On Tuesday, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation, extended the national lockdown till the 3rd of May. According to him, this is the only way to stop the spread of Covid 19 in the country. In the 25 minutes speech which missed out the concerns on migrant workers, daily wagers, labourers, farmers and poorest section of the country as usual, PM skipped a lot, deliberately. PM wants to literally hide that India is under miserable conditions and his government is responsible for this.
India didn’t act at the right time. PM lied that India responded timely when Covid reached India. The first Covid 19 case was reported on 30th January. It took around 30 days for the PM to react with Covid 19 publicly. The Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was found constantly warning about the challenges of Covid 19. Only Kerala recognised the risk of this pandemic and that too before WHO proclaims it as a pandemic. If PM takes the credit of Kerala to the centre’s account, as federal system, he is not lying!
Centre imposed nationwide lockdown on 25th March after 19 states and UTs decided to impose lockdown from 24th onwards. The Central Government extended its Parliament session till 23rd March even when the opposition wanted an adjournment a week earlier. And it was reported that due to several circumstances, 96 MPs had gone under self quarantine by that time. PM Modi had the first public reaction on 3rd March after 20 days of Rahul Gandhi’s first caution on ‘timely action is critical.’ Union government was irresponsibly slow to review the developments of the disease in the country. We need to take in consideration the argument that the Government was too slow to react on Covid 19 as it was not reported in North India first. India neither imported medicines to match the sufficient stocks nor stopped the export of medicines and PPEs.
PM Modi conducted a video conference with SAARC leaders on 15th March and addressed the nation on 19th March. But why he hesitated to brief up in Parliament? Why an interaction with SAARC leaders is so important than speaking in Parliament with the people’s representatives? Why PM likes publicity even during such crisis than the credibility with the legislative house? Whenever he comes on screen with pre-recorded speech, people are either panic or dissatisfied as it went like a motivational video instead of leading a nation with proper, scientific, strategic plans and welfare measures. But we also need to see this large number of population who like to take all the tasks that PM gives like clapping and lighting to thank medical workers. But all such ‘unique’ advises became a mockery while people breached lockdown and defied social distancing.
Apart from clapping with plates, lighting candles, what a government should actually do for Medical workers during such a risky battle in the context of medical science? There are fighters, medical workers, toiling upward for the survival of the country left with insufficient stock of Protective Medical Gear. It means that they are risking their lives! Till 21st March, India was exporting PPEs to abroad for business purpose. And now China has sent 13 Lakh masks to our country. Ironically BJP MLA was sloganeering with his followers against China on 5th April during PMs 9 minutes candle light drive.
Meanwhile, Modi government went behind an arm deal worth $11.6 milion with Israel. The Government has not skip the Grant Vista plan worth 20,000 crores. The welfare package that centre announced came after series of criticisms from the opposition and lectures from former finance minister P. Chidambaram and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Nirmala Sitaraman announced a 1,70,000 crore worth welfare package on 26th March. But the measures which beneficiaries would access to the relief are yet to be revealed by government. There are much confusion regarding the relief fund distribution through JanDhan accounts, PM Kisan and MGNREGA. It means, deprived sections are not going to entertain the only financial aid that centre brought.
Suspensions of ‘Members of Parliament Local Area Development’ funds are another false step by the union government. MPLADs are the core streams of decentralisation. New Delhi can never decide what a constituency really needs. It should be attributed to the representatives of respective constituency, and District Collector, the Disha coordinator. The most cautious point is that this decision will be misused for political agendas. Because by this, New Delhi can determine, from where to where the fund should be diverted. As per the history of NDA government so far, disaster relief funds are part of their political retaliation or revenge. It was evident during the financial aid distribution of centre over floods in 2019. Kerala, a state which devastated in two consecutive floods, was neglected badly. That continues even in this Covid 19 crisis too. Kerala one of the most affected states in the country was allocated 1.4% of total distributed fund. Even in this situation, MPLADs were utilised for purchasing necessary medical facilities and equipments in Kerala.
The question why Modi sets PM care while PMNRF is already there? Opposition has made severe criticisms over it demanding transparency in the system. Meanwhile, centre has decided to enable CSR ease only for the donations to PM Cares. It will possibly reduce the chances of CMDRF. It will badly affect the states which BJP has no ‘interest.’
India is not testing enough people for Coronavirus. While Norway, Switzerland and South Korea tests more than 20,000 people per million population, India tests below 150 in this proportion. If India continues ‘no tests, no Covid’ strategy, the whole world is going to pay worst as it is the second most populated country in the world. The only state in India which checked out Covid 19 in the most accurate way and method might be Kerala. And one important method that this small state has taken is aggressive testing.
Government should consider the lockdown period to invigorate the medical mechanism with advanced measures like rapid tests with aggressive frequency, ventilators, medicines and sufficient PPE. Because, lockdown cannot cure pandemic. It can only facilitate the ground to fight against the spread. Along with strengthening medical sector, government should take interest in the deprived sections also. Migrant workers in almost all Indian cities are starving to death. The sudden lockdown has taken more than 20 lives of migrant workers who fled on their feet home. The strategy to save lives will lose more lives than we save with the lockdown.
