Modi and his govt cannot fight Covid by crying on TV and then spend their energy in firefighting

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen struggling to hold back tears while paying tribute to those who lost their lives in the second wave of Covid. Obviously, the opposition parties are not impressed by what they consider as histrionics.

Covid cannot be fought through tears. It needs meticulous planning based on perspectives, strategies and ground realities. Modi, however, is not known for his ability to execute plans as he approaches issues through the prism of emotion and symbolism.

Modi’s decisions have turned out to be ‘monumental blunders’ in the case of the botched demonetisation, half-baked implementation of GST, premature enforcement of the national lockdown at the early part of Covid outbreak, all of which sent the national economy on a tailspin and destroyed lives and livelihoods of thousands of people.

Much of the energy of the Modi government was spent on firefighting the consequences of wrong decisions rather than proactively working to tackle the problems facing the country. Modi never got his priorities right and the pursuit of his party ideologies and his political agenda landed his government in messy situations.

When it came to the pandemic, the government double-faulted at every step including the untimely announcement of a national lockdown when the economy had barely come out of the devastation caused by demonetisation. From then on, it has been a sorry story of a series of missteps, culminating in the ravaging second wave. While most of the disturbing pictures of the first wave had emanated from foreign shores, including the developed countries of Europe and the US, Covid-19’s second wave is increasingly considered as an Indian tragedy of global proportions. In international policy deliberations, India is being bracketed with the least developed countries of Africa as far as the Covid pandemic goes.

IMF in its latest deliberations has noted how the human tragedy in India is a stark reminder that the pandemic continues to be a grave threat globally and the multilateral body is working hard to foster global collaboration to help India. IMF believes that a multilateral response is critical to overcome the pandemic in India and globally. We are used to hearing such priorities in relation to poor African countries, which India is now being clubbed together. So much for our chest-thumbing about our potential as a 5 trillion dollar economy in the next five years.

Vaccination is considered as the key to combat the pandemic and the western countries have achieved significant success in this respect. Over 40 percent of the population in the United States and over 20 percent in Europe have received at least one dose of the vaccine, but India has a long way to go even to reach half these levels. Modi has announced the availability of 2.6 billion doses of vaccine by the end of this year, but according to an assessment by the IMF, current bilateral purchases plus coverage from COVAX, the global platform that makes vaccine available to the poor countries, will cover only about 25 percent of the population by the first half of 2022. The fund has calculated that to get to 60 percent coverage, India will need to immediately place sufficient vaccine orders of about 1 billion doses through contracts that incentivise investment in additional capacity and augmentation of the supply chain.

All these require elaborate planning. But the Modi government has been going about it in a most callous manner. We just have the executive director of Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) going on record that the government announced its various phases of vaccination without taking into account the available stock of vaccines and the WHO guidelines. He said the country should have followed the WHO guidelines and prioritised vaccination accordingly. Initially, 300 million people were to be administered the vaccine for which 600 million doses were required. But before we reached the target, the government opened vaccination for all above 45 years followed by those aged 18 and above despite knowing well that so much vaccine is not available, he lamented.

This is what happens when a government acts on the whims and fancies of the individual who heads it. The results are there for anyone to see and people are paying for it through their dear lives.

(IPA Service

Views are personal)