measures resulted in.
One of them is a report about Manoj Zende, who ended his life after being unable to bear the mountain of debt due to closure of his salon in the state of Maharashtra.
Another report documents how the panic created through a barrage of propaganda about the coronavirus disease by the authorities compelled a 24-year-old MTech scholar at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru to commit suicide after going into depression due to possible Covid-like symptoms.
Then there is the story of a mother in the US state of Texas who bundled her Covid-positive son in the trunk of a car in order to avoid getting exposed to him.
The absurdity of the authorities’ iron-fist approach to fighting the disease is revealed in a photo posted by US vice-president Kamala Harris on Twitter, of herself with a child. In the image, Harris is seen without a face mask, while the child’s smile is hidden behind a mask.
The children’s section on the website is a telling commentary of the troubles and complications that befell kids because of isolationist measures such as school shutdowns.
While a report from the US says “schools lost track of thousands of students who left during pandemic”, there is the image of a Maharashtra housing society diktat to parents not to send their children to play in the common areas.
The insensitive and heartless treatment of minors is aptly recorded by a Los Angeles Times report of children apologising to their dying elders “for spreading Covid-19”. Never before in history had children, that too healthy ones, been blamed for the elderly catching an infectious virus.
Raman feels the unchecked atrocities and the fear propaganda carried on by various governments triggered immense panic among the public during the pandemic. The events and anecdotes chronicled by the museum would ensure such mistakes are not repeated, he believes.
“As the panic recedes and the next generation is able to look at the happenings impassionately, the sheer scale of absurdities and atrocities will become clear. This will be critical to ensure that such colossal mistakes are not repeated in the future,” he said.
Those keen to contribute content to the museum can visit the submission link.
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