We have both a vacuum and a vacuity in leadership in India presently. This is being stated the context of the COVID19 pandemic that is sweeping the country. With one of the largest pool of medical personnel in the world, in a short while we will be topping the charts in the number of cases infected by the virus in the world overtaking the US in a few weeks from now. Where China was able to contain the virus, India has miserably failed because of the lack of leadership quality in our government.
This is seen in the faulty methods on how to handle the virus and in choosing wrong measures of containment and the incorrect timing of implementation of these measures. At the first level we failed to recognise that the individual is at the frontline of the exposure to the virus. If we protect him then we are likely to see lesser spread of the infection and fewer COVID +ve cases. This would reduce the load on the health system both personnel and infrastructure like doctors, nursing staff, testing personnel and hospital beds etc. ultimately reducing the number of deaths as we are seeing now. Along with the mask/face shields,everyone should have been mandated to wear gloves, stripped down PPE's in the format of a shroud or burqa covering you from head to toe and overshoes (optional). This would have dramatically reduced the rate of new infections which are currently touching 1 lakh per day. One does not understand why the government was unable to see the simple logic in this argument. Just like the mask has become a fashion statement by now, the shroud or burqa would have seen various designs and brought out many pleasing variations to be seen in our streets. Was this extra protection not mandated because of the fear of being different from the rest of the world? Since everyone around the world was wearing masks we went along with the herd and asked our people to wear masks only. We should have done what is best to protect our people from the virus. The same scenario is playing out again while opening up of the economy where we are possibly not looking at the safety of our people but since the West has opened up, we should also open up! The ground situations in the West and in India are different so we should do what is needed in India and if we have to delay opening up, then we should do that or open up region wise or sector wise and slowly.
The same logic related to the lockdowns where India played 'follow the leader' of the West in deciding that the best way to 'break the chain' of the virus was by lockdowns. The lockdowns as we have seen did not work since in India they were porous and since everyone here has a reason to flout and break a rule either by the maxim that 'might is right' or by pulling privilege. Thus in India the virus chain was never broken and it continued to dribble out here and there. So how could the virus be stopped? Thus the virus made merry and galloped to its present status today where we are at close to 5 million infections at around 1 lakh a day.
Looking at the pace of the spread right from the PM and other leaders have given up the fight against the COVD19 virus and the Indian populace is in the hands of God! These leaders are not ashamed that they have brought the country to this kind of a pass where we lead the world in the number of infections. Modi is understood to have complimented Trump in the latter's fight against the virus. It is like one loser giving kudos to another with both topping the virus charts at No. 1 & 2. We are spared little mercies since Modi has yet not used Trump-ian logic that we are moving to become the highest infected country in the world because we are brave and fighting on the frontlines of the war against the virus. And what about the people of India who are more than 60% poor and illiterate who will be dying from the virus, not knowing what they are suffering from, with no medicines and no one to take care of them in terms of professional help since they fear going to the hospitals because of the social stigma associated with the virus and worried about the high cost of treatment. Do these people deserve to die? Is this the leadership that we sent to government to look after us. This smacks of complete irresponsibility. Vacuity at its worst.
And what has the government been doing, once having found that they have failed to stem the rot in terms of the rampaging virus, it has turned on its media apparatus to show that it has been 'doing its best' and touting figures which convey no meaning to the suffering people who have tested +ve or are sick with the virus. They are saying that the recovery rate which at one point of time they said above 72% recovery means we are winning the war against the virus, while today it is at 77% if we are able to believe the government figures. But the virus has shown that it is winning. As for the lowest death rate, what solace does it give to the person dying from the virus? The government also tried to justify the rapidly climbing infection rate with the claim that testing had been increased which threw up more infected, that the recent festivals led to more mingling of people and the third cause being, the opening up of the economy. At the same time the common people are giving up the belief in the tests since half the time they are wrong. The government further got the Indian Medical Council to put out the results of the Sero Survey done in April 2020 which put out figures that by May 2020 already 6 million Indians had the virus in them. This is complete humbug since the figures match the current infected numbers and seem to be put just to whitewash the government image to justify that the virus was already there and nothing much could have been done to reduce the number of infections. The new story that is being put out is that the containment of the virus is not possible and that we should focus on limiting the number of deaths and try saving lives. There could also be a disturbing reason for pandering to the pandemic by our politicians since in India they want the people to be dependent on them and keep coming to them given the education level which is why the pandemic has been allowed to spread. But this is a dangerous game since the consequence is death, the number of which cannot be estimated in advance. The continuing pandemic benefits everyone who are bent upon making money from it at the cost of suffering people like the private health care system who have been fleecing patients, consultants who keep popping up giving you advice on how to deal with the virus etc. etc.
Thus one would suggest that the government put its head down and apply it to the task at hand which is to control the virus and get rid of it like China has done. Half measures like those that India has followed were also used across Europe where the compulsions of opening up were given priority and in almost every country starting from the UK, France etc. we are seeing a resurgence of cases. Thus it is best that we adopt a dual pronged strategy of providing enhanced protection at the individual level as enumerated earlier and the other strategies employed now so that new cases are minimised and a manageable case load is thrust upon our overstretched health infrastructure of both personnel and facilities. Otherwise by Jan 2021 we will be seeing people dying like flies on the Indian streets akin to the scenes of the bubonic plague that spread through Europe in the Middle Ages. This government has to also own responsibility for complete mismanagement of the COVID19 pandemic and to allow it to grow to monstrous proportions. We have seen during the initial days of Demonetisation people would be thronging banks to exchange the old notes and/or withdraw cash and now in the COVID19 pandemic time we will be having people thronging hospitals in same numbers to seek treatment from the virus. And the most disappointing part is that when we have crisises plaguing the country we never see the PM on the frontlines of the action and he is strangely silent and there is not a single word from him on the way forward for dealing with the pandemic. This clearly is the nadir of leadership that we have to put up with.
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