A true leader has to take several decisions every day that affect the lives of millions

There is a three-way confrontation going on amidst the raging Covid pandemic. The first is between executive and judiciary, the second is between the Union government and state governments. The third is between the authorities and the public.

As leaders like Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had realized great power comes with great responsibility. It is the great charge of a leader to shoulder responsibility for making decisions practically every day that will have profound implications for many. COVID control is one such issue. Their natural inclination is to pass the buck (unpleasant decisions) to someone else. Machiavelli, the great strategist once advised: “Princes should delegate to others the enactment of unpopular measures and keep in their own hands the means of winning favours.”

Look at what is happening on such an important issue like containing the pandemic? Last year there was a perfect understanding between the Centre and the States on COVID handling.  The Prime Minister consulted the Chief Ministers not once but many times and guided them. The public too stayed indoors during the national lockdown, but come 2021, with elections to the Five states, politics came to the surface. The Prime Minister left it to the states to decide when to impose lockdown at the state level.  Soon the states wanted to pass the buck and blamed the centre for lack of vaccine and lack of oxygen. The second wave, which hit the country when least expected in March, has plunged the country into panic as the country was not prepared.

There was a vaccine shortage, oxygen shortage, and bed shortage. The chief ministers like Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal went to court for more oxygen supply by the centre. A victorious West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too attacked the Centre claiming it was shirking its responsibility to make vaccines available to the people. A major row has broken out between the Centre and states over the differential pricing that has been fixed for the purchase of vaccines. DMK leader MK Stalin tweeted calling it “discriminatory”. Maharashtra, the worst-hit state in the second wave had also decided to make its plans to counter the increasing vaccine shortage in the state. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged the Centre to provide the vaccines free to the states since they were already reeling under the financial impact of the pandemic. Chhattisgarh, which had announced free vaccines to all adults above the age of 18, demanded that the Centre should roll back this decision to avoid states from competing with each other.

In all these confrontations the federal cooperation expected between the Centre and the states has broken down.  The States have involved the courts including the apex court for their redressal. This is because they do not want to get any public bashing for not delivering service. The judiciary enters the picture when the executive fails the people.  However, the Union and the states as well as the public — all share the responsibility. The Epidemics Diseases Act (EDA), the law which many affected States such as Delhi and Maharashtra put into operation before the Union invoked the NDMA, provides them almost unfettered powers to quell the virus within their State limits. States are at the frontlines. Many states have been quick to respond and also innovate. Some, like Punjab and Odisha, have stuck to their own preparations.

As for the people of India, who have equal responsibility to tackle the pandemic, blaming the States and the Centre is no remedy.

(The author is a senior journalist and political commentator. The views expressed are personal.)