Dear Krisha,
Corona virus has returned to haunt us again. As a nation, in my memory, this is the worst this country has ever faced and I wish you never see such calamity in your life time. All this feels like a doomsday Hollywood movie being re-enacted in real life.
It is not what we were promised! It is shocking, shameful and abominable. Feelings for top leadership have changed from reverence to doubt to abhorrence almost over weeks, because It is no more about clash of ideology or principles, it is about fight for life and death.
Second wave of corona is very different; different not only in terms of its infection rate, virus mutancy, and daily cases, but also in terms of failed leadership and pessimism. While in first wave, we were driven by the clear leadership and optimism to win over it, in second wave we have been left marooned. We were lauded as an example how we as a nation weared through the first wave. Despite being miles behind in terms of medical infrastructure we fared much better than even the most developed countries. central Government in co-ordination with states played a decisive role. facilities were augmented on war-footing, strict lockdown was implemented and there was a sense of confidence in people that we all are in it together and will get over it shortly.
This time its darkness, and that it all was avoidable makes it even more gruesome. Inefficient bureaucracy, insensitive government machinery and failed leadership has left us unguarded. With mutant virus, this wave has become more infectious and dangerous. To gauge the carelessness of our government machinery, we must go back to October 2020: India was post its peak cases ( 16 Sep 2020) and new cases were falling sharply. This was the time government must have utilized as a god-send message to prepare for the worst, instead of patting itself on back and celebrating.
Many countries were facing second wave of corona1. It must have been a red-signal for state machinery to be ready for the same in India too. Infrastructure must have been upgraded, emergency plans must have been strengthened and we as a nation must have been warned about the dangerous second wave. Instead we were busy in patting ourselves on back2, self-glorification3 and joking about how Corona could do nothing to Indians.
We as a nation were digging our own grave and state machinery was standing there watching carelessly4. Although India became the country to pre-book maximum number of vaccine5 It was surely not structured as per our requirement6, too much quantity was awarded to a single manufacturer knowing that it will take years for it to deliver such a huge quantity of vaccines. Only two institutions were going to manufacture vaccines in India, and knowing that our requirement is so huge, government must have taken steps to involve more institutions in it. It also mysteriously denied permission to some of the vaccines which were proven in many countries and those same vaccines which were denied permissions earlier, are now being booked with substantial delay in supply time. Heart-wrenching scenes are emerging from our hospitals: be it private or government. Oxygen demand has surged like anything7 . Oxygen trucks are being looted 8 , states are holding Oxygen supply meant for the other states 9. Hospitals are resorting to beg, borrow, steal to save their patients who are struggling to hold their last breath10.
Although high infectious mutant virus is to be blamed for more cases, it is no other than government who should be blamed for this havoc11. Everything seems so chaotic and unplanned that it feels like we are part of some undeveloped African country or may be worse than them .
from November to march, it was a fair amount of time for bureaucracy to scale up the medical infrastructure. It was time for them to scale up Oxygen production, prepare for more beds, prepare more people for fighting this pandemic. But instead what they did: they served their bosses and lobbies, they opened schools, they opened gym, they dismantled the infrastructures which were prepared during first wave. Who shall be blamed for this? who shall be held responsible for these suicidal steps? If these bureaucrats are awarded, lauded and made stars for their deeds, they shall be held responsible for their mismanagement also. The mismanagement which has caused unprecedented deaths In country.
A death is not just about end of life , it is about agony which whole family suffers for years. Every day we are hearing news of relatives of our acquaintances dying in want of medications, oxygen. No space is left to give the dead timely cremation or burial. The scars this society is getting for carelessness of bureaucracy and government will never be forgotten and responsible shall never be forgiven. We as a country shall reckon with where we are standing today. We were supposed to do much better than this. We all are responsible for never realizing that health, education, and poverty were much important issues than religion, caste, and regionalism. Inefficient bureaucrats working in cahoots with corrupt politicians12 make a perfect combination to deprive this promising and brilliant country of its well deserved glory.
All said about ruling party i.e. government and bureaucracy, opposition and media too has failed us. Even if government was sleeping, it was duty of opposition and media to wake it up, to present clearer picture of upcoming danger. But they too failed, one was busy in eulogy of the government and the other was blinded by the vote bank politics. This nation was failed by all. People were mislead by every one. And the irony is victim in the accused now. careless ness of common man is being blamed for this second outbreak, we are being blamed for not following corona-appropriate behavior13. It is no more than a farce to blame people for this second wave, because these same people were lauded by the world and government for the disciplined behavior which defeated the first wave in country. People follow the government sentiments and our honorable union health minister had himself indicated that corona wave is almost over in India14. Why was such misinformation propagated at all? Shouldn’t people at such powerful position have been more responsible when making such claims which send a wrong message to people? If someone is to be blamed, it is our government machinery which failed to keep people informed and to keep infrastructure ready for inevitable second wave.
Its like that your dream of promised land has just been broken and you have woken up in an Un-promised land. With heavy heart we must accept that we have been betrayed. The leadership we chose was supposed to give us better future, stronger country, and accountability, but what we got is carelessness, insensitivity and pessimism. In this dark hour, when we still don’t see a ray of hope, we shall clearly priorities what we want for our future generations. A country blinded by nationalism, fanaticism, fake liberalism or a country driven by patriotic logical leaders. Lets hope that these tough time will teach the people of this country to make better decisions.
Stay optimistic, stay strong. We all shall get through it, no matter what.
With Love Always- Your Mummy and Papa
1.https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-europes-second-covid-19-wave-6910627/
3. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54730290
A Long Yet Beautiful Journey........ 