Speculations are rife on the Post-Covid-19 picture in India and also in the world. Since there is no proper medicine available, no vaccine invented, post lockdown, life is dicey. It leads to all types of conjectures. How much the virus affects social, political and international relations, is uncertain. Many political pundits are of the opinion that the mammoth election rallies that are being conducted now, would be a thing of the past. Virtual campaigns, virtual meetings, virtual conferences would overtake face-to-face interactions. People are either messaged by political parties or addressed virtually, they say. A real respite to both the addresser and addressee!
Come June, schools have to be opened. In our crowded classrooms, can children maintain social distance? India is not yet designed for online teaching. How do children play in the playgrounds? Move with their friends? This Covid-19 has placed many physical and psychological barriers. Social distancing is opening up an avenue for untouchability once again, that we tried hard to abolish. Hugging, clutching or clasping hands have become a strict no..no. To abandon those social bondings is detrimental to human psychology.
In India, most of the jobs need physical presence. Working remotely i.e work from home (wfh) culture is less. Again, to move in the public transport which is almost crammed in our cities, scares everyone. At present, the state and central governments have been pampering and cajoling people to stay at home. In any case, as the saying goes: ‘ships are safe in the harbour’. However, they are not meant to be in the harbour. They need to sail. Once the lockdown period is over the real picture will slowly emerge: whether India withstands the deadly virus spread or not. None can make a prediction right now. Only, our three hundred thousand gods (that reside in our country) should help us save. The governments on their part make their own efforts, of course.
India has other internal scenes related to Covid-19, other than its travails. Tablighi Jamaat, Palghar case (the murder of two Sadhus) are potboilers for years to come in Post-Covid-19. The callousness of Maharashtra police in the Palghar incident would haunt the secular government of Shiv Sena, for years. The Liberal secular journalists that have been aghast with the milder term the Love-Jihad, now have to deal with the newly minted Covid-Jihad. The history repeats itself. In earlier regimes, they lampooned with their terminology, now they are getting back, although of a different kind.
In this election year, the US is becoming more and more protectionist and anti-immigrant. So are the other advanced western-European countries. POTUS (President of the United States) recently stopped funding the World Health Organization (WHO) in the hour of this coronavirus crisis. The West is becoming nationalistic. Nationalism, per se, is not bad. Love towards one’s own county is warranted. One should be proud of one’s own nation and the uniqueness of its culture. However, shutting doors to the world is isolationism. That way international trade and progress are unachievable. Surprisingly, China, where the Covid-19 originated and has spread to the world, is increasingly trying to become from a villain to hero in supplying equipment and helping the other nations.
The pathetic state of migrant labour moving across, during the lockdown, to reach their families, on foot, in some other states, really moved the hearts. Post-Covid-19, India’s main problem is to revive the economy. Unemployment has to be addressed. Expert-strategists are proposing infrastructural projects to be the answer. The topmost of them is: connecting the rivers of the country. That addresses the PM’S pet-scheme of providing drinking water to all the houses of the poor in the country i.e. ghar ghar paani. Afterall, why should the poor waste their time and energy in getting potable water from far away…miles away. Instead they could do some constructive work to eke out their living.
Let’s talk about the present. For any country to develop, there should be peace and harmony within the country. The prime minister’s recent tweet (19 April 2020 at 5.15PM):
“COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood. We are in this together: PM” – is an eye-opener.
So, here we need to remind ourselves what the world’s greatest painter, sculptor, architect, musician, engineer, mathematician and scientist of fifteenth century Leonardo da Vinci had to say about the present time, he says, “The water that you touch in the river is the last of that which goes, and the first of that which comes: so is the present time”. Let’s live in the present co-operating with the government and the country at this challenging time. India with its immense potential and talent, could certainly be the world’s principal player in the Post-Covid-19.
