An alarmed Centre is deflecting towards States the rising public anger over COVID mishandling

Forget good governance. If there is something our politicians are good at, it is shifting blame and shirking responsibility when things turn southwards. However, the behaviour of a ruling party, with an absolute majority and not shackled by coalition politics, should not be governed by the politics of survival but by the dharma of accountability, fair play and cooperative federalism, especially when the nation is facing the biggest global health emergency in living memory. Sadly, the BJP Government at the Centre has been found wanting where the handling of the Coronavirus pandemic’s second wave is concerned. To be fair, except for the migrant crisis, most aspects of the first wave were handled by the Centre and the industry with grit and determination; and the result was we did fairly well in ramping up our crumbling healthcare system, creating ventilators, drugs, PPEs, vaccines and so on. But the Centre was certainly not prepared for the second wave and the complacency on many levels has led to the current mess in the country. There is shortage of hospital beds, oxygen, plasma, live-saving drugs, ICUs, respirators, vaccines and people are dying even as the focus of our political leaders is on elections. Now, instead of focusing on handling this health emergency, the BJP is busy saving its own skin. Shaken by adverse ground reports over the Centre’s (mis)handling of the second wave, the ruling party has changed tack and started shifting the blame on to the States.

As families, seeing their loved ones turned away from hospitals and dying, direct their anger towards the Government, the BJP has decided to deflect this angst towards the States to ensure against any negative political fallout. Its first step has been to allow half the COVID-19 vaccines to go to the States directly through the open market, instead of centralised distribution as was being done till now. The States — already reeling under financial pressure — will have to buy vaccines at a much higher price than was being paid by the Centre to the Serum Institute of India (SII). While the SII will supply Covishield to States at Rs 400 per dose and Rs 600 per jab to private hospitals, it was supplying the same at Rs 150 per dose to the Centre. As the tussle for oxygen goes on between the States and the Centre, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan recently singled out the non-BJP-ruled States for “politicising” the outbreak and accused them of “not doing enough” to control the virus’ spread. He conveniently forgot that Karnataka, a BJP-ruled State, has the third-highest caseload. And what about the dire situation in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh? There are several indicators on which the BJP-ruled States are performing as bad, if not worse, as the Opposition-ruled States. It is time the Centre realises that playing politics, abdicating responsibility, shifting blame and finger-pointing are not going to get the nation out of the COVID quagmire. Leading from the front and taking strong, quick decisions are.