At the beginning of the year, the anti-government voices were totally frustrated and exasperated. Most of the weapons in their armory were proving to be ineffective. Anti-CAA protest had died its natural death. Anti-Farm bill agitation at Delhi’s borders was fizzling out, even while the protesters tried to put a brave front. More and more people were getting convinced about the importance of the Farm Bills introduced by the government. India was winning the war against Covid on nearly all the fronts including diplomatic front. Modi juggernaut was seen to be unstoppable.
All of a sudden the second wave of Covid pandemic hit India. This wave devastated the nation as it spread much faster than the existing health infrastructure of the country could cope up with. The result was deaths, acute dearth of critical resources like medical oxygen, medicines, hospital beds etc. There was mayhem all around. Quite naturally this resulted in anger and frustration.
Anti Modi forces seized upon this opportunity and intensified their effort to direct this frustration and anger against Modi and his team.
A synthetic narrative was created in order to pin the government down. Deaths and mayhem caused by the pandemic were put squarely on the shoulders of Modi. Strange logic was introduced by saying this wave was due to apathy of Modi and his team and wrong policies pursued by them without caring to explain this rhetoric with statistics or facts. International press, as usual, fished in the troubled waters by writing scathing articles against Modi. The judiciary made curious comments from time to time which did absolutely nothing other than creating confusion
No one seemed to be bothered about nuances and details. The fact that India, a massive country housing nearly as much population as EU & US put together was totally over looked. the fact that India had very poor facilities and extremely low hygiene levels was also ignored in these synthetic rants. No one focused on the fact that both the quality as well as the quantity of medical infrastructure in India was pathetic with the ratio of hospitals/doctors among the lowest in the world.
No one talked about the massive fiscal deficit of the nation that had been pursing ‘low-revenue-high-welfare’ economic model since the last seven decades. No one talked about the fact that while the virus can be transmitted even via air, the remedies have to travel through the complex network of roads, railways and airlines at a much much slower pace.
Expecting Modi to solve all the issues related to the pandemic (which is still being understood by the medical fraternity and for which vaccination has been developed less than 6 months ago) is an inappropriate and grossly unrealistic expectation.
Expecting Modi to build all the tens of thousands of missing hospitals that were NEVER built in the last so many decades overnight is farcical to say the least.
With images of people struggling for oxygen , medicines and vaccination beaming all over the airwaves, the emotions are frayed. And in an atmosphere where emotions are frayed, objectivity and logic, howsoever sound, becomes the first casualty.
Let’s not get swayed by a narrative where mistakes and simple administrative lapses are presented as willful crimes by a motley group of people hell-bent on giving the government a bad name. Let’s strengthen the hands and resolve of our head of the state who is working tirelessly to tide over the crisis. Let’s give a helping hand to tens of thousands of healthcare workers, medical equipment manufacturers, workers in pharma companies, police personnel, army & para military personnel, NGOs, self help groups, and many more people actively & bravely fighting this global pandemic
May sanity prevail!
