@prashanthamine
On March 23, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown ostensibly to break the chain and halt the spread of the Coronavirus across the country. While we were successful in containing the spread, even donate vaccine to the world, we have as is our want have been yet again guilty to letting our guard down and ensured a second surge in the spread of infection.
It has been our Achilles Heel as well as historical legacy that we have always tended to let our guard down and giving a free run to marauders, foreign invaders, the British to invade us, unleash their tyranny and govern us.
Today, our response to deal with this national calamity is no less different what we have been following for the last many millennia. We are more interested in throwing muck at each other, wash our dirty linen in public than respond to the threat posed by the common enemy.
Our collective response to the threat posed by the Covid-19 pandemic is less cohesive, uneven, divided and riddled with politics, misinformation, lack of two-way communication between the government and the people, and a false-sense of bravado. Not to speak of the official apathy or mishandling of efforts to contain the spread of the virus.
The recent surge or spike in Covid-19 cases is a classic case of how we have yet again let ourselves down. Although the government has begun unlocking the economic activities and easing the restrictions, it has been mistaken by many as a sign that the danger has passed away and that they are free to behave as they did before the pandemic.
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Alarming spike in cases has been noticed in Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. The pandemic has not known any geographical, ideological, political, social, cultural or any other barriers. But our response to it has been typically political.
The surge of the contagion has revealed that not only did the public refused to cooperate, but the administration too failed to anticipate the second wave that has arisen out of an unplanned unlocking process. A simple ringtone cautioning the people to remain vigilant, wear mask and follow the Covid protocols was offending, irritating for some.
Many still pay scant disregard to oft repeated pleas to follow the Covid-19 protocols. There have been people, like this software engineer who this correspondent knew very well was dismissive of the pandemic altogether treating it as over.
Part of the blame lies both with the government and the people at large. While the government has been guilty of not allying the fears and apprehensions of the people towards the vaccine, the people too have been harbouring misconceptions fed by misinformation. The government too apparently has not learnt from its mistakes and still does not have counter-measures to deal with any unforeseen emergencies or fall out of the lockdown and gradual lifting of curbs.
That was aided and abetted by some politicians who tried to politicise it wanting the Prime Minister to take the first jab. Then there have been some who doubted the genius of our own scientists, while the whole world was thanking us profusely for the vaccine. The government again has not come up with any counter to ally the fears and misconceptions.
In rural Maharashtra, in places like Osmanabad the administration has not been strict enough in enforcing quarantine measures, allowing relatives of patients to drop in hot meals for their ailing relative at the Covid facility. Flip-side of this is that the relatives themselves under societal pressures and adhering to customs and traditions are forced to undertake a dangerous trip to the Covid facility just to provide hot meals to their ailing relative! That is because the food being served is simply expensive for the ordinary rural folks.
If this is not enough the official apathy is even worse. In Beed district, a person whom this correspondent knows very well had got himself admitted to the government facility. A day later, the person was told that he was being shifted to a nearby facility. But with no government transportation available the person himself drove on his two-wheeler to the official Covid treatment facility to which he was to be shifted!
Many in rural Maharashtra have been flouting all Covid protocols by organising lavish marriage and other ceremonies. It clearly indicates that the message about following the appropriate Covid protocols has not been properly understood by the people.
The fact that the government has to go in for imposing stringent restrictions, suggests that it has failed to anticipate the surge, failed to connect with the masses to get its message across more effectively. Most of the strict norms appear to be on paper only.
Looking at the crowds in suburban local trains or BEST buses in Mumbai, it does seem as though the plea by some experts to the government, to stagger the office working hours so as to ease the overcrowding in trains and buses appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
The other day, this correspondent happened to visit a Stamp Duty Registration office in north Mumbai. Anybody would have been aghast to see such a huge crowd that even had wheel-chair bound senior citizens who had come to ink their deal. The government in its greed for more revenue appears to have thrown all caution to the wind.
Ideally a token system and strict restriction on number of visitors would have been ideal way. Or else the government should have, ought to have extended the deadline for registration or payment of taxes, other dues and bills to avoid crowds at its various offices and establishments.
It is not that the government alone is to be blamed, of course it has erred in some instances. But the people too have been guilty of not cooperating with the authorities. There have been instances of physical attacks on law enforcement forces, government officials who tried to enforce the restrictions.
At times we tend to take our personal freedoms and rights to the extreme limits and in the process paying scant regards to our own personal safety at our own peril. Lastly the government needs to ramp up its vaccination drive besides enforcing the Covid norms more stringently.
But, at present the nation seems to be more preoccupied with the Vazegate and the assembly elections in West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu. Of course, the elections are important to elect governments that perform or function. But certainly, both the government and the people can ill afford to let their guard down. At the moment it does seem as though no one has learnt their lessons well from experiences in the March 2020 lockdown.
