Vaccination drive: After covering up its faults, Modi govt has now abdicated its responsibilities

Oh! The unkindest cut of all. When we have fallen to the worst of our suffering, our beloved Prime Minister Narendra Modi rubs salt on our miseries, tells us we alone are responsible. However, being victims to his arrogating foolhardy policies, we know, we have been exposed to peril.

He is now shifting his responsibility faster than even the second wave of COVID-19. The responsibility that could not be borne by the Centre with far more power and resources, is being shifted to states and the common people even when one knows that bearing them is beyond their capacity.

Without examples, the preceding paragraph may reduce to a mere allegation. Therefore, one is compelled to enumerate at least a few of them, which are to be handled at the highest level, perhaps at the level of the Prime Minister himself, and in no case to be handled by the states or the people.

The most glaring example is the shortfall of vaccines and the faulty policy of administering the doses to the people and the very objective of the same.

If there is a shortfall of vaccines, as reported by several states of the country, it was mainly due to inability of the vaccine producing companies to produce them in required quantity. The companies in turn could not enhance their production level because they did not have sufficient resources, both in terms of finance and raw material. There was export ban on raw material in the USA and the Centre was not sufficiently helping the vaccine manufacturer in terms of finance.

Who is then at fault? None other than the PM and the policies being implemented under his strict supervision.

Covering up the faults and inabilities at the highest level has then become the centre of the entire vaccination drive and accordingly rules were framed. Age-based criteria were made for the so-called ‘prioritization’, full of shortcomings, which ultimately failed to tame the spread of the pandemic.

It would be worth noting that the government has all along been saying that the primary objective was to prevent deaths and overwhelming of health infrastructure, not taming the ‘spread of the pandemic’. The policy exposed us to peril on account of spread of the pandemic, death, and the overwhelming of health infrastructure.

The most recent example is the announcement of the latest modification in the vaccine policy, which has been effected after several modifications to the original faulty vaccination policy. States were demanding larger quantity of vaccine doses from the Centre because these were being allotted under its strict supervision.

When the Modi government failed to supply the same in sufficient quantities, it announced that the government would release its 50 per cent doses to the open market for direct procurement by the states.

The question is, when the Centre itself is unable to procure the required quantity due to production constraints, how would the states be able to procure the same?

PM Modi shifted his responsibility, mathematically 50 per cent, from his head, by this decision. Centre’s financial burden would thus be reduced by 50 per cent, while it would be shifted in manifolds to states and the people, because the manufacturers of the vaccines would be free to decide on their price.

It has already been reported that the released 50 per cent vaccine would cost at least three times more to the state and the people, making room for profiteering for the manufacturing companies. It should be noted that manufacturing companies were demanding more financial resources from the Centre to enhance their level of production, and in the bargain Modi’s government shed its responsibility to help them out from their financial crunch and allowed them to indulge in profiteering by monetizing 50 per cent of their production.

It is a public loot and one wonders how it is not injustice to allow selling a product at different rates to different people?

The decision of 50 per cent is also arbitrary, and one wonders how the government came to this figure, at a time when people have lost their jobs, extreme poverty level has sharply increased, and the majority of people have little money to spend.

Since only 50 per cent of the vaccines would now be available in Centre’s pool, there would be a long queue for getting vaccinated free of cost. It would ultimately hamper the vaccination targets, exposing common people for longer time to the perils of COVID-19.

The moneyed people above the age of 18 and below 45 are made eligible to get jabs in the private sector where the same age group without money could not go. This exclusion is made because they don’t have money, and they could not get jabs in government’s facilities because the priority there would be for those above 45 years of age.

How can then common people be blamed for being exposed to COVID-19 and getting infected? The PM has reminded them of their violation of Covid-appropriate behaviour. The PM is not totally wrong in his allegation, but one can ask him who had declared that India had won the corona battle and is being praised by the world? Was this statement of his government not responsible for generating a false sense of winning corona battle?

Moreover, the PM addressed a large number of political gatherings with no Covid appropriate behaviour in the day in a state, and in the evening addressed the country and told people to follow Covid appropriate behaviour. Who is responsible for his political gatherings if not he himself? People were exposed to his super spreader events and in his audacity he is blaming people as if they are responsible for such gatherings.

Now come to the health infrastructure. If there is a shortfall of medical oxygen in the country, who is responsible? The Centre is handling the situation. Despite shortage of oxygen in the first wave of COVID-19, the Modi government took a good 8 months to make tenders for oxygen plants in hospitals, and they are still not working in all the places. The Centre took almost a year to decide on import of medical oxygen. If it does not reach hospitals in time, whose fault is it if not that of the Centre?

Now come to the states. They are being blamed for not having sufficient health infrastructure. When all the revenue is being collected by the Centre barring a few sources, how does the PM expect them to arrange for everything without giving them more financial resourced in time?

In his latest address to the nation, he has appealed to the states to assure the migrant workers of securing their lives and livelihoods. If he really wants the states to do that, why is he not allowing the states like Maharashtra and Delhi who are requesting him to allow them to use National Disaster Fund or any other central fund to give assistance and relief to the urban poor and the migrant labour?

It is true that there has been laxity on the part of people and some lapses on the part of some states, but these cannot be put forward as the only reasons for the present crisis, and that too with a view to conceal the faults of the Modi government at the highest level.

(IPA Service)

Views are personal