India is ‘over prepared’ but Indians must fend for themselves, is the PM’s message

Although 15,000 beds would have sufficed for 10,000 COVID-19 patients in India, the country has 100,000 beds ready to treat them, boasted Prime Minister Modi in his address to the nation on Tuesday morning. As many as 600 hospitals, he claimed, were exclusively marked for treating the victims of the virus. And while there were only 61 labs equipped to test COVID-19 patients in March, the country has 221 labs now with testing capability, he claimed.

But the Prime Minister fell short of announcing a financial relief-cum-stimulus package, which was widely advised and anticipated. He made no mention of the shortage and non-availability of testing kits and Personal Protective Equipment for doctors and nurses; he made no mention of what the Government planned to do to help stranded migrant workers, estimated to be in the region of 30 million, get back home.

Not surprisingly, the PM glossed over the Government’s claim as late as on March 13 that the pandemic posed no national emergency. He did not express any regret for imposing the lockdown with four hours’ notice, not even an apology for the Government dismissing all talk of an impending lockdown as late as on March 19 as ‘fake news’ and rumour mongering by the media.

Typically, the Prime Minister claimed credit for the Government screening passengers arriving at airports from abroad “even before a single COVID-19 patient was detected”, a claim which is breathtaking in its brazenness. He went on to claim that even before other countries began to take the pandemic seriously, his government had started isolating incoming passengers and placing them in quarantine—another claim which will find hard to pass muster.

The chest thumping by the PM was followed by the familiar carrot and stick approach. He was profusely grateful to Indians for sacrificing so much in following the lockdown and in maintaining social distancing. But he soon admonished that now the restrictions would be enforced even more strictly and stern action would be taken against people found violating the restrictions. It is obvious that the Government still treats the pandemic as a law and order issue.

If one expected the Prime Minister to single out states for their stellar work, one was disappointed. He made a perfunctory, passing reference to the collective will and unity of the people triumphing over the crisis. It would have been gracious if he had acknowledged the work of Kerala and other states. But that would have been expecting too much from him perhaps.

Instead, once again the Prime Minister put the onus on the people. They must fend for themselves. Take care of the elderly. Maintain social distancing. Follow instructions of the Ayush Ministry to improve immunity. Download the Arogya mobile App. Help and feed the poor. Do not sack employees and do not cut their wages. Respect the frontline caregivers.

It was once again a lost opportunity. The Prime Minister, in his usual rambling and contrived address, could have at least appealed against landlords and neighbours treating doctors and nurses as pariah. He could have spoken against religious profiling of virus victims and against blaming a religious sect or community, and even China, for the spread of the virus.

He did invoke the Constitution and the Preamble. He did remember the reference to ‘We, the people’ and paid his tributes to Babasaheb Ambekar.

Too little, too late and too unconvincing, one thought.