This is the time for us to come together as a nation and rally behind our leaders, who are doggedly working towards COVID recovery
India is reeling under the impact of the second, more virulent wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. And the number of cases and casualties are just mounting up. As the Government scrambles to handle the situation, fingers are being pointed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and there have been calls for his resignation from some quarters. In the eyes of the Opposition, the Press, both Indian and international, and some communities, Modi is responsible for every shortcoming in the country. However, this blame game has not helped in addressing the problem. As a nation, the need of the hour is to rise beyond COVID politics and establish fundamentally strong arrangements for providing relief to the suffering citizens.
Indeed, some errors may have occurred in arresting the second wave of the virus. However, we must remember that India is a large and populous nation with unique challenges and it is almost impossible to take into account every detail and caution while developing national strategies and implementing the local actions of these wider programmes. Often, people do not cooperate unless forced to do so.
We must realise that our historic cumulation of knowledge has not given us enough understanding about the behaviour of this microscopic beast. Most researches on the COVID-19, including the invention of the Coronavirus vaccine, are only a few months old and we are yet to discover the long-term effects and effectiveness of the measures being prescribed and adopted. As such, the policy-making horizon at the national level also does not have an accumulated experience to bank upon and derive from. If you analyse the matter, India has actually done much better than many advanced countries. First, many western countries, including the US, allowed civil protests on the need for masking up and people argued that imposing the mask rule was against their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. India has imposed the mask rule much more sincerely than any other country in the world.
As for social distancing, India imposed stringent guidelines and meticulously implemented them. However, there is a view that this regulation could have been better followed in election rallies and religious congregations. With the cooperation of the people and all political outfits, this could have been coordinated better, though. Or even better, the elections and the Maha Kumbh could also have been put off for some time in view of the outbreak, but that is not an easy decision to take.
Vaccine production is one important and primary response to the pandemic that India excelled at. It invested heavily in this and brought out effective vaccines at affordable prices. India also became a global leader and shipped millions of doses for free to countries in trouble, as part of its “vaccine diplomacy.” Many countries, including the US, kept for domestic use what they produced, without shipping out a single vial. Now, when we are falling short of vaccines for our own citizens, this “vaccine diplomacy” is paying off and other nations are lending a helping hand and shipping the precious doses to us.
Till the second wave of the contagion exploded and we fell short of vaccines, our public vaccination programme was a very systematic one. India began its inoculation programme from the most vulnerable section of the society. In Germany, senior citizens who registered for vaccination in January are still waiting to get their first dose. In Switzerland, which has a tiny population the vaccination programme that started in December 2020 has still covered only eight per cent of the citizens.
However, India is shown in a bad light, all the while, which is a trend in international one-upmanship, to which even Indians in India and abroad greatly contribute. If the per unit population death by the virus is computed, India has the least number of casualties per crore of population. It is only that India is visible because of its large population and the absolute numbers affected by the virus. Also, we are visible because of the dramatic footage of cremations of the dead while the rituals in other communities may not be that dramatic looking.
We must realise that by highlighting and constantly filling the television channels and social media with negative information of the tragedy India is undergoing and not giving enough coverage to the enormous amount of positive work the nation is doing towards the mitigation of the pandemic, we only stir up anarchic conditions and delay recovery. Also, nations like Pakistan and China are determined to show India in a poor light. China in particular has an axe to grind because as a nation, it was isolated during the first wave of the outbreak and COVID-19 was called the “Chinese virus.” Politics over the pandemic will only provide India-bashing fuel to China and its allies. We will play into the hands of international cartels that want to see India underdeveloped and politically chaotic.
This is the time for us to come together as a nation and rally behind our leaders, who are doggedly working towards Covid recovery and the development of the country. If we don’t recognise our role as citizens, we will just turn out to be our own worst enemies and spin within the negative spiral that we ourselves create, knowingly or unknowingly.
The writer is Chairman, Khadi and Village Industries Commission. The views expressed are personal.
