Dr Nishant A.Irudayadason
Professor of Philosophy and Ethics, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune.

Among the world’s most populous countries, with nearly 1.39 billion people, India is hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, with more than 16.9 million cases and 192,309 deaths to-date, that is 24 April 2021. Since the beginning of March, an alarming new wave has swept through the country, with the number of daily cases rising from an average of 12,000 at the beginning of March to more than 300,000 on average over the past five days, including a peak on Saturday 24 April at more than 348,831 cases in 24 hours.

An acceleration of the epidemic explained in particular by the appearance of a new variant, called B.1.617 also nicknamed “double mutant” because of its two mutations of the L452R observed in the Californian variant and the E484Q detected in Brazilian and South African variants. It is a viral strain that is much more malignant, that makes a lot more cases in the population, and more serious cases.Today, this Indian variant is responsible for about 11% of the contamination in the country. As a direct result of this increase in contamination in New Delhi, many residents have decided to go into exile to the countryside and flee the capital, where nearly one in three residents are positive for Covid-19.

Many notable epidemiologists project that the situation in May is likely to worsen. According to these projections, there could be an exponential increase of infected people almost over 200,000 a day and nearly 5000 deaths every single day. But this is only the figures as per the official records, but the reality could be 25 times more on the actual life scenario according to the epidemiologists. What is worrisome is the unpreparedness of the Union government. Loss of many lives could have been prevented if there was better planning and action that empty words and rhetoric without substance. The Union government has not learnt any lesson from the first wave of the pandemic. People have not recovered from the arbitrary decision of a total lockdown last April without proper plans and projects to curb the spread of the pandemic. The country has not recovered from the economic regression caused not only the by the pandemic but due to the total mismanagement of the Union Government.

Thousands of people are in need of oxygen and no action plan is drawn out or at least made known to the people. There is a shortage of vaccines even while the government is advocating all to get vaccinated. The vaccine companies have also increased the price in three different price slabs making people wonder if profit making becomes a priority of these companies when life is at risk and the Government is a mute spectator. The Prime Minister and his cabinets seem to pass the buck to the state governments when little can be done by the latter. There is a clear sign of misplaced priorities shown by the Union government. Two instances are enough to demonstrate this: the massive roadshows and rallies in West Bengal with the sole purpose of winning the state election and massive gathering of a few lakhs of people for the kumbamela. No covid protocols were followed in both these series of events accentuating the health crisis.

In an interview with Karan Tapar, the reputed writer Ramchandra Guha clearly holds the Prime Minister responsible and his cabinet responsible for the health crisis situation we are in. He speaks of three singular characteristic traits of the Prime Minister—contempt for expertise, sectarianism and megalomania for leading us into this situation of helplessness. Many instances can be said to prove Guha’s opinion right and this is indeed heart-breaking. The only heart-warming signs of hope come not from politicians or minsters but from ordinary selfless people who try to reach out to people who need oxygen even if it means selling their valuables. This country owes its respect to these individual heroes. The best way to show our respect to these heroes is to cultivate self-discipline in following covid-19 protocols including wearing mask and maintaining social distancing even though our leaders fail to show examples to us. Let us stay safe and help others be safe.