Why are we back to square one after one year of the pandemic and lockdown ?

A year after the world’s harshest lockdown, India is back to square one. Hospital beds, oxygen, ventilators, life-saving medicines and vaccines are in short supply. Patients are dying without testing or treatment outside hospitals, in ambulances, on the staircases and on wheelchairs. There is a global shortage of testing kits. Despite all the hype surrounding the Arogya Setu App, colour coding, containment zones and glib talks of testing, tracking and treatment, people are very much left on their own. If they have political connections and strings to pull, they can get what they need. Medical protocols are still not in place.

Health workers are stretched. Directives remain arbitrary. Expensive medicines like Remdesivir, the efficacy of which has been questioned by the WHO, overnight disappeared from the market and began selling at a premium in the black market after the Indian government recommended its use in mild cases. In a bizarre display of partisan politics, BJP offices in Gujarat began distributing the medicine. Despite the Disaster Management Act being in force, and invoked arbitrarily to arrest people for not wearing a mask, hoarders, the faithful and politicians and their supporters have been left alone to defy Covid protocols. Police, which went after the Tablighi Jamaat last year for allegedly being super-spreaders, have turned a blind eye to even bigger congregations. Issues of neither livelihood nor lives have been resolved and the future looks even more uncertain and precarious than last year. From patting people on the back for lighting lamps and beating utensils and to showering flowers on hospitals to blaming people for inappropriate behaviour, it has come a full circle. After boasting of its capacity to hold virtual rallies before the Bihar election and having allegedly mobilized 70,000 LCD screens to broadcast an address of Home Minister Amit Shah last year, the ruling party has gone back to holding road shows and election rallies with no Covid restriction in place. The trust deficit is such that migrant workers no longer believe people in power when they say there would be no lockdown.

The country undoubtedly faces a national crisis of unprecedented proportions, which a booming stock market and burgeoning wealth of billionaires can scarcely gloss over. The public health system has crumbled as never before. Health workers are tired and on edge and after a year of stress can hardly be expected to remain on their toes. The economy shows no sign of recovery. Jobs are disappearing and incidence of crime is growing. But while nobody doubts the urgency for the country to come togetherto fight the pandemic unitedly, chest-thumping tendencies of the government, trolling by union ministers of even sensible suggestions and outright lies are hardly conducive for rallying the country.

With the situation spinning out of control, the government will be tempted to use more draconian measures to cover up its failings. But a state of emergency in the country, which appears likely every passing day,might work only if the government takes the country into confidence. People need to be aware of the full magnitude of the crisis, the pitfalls ahead and the options available before they are asked to make more sacrifices. No doubt the government will be called upon to invest unprecedented resources to put the country back on the rails; which is all the more reason why it cannot afford to delay taxing the rich now and divert resources to fight the pandemic.