FLAMB0YANT DECEIVER OR A CREDULOUS THRONG
“Man proposes but God disposes”- is not just a proverb, but a reality that whatever comes out of man’s intelligent pursuit cannot be claimed as his own doing without God’s intervention. A routine daily chores with fixed schedule of time came to a sudden halt when an invisible corona virus cemented human lives, bringing the time as well as memory to a standstill. The world came up with number of models since the virus was noticed, varying from imposing a complete lockdown to aggressive tracing, testing and quarantine. None of the strategies seems to be a final solution and there is a need to extrapolate the model that addresses the changing demands, where the focus should be upon the life and livelihood of all humans.
As Chanakya has rightly said- “If the enemy is invisible, better hide”. So in India, we opted an option of complete hiding, locked ourselves within our boundaries, as a fight against this invisible virus, forgetting the fact that the reference in Chanakya’s saying was in context of an invisible man and not about virus. It has been more than six weeks of lockdown period and it seems nothing is really happening, time feels like it is stretched. The purpose of lockdown was not to defeat the virus but to control its spread as much as possible and to gain time so that we could strengthen ourselves, strategise our policies, look for our resources and design some innovative ways to combat it. The goal posts, guidelines and the directives are changing every other day and the decisions are being taken in a knee jerk manner on basis of whims and fantasies. The religious congregations along with the premature celebration of thanks giving to health care workers and corona warriors by lighting candles, clapping, ringing the plates, showering flower petals, holding flypasts not only violated the norms of lockdown but its motive too. Gestures are welcome and perhaps necessary to keep up the public morale in a time of emergency, but they should not replace real action.
The migrant workers, the worst affected group, stranded in cities without wages and access to food, started walking, cycling and smuggling themselves in container trucks and cement mixers to try to get home—a journey that was sometimes thousands of kilometres long. With an extension in lockdown and when given a provision of being able to go to their home states, not only were these desperate workers charged for their trips but they were made to pay higher fares than usual. Keeping in view the long term repercussions, at the first place this mass migration shouldn’t have been allowed and the states should have granted and provided them with minimal basic support of food and wages that according to experts figured to not more than Rs.68000/= crore. Large amounts of donation, including mandatory deduction from the salaries of government employees, have been funnelled into the PM Care’s fund, the sole purpose of which was to utilise the funds for combating, containment and relief against the coronavirus outbreak, in addition to helping those afflicted by it. However, there is no transparency in allocation of fund expenditure and rather than donating 151 crore in this PM Care’s fund, Indian railways should have owned the responsibility of transporting these willingly unemployed migrant workers to their home states without charging them.
The lockdown dried up the GST collection, automobile sale went to zero and demand for non-essential commodities drastically reduced making it ever more inevitable that India will suffer a consumer lending cycle. A liquor sale amid lockdown was in consideration with an immediate revenue generation keeping in view that country lost about 30,000 to 40,000 crore because of alcohol ban during lockdown period. However, the way people gathered and flouted the social distancing norms was in contrast to the purpose of it.
The continued lockdown with stringent conditions will lead to more deaths due to hunger, unemployment and psychiatric disorders. Imposing lockdown was very easy but opening a lockdown is difficult. Since the lockdown 3.0 is near to end, a careful, modest, transparent and a well-designed incremental exit plan is needed without losing the gains that have been achieved through the stringent nationwide shutdown. We should not forget that even after six weeks of lockdown period, the infection rate is still higher than the global rates (% decline in Ro because of lockdown is -30% vs -60%). At an individual level we need to realize that our fight against this calamity cannot be solved alone by donating to various funds, but by modifying our lifestyle too and avoid mass gathering to the maximum extent. Similarly central and state governments need to be compassionate and discern that the hike in fuel prices and tax on liquor by 70% will add more to the woes of an already encumbered and oppressed general public.
We have had many problems in the past, but the present uncertain challenge we are facing right now, we all wish to trade back. As is said “well begun is half done” meaning thereby that we need to have an equally congruous ending to complete the job with gratifying results. The virus is here to stay and the challenge is to retain the focus while allowing economic activity to start. It’s an unusually dynamic situation that the virus has landed humanity in, and our response ought to be equally dynamic if not better. The best trait humans have is their ability to adapt, manage and survive in every kind of situation. There will be initial difficulties, but gradually, we all will get used to it and make peace with the changing situations.
Let’s contribute in this fight by being responsible, accountable and heedful
Dr. Pawan K Suri
Chief Cardiologist
SGL SuperSpeciality Hospital, Jalandhar
Mail—pawanksuri2000@rediffmail.com”
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