Caught Off Guard : Covid Wave 2021

Today India crossed 4 lakhs infections in a day. If we just check some historic data, we will get to know that this is 4 times more than what India had at the peak of the last wave in Sep 2020. And if experts have to be believed, this time we haven't reached the peak yet. 

So when I look from here, 2020 doesn't seem to be the worst year. The worst is yet to come, for sure. Why I am saying so because India is way far from getting the whole country vaccinated. The data suggests that if we continue our vaccination drive at the same pace, only 30% of the population would be vaccinated by end of 2021. That means there would be another wave, cases would rise, and if correct measures are not taken, the death toll will go up again. So firstly, let us all accept that the virus is not going anywhere, at least till next year. It doesn't mind waiting for few months till we drop our guard so that it attacks again, with more force. And that's why, no matter how safe we feel, we need to wear masks and ensure social distancing, even after we get vaccinated.

Now let's talk about what the government is doing to repair the irreparable. Honestly, I don't know much, because I can't see any difference in the situation today and a week back. Unfortunately, people are still dying due to the lack of oxygen or hospital beds, or relevant medical aid. We, the people of India, may not deserve a lot of things due to our unruly behaviour - damaging public transport, littering on the streets, spitting everywhere, not following any rules, not paying taxes, or abusing the democratically elected Prime Minister of India - but we surely deserve to live. Yes, I am not asking for state-of-the-art healthcare system, I am just asking something enough for us to survive.

Today all the state governments and the center should put all their energy and resources into building a healthcare system that can survive this tsunami. India has to stop, doing anything and everything else, and focus only on saving lives. Taking down the tweets, or threatening the world newspapers of changing their headlines, is only going to hurt us more. As it is said, the actions should speak louder than words. We need to lift ourselves, we need to save our lives, and then we will be able to dictate our terms with the world. 

The Indian government's vaccine diplomacy and helping the world last year has got us some good fortune as the help has started pouring in from over 40 countries. We need as much as help possible to become 'aatmanirbhar' again. 

But I guess we haven't yet accepted the reality. We haven't accepted that it was our failure. By nature, it is very difficult to accept our mistakes or error. In a country like India, where every move of the Government, is discarded or criticized,  and people are just looking for reasons to abuse the Prime Minister, acceptance of a failure is strictly prohibited. It's ingrained in our culture, that we do not accept failure, come what may. So how do we expect anything different from our government?

I wish the Prime Minister in any of his next addresses or his Mann ki Baat expresses deep concern on the healthcare system and accepts that we were caught off guard. The government of India had not prepared for it. But we are now doing the best we can, to save every Indian citizen. I feel this much is a must. This is what he owes to the people of India. The thing is that this has impacted everyone, the majority of the population. That means it has affected all those people who voted this government to power, who supported this government through thick and thin. And this is not how they should be treated.

The government needs to retrospect what went wrong. If there was even an iota of intelligence in Oct 2020 on the new Indian variant of the virus, we should have taken that seriously. During March this year, even when the cases started rising, we should have regrouped to prepare for the battle. One can tolerate a few members of the government for not practicing what they preach, as long as the leaders are doing what they say. But flouting all the covid norms during the election rallies was not expected from the supreme leaders of the country. The messaging was completely wrong. People will do what they see their leaders doing, be it opposition or the government. I do not care about the opposition or whatever wrong they are doing for the country. I don't hope for anything from them. But I am hopeful from the government who I voted for, and I don't want them to blame the opposition just because they couldn't do their expected work even when they were in power.

All has not been lost, and will never be, but if the government is unable to heal those who have been hurt, this is going to leave deep scars for life.

We could have done better - Covid Wave 2021

We could have done better. We had the will, we had the courage, we had the opportunity, we had the support, we could have done better. We can't turn a blind eye to the current situation. This is a mess which we could have avoided. This is the price of complacency which all of us have to pay. We had seen what was happening to other nations, yet we did not take enough steps. 

It is a pity that we do not have enough beds for the patients in the national capital. It is disheartening to see the leader of the national capital asking for help with folded hands and complaining about his neighbors for not helping him. It is depressing to see that he has to tell the leader of the nation that his counterparts of the neighboring states will only help him if the leader asks them to help. Why there is such a big disconnect among the leader of the states? We talk about collaboration and self-organized teams in our corporate world, but we don't see any of these characteristics in the most important area of work. Forget collaboration, it seems we don't even speak to each other. Ideological differences will be there always, but eventually, everyone has to work towards nation-building. But no matter what, the urge of bringing the other person down is bigger than the urge of doing good for the nation. And I am not saying that it is a failure of one person or one party, it is a collective failure of the governments, the leaders, and the people.

Let's blame ourselves first. We were the ones who were frustrated sitting at our homes, suffering from the trauma of not partying over weekends. We were the ones who felt suffocated by wearing masks and the unwanted restrictions imposed on us. We were the ones who justified all of this by sharing pictures of the political rallies where our leaders were seen flouting the safety rules shamelessly. We were the ones who asked this question, "When they are not being asked, why should we be wearing a mask ?" My dear friend, the thing is, even if they contract the virus, they will be treated by the best, but unfortunately if we get it, we will be treated like the rest. Then we can't do much but blame them at the cost of our lives. So let's be wise enough to choose what we need to do, and what we need to ignore.

Let's blame the industrialists for taking control and making us a capitalist country. And not just everyone, let's blame only two who are close to the supreme leaders of the country. Let's post on social sites by using the network provided by the same industrialist. Let us send out messages to vandalize the towers by using the same towers to send out the messages. Let's be hypocritical enough to happily accept medical aid from them but not utter even a word of appreciation.

Let's blame the political parties who conducted huge rallies. Let's blame the election commission for scheduling the election. Let's blame the religious event to increase the numbers. But let's ignore the states where none of that happened still, they topped the charts.

So let's blame the states for doing nothing for their people or doing too little, too late. The states behaved irresponsibly as Health was the subject of the state. We have to blame the state leaders who kept abusing the center but did nothing to improve healthcare. 

Let's blame the center for everything. After all, even they cannot justify what has happened under their nose. No matter what, if a team loses the most important match of their lives, the captain has to take accountability. Someone has to tell the top two leaders of this nation that somewhere we have failed. Even if health was a state subject, the center could have taken effective steps under the Disaster Management Act to ensure coordination between the states. We are not the experts to tell what to do, but we can surely see that something has gone wrong.

If we want to keep failing, then we should keep blaming the opposition for not being supportive, we should keep blaming the state leaders for not seeing the writing on the wall and for not doing anything as per the will of the center. 

We cannot deny the fact that we became complacent. This was our time to shine all across the world. This was our time to showcase that we can conduct our most auspicious and one of the biggest religious events in the world, even during the pandemic. The center had the opportunity to build people's confidence in the system by a seamless execution of the event. Why couldn't we take stringent measures? We don't have the answers because we know that we could have done better.

We were the vaccine providers, we were helping everyone, we were the top achievers, then how did we end up losing everything? We surely missed some warnings, ignored some alerts, and let this happen to us. When we pin all our hopes on the captain of the ship, then it is he who has to take a fair share of the blame. 

So it's fair to blame the center, but at least be fair in blaming. We lose our argument the moment we blame it just for the sake of it. Why do we blame based on what suits our idealogy? Surprisingly, we are unable to appreciate a Mandir, but we find hundreds of reasons to ridicule it. We say let's build Hospitals instead of making a Mandir. The comparison is super flawed. One is science, the other is belief. The science is limited, but the belief is limitless. To sustain happily, we have to live with both. Why can't we say build a hospital with every Mandir? The problem is because it will not suit our narrative. We will keep shouting on top of our voice what we feel is right. And then the other side would defend showing the stats of how many AIIMS were built before and after and prove that they are right. Though it is undeniable and appreciable, the question is, are they enough? If the center has done so well, then why are we in this situation? 

Unfortunately for this sarkar, they have to manage one of the deadliest pandemics in the past 100 years. The task is huge and the expectations are high. Even the slightest of error can lead to a catastrophe. We can support this sarkar for years as miracles don't happen overnight, but it will be foolish to simply ignore the mistakes. 

I know, you know and every person knows this, that we had enough time to avoid this situation. We had enough opportunities to prepare ourselves for this impact. But we failed. So what can be done now? The best we can do is to support each and everyone who is trying to fix things. Whether it is our state governments or the center or the people suffering due to this, we have to send a message that we are together in this. We have to stop spreading hatred, we have to stop spreading fake messages, we have to be responsible enough in sharing a piece of news. We have to share our views and respect other's thoughts. We don't have to score against each other. It is not center vs opposition, neither you vs me, it is us vs the pandemic. We can fight each other again only if "each ' and the "other" survives.

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay positive!