Central Hall – Sense & Sensibility

Mumbai: Common sense and Sanity go hand in hand, together. But the funny thing about common sense is that it is not common. In such times of grave crisis even Sanity leaves ones company.

At a time when you are expected to talk sense and sensibly, more than often we have some of our people and some of our political leaders talking exactly the opposite of what are required of them.

This is not the time to indulge in petty politics, blame game or one-upmanship. Such open display of blame game only weakens the resolve to fight the common enemy and only emboldens it to cause more damage and havoc.

Who did what, what went wrong, who was responsible for all this, these questions can wait till the crisis on hand is fully dealt with and can be subject of an impartial investigation. Crime and punishment can be dealt after the investigation and fair trial.

Also Read: Central Hall – Educated Illiterates

Let us not forget that both Health and Law and Order subjects are State subjects and at such times of crisis, the Centre plays an enabling role. In times of such national crisis, it becomes all the more imperative that all sensible people and leaders sink their personal differences, join hands and work towards tackling and overcoming the crisis at hand.

COVID-19 is a global pandemic and not an isolated localized epidemic. It is a learning curve for even the Western world which has seen its best health care facilities crumble like cookies under sheer overwhelming pressure.

Surely we do not have a coherent state or national policy, a standard operating procedure (SOP) and necessary infrastructure and mechanism which can be put into operation in such times. Although we have a national and state disaster relief force, there is room for more improvement.

We also need to be seriously investing and rethinking about our Education, Healthcare infrastructure, Civic awareness and Civil Defence. Countries like Israel and Japan are pioneers when it comes to civil defence and about awareness of one’s social responsibilities.

Back in the 1970’s, school curriculums had subjects like Moral Science and Civics where as a child you learnt good civic behavior, how to respond to crisis like earthquakes or taught simple medical procedures till medical help arrived and most importantly how one should conduct oneself in times of such crisis. In those days, schools gave Character Certificates after passing your SSC Exams, a thing which any school would dread to do.

We have developed a dangerous, suicidal trait, that it is not my responsibility, it is the job of the government or the municipality, of course it is their responsibility, but it is equally our responsibility to ensure that the system is maintained properly.

How often we by habit often damage, mutilate or deface public property and infrastructure, especially at times like Bandhs? For some furthering such unconstitutional acts have become their birth right which is dangerous thinking.

But the current crisis has underscored how badly and casually we take our civic habits, sanitation, cleanliness, our public and social behavior for granted. Hope at least now we realize their importance in our daily lives.