Informist, Friday, May 14, 2021

The second wave of COVID-19 is putting India through a gruelling test. Our response to the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic has been, at best, inadequate, chaotic, and faltering. It has put a severe stress test not just on India, but the idea of India.  

The pandemic has exposed our deepest and darkest realities and chasms. In the absence of an effective and bipartisan command and control structure, parochial instincts have kicked in. From shortages of medical oxygen, hospital beds, life-saving drugs, and now vaccines, to the blame-game on the botched-up pandemic response, it is one party against the other, one state against the other, one Indian against the other.

The much romanticised notion of competitive federalism is now shrouded in a dystopian cloak. States have tried to disrupt each other's oxygen supply, ambulances are being turned away at state borders, and COVID testing and death data is being fudged almost with impunity. A lot of it is about image management and controlling the narrative. And of course, some states would be guiltier than others.

All this is extracting a toll of tragic proportions on India, the country and the dream. Instead of mounting a united and coordinated response, there is mayhem and finger-pointing. The Centre has retreated and those leading the government seem to have withdrawn deep into their lair. States are bickering with the Centre and each other.

COVID-19 has severely infected accountability but no one seems to be willing to tend to it. It is now dead, its corpse floating in the Ganga with many others. Denial and playing with data can only go so far in hiding the true extent of devastation. The dead do not lie. They are now screaming from crematoria, graveyards, and even riverbanks.  

What we need is a wartime effort, but what we are getting is wartime propaganda.

The Centre and states must start by acknowledging and accepting the scale of the pandemic that has become a humanitarian crisis. Attempts at obfuscation have to stop and need to be replaced with humility and accountability. A national coordinated response with basis in science must be mounted right away in the true spirit of democracy and federalism.

A bipartisan national council with representatives from the Centre, states, political parties, scientists, health experts, and civil society must be set up to coordinate the efforts. A national crisis warrants a truly national response. We are in the fight of our lives, and so is our country. Politics can wait because the virus isn't waiting. 

End

Cogencis news is now Informist. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Private Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2021. All rights reserved.