Corona and the Ruling Party

I had written an article on 29 April 2020 with the title “The Squared Planning by China: COVID-19 (Role of China in COVID-19). In this article, I had mentioned that China was making chemical weapons with the help of two scientists of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, namely, Madam Wang Yanvi and Shu Hongri. I am glad to write that this fact was corroborated on 02 March 2021 by Dr. Robert Redfield of the World Health Organization in a press conference held by the American President. In fact, the US President, Joe Biden, himself was present in this press conference. Dr. Robert Redfield is former Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Currently, there is an outcry in the country as there is lack of oxygen or medicines, and there is no accommodation available in the hospitals. If somehow hospitals have the space, there are no doctors and ventilators available. Moreover, arbitrary rates are being charged for the ambulances.

We all know that presently the second wave of Corona is prevalent. Undisputedly, the masses are aware of the fact that the lack of vision on the part of the government and its leadership is responsible for its misery. Those who do not accept this fact are engaged in greed for power, and I have no words for their mentality. Well, in one sense there thinking might be true because the result of the Bihar elections was in their favour. When the first wave of Corona struck, about 1.5 to 2 crore people migrated from one place to another out of which 50 lakhs belonged to Bihar who were won over with free rations. That is why, during the second wave, the prime minister instead of unravelling a detailed plan for dealing with the situation made announcement for providing free rations.

The government failed to stop Kumbh Mela timely where lakhs of people take dip in the holy Ganges. In fact, to maintain its Hindutva image, thus putting the lives of innocent devotees in danger during the raging epidemic.

I would like to give a few suggestions by means of this article. Although I do not claim to be an expert in the matter, I would be writing based on what I have experienced and what people have failed to notice.

It is beyond doubt that today Corona has spread everywhere in the country due to the elections. The trend of epidemics indicates that whenever such a scourge strikes, it continues for 4-5 years. The provisions of the Articles 352, 360, and 356 of our constitution do not help us in dealing with an epidemic. The Disaster Management Act 2005 also does not vest power with the government to postpone the elections or take incidental action. The subject of health falls in the State List and not the Central List as per the constitution due to which no elaborate scheme can be prepared on the subject at the level of centre. We, therefore, need to frame an Epidemic Act with the help of experts and the political leaders. Whereas hospitals can be constructed on an emergent basis if there is sufficient money and the technical knowhow, but there is no plan regarding provision for doctors, nurses, ward boys, and sanitary workers to run these hospitals.

We can find a clinic run by an MBBS doctor in almost every street of our country. By advertising the posts and providing 07 days training, these doctors should be appointed in the government hospitals for one year. The same procedure can be followed for the nurses too.

Besides, the government should make efforts to spend more on the R&D for which it can rope in investment from the private sector.

Out of the proposed 22 AIIMS hospitals, only 07 are functional. We need to ensure availability of a 200-bed AIIMS hospital in each of the geographical region, and each AIIMS medical college should have an oxygen plant and be affiliated to a nursing school and a technical college.

Those who are engaging in black marketeering, they should be either hanged or sentenced to life imprisonment, and their property should be attached. The commodities of hoarding / black marketeering should also include wooden logs used for cremation and material used for performing the last rites of the dead.

We need to acclaim the services of the concerned government doctors in some concrete manner by conferring awards, etc. rather than by theatrics like ringing plates or lighting candles. But it should be borne in mind that these awards should not be meant for the private hospitals as their primary aim is business. Today, every doctor is earning around 15-20 thousand per day by providing online consultations. Private hospitals are charging as per their explicit demands and that too in cash. They dither in accepting insurance policies or CGHS facility. In our country, the most corrupt are the lawyers and then, it is the doctors now, with the police left far behind from this perspective.   

The Indian Army has opened about 133 hospitals for the people, and its manpower should be utilized by the local administration; however, the absence of use of this manpower happens to be a mystery. The wards opened by the government in private hospitals remain unattended by doctors sometimes as much as for 24 hours, and these wards are so dirty that it is difficult to even breathe properly there.

We need to use the employees available with the municipal corporations and seek staff from the army. Further, we need to even make significant changes in the terms on which the licences are granted to the hospitals, that is to say, adding clause to the effect of provision of minimal staff, medicines stock, number of oxygen cylinders and ventilators, ambulance facility, etc.

Additionally, we need to prepare a book on the lines of “warbook.” It would require that due care is taken for full compliance of the provisions of such a book during the times of epidemic.

The most important facet is the fees of the doctors and the hospitals. The government has not taken any step on this subject. Even the quantum of minimum tax on medicines and medical equipment to be used in the epidemic has to be decided. For this, there is requirement of stringent laws so that every person can avail treatment. There has to be a control on the fees charged by the hospitals/doctors.  

Another problem relates to funeral grounds where long queues are being witnessed. An early solution needs to be found to this problem, say by way of doubling their numbers. In this regard, the land held by Waqf Boards can be utilized.

It is a matter of shame for the ruling party that the work it is supposed to do is being performed by the courts. Even a child can say that the price of the vaccine needs to be uniform. Why should the courts intervene when the government needs to decide on the matter?

We have seen cases of fire breaking out in the ICU wards of hospitals. The grant of licenses to the hospitals should have the condition that the load capacity of the electrical wires will be subject to review every year.

In this epidemic, one significant feature that has come to notice is that the police are the only implementing agency left in the country. In order to relieve their work, we need to involve the Home Guards and the NCC. 

The biggest problem faced presently is that of the future of the students. Already, their one year has got ruined, and it is not known that the second year would be spared or not. It is a matter of surprise and sorrow that a decision is taken under the chairpersonship of the prime minister that the examinations of the tenth and twelfth classes concerning merely one Board stand postponed. The prime minister conveniently forgets that there are more than 60 Boards in the country. As a matter of fact, the twelfth class has associated with it such examinations like JEE, VIT, SAT, and NEET too. How beautiful it would have been if the prime minister had formulated a comprehensive plan on the issue. He should have mentioned that the upper age limit for the civil services examination has been increased, and the willing students should be given a chance to qualify two classes in a single year. But the vision of the government and the leaders is myopic rather than being farsighted. Actually, the governance of our country is going through the phase of personality cultism with authoritarianism as the next stage which ultimately culminates in dictatorship.

Those political parties which come to power while working for a long time in order to implement a specific ideology, their cadre and leadership become bereft of human emotions for their opponents and impartial thinking. They try to analyze every circumstance from the prism of history and the sacrifice made by their leaders and the cadre. This very situation leads to blind emulation. The eradication of such a situation takes time, but when it gets wiped out, then the supporters of such an ideology are difficult to be seen far and wide, as has been in the case of fascism, Nazism, communism, etc.

The government failed to stop Kumbh Mela timely where lakhs of people take dip in the holy Ganges. In fact, to maintain its Hindutva image, thus putting the lives of innocent devotees in danger during the raging epidemic.

The ruling party at the Centre lost the elections in Bengal after which violence was unleashed on the workers of the party. Even the workers of the newly elected party also lost lives in the ensuing bloodshed. Nobody would support this sort of violence in a democracy. But, by organizing protests against the act, the ruling party itself has exposed its character. The ruling party may do what it feels like in Bengal but why should it do so in the whole country where lakhs of people wait for 7-8 hours in the crematoriums to get the bodies of their relatives burnt and are forced to carry back the ashes merely 2 hours after lighting the pyre. These people are not able to perform even the last rites of their dead relatives as per the practices in Hindu Religion. That is why, I have written about the death of human emotions in such political parties earlier in my article.

In fact, the leaders of the ruling party should understand that the majority of the people dying in the cities are its supporters. All these people are wailing because of lack of any management although the government got one complete year to make preparations for the disaster. There was a clear warning regarding the onset of the second wave but the prime minister kept on trying to win favour of the people by engaging in his usual style of oratory in Hindi. The government should not make analysis in the same manner as done by the former US President Donald Trump that the blacks were dying more in numbers and the people were dying mostly in those states where the Democratic Party was in power.

There is still time for introspection and self-analysis. Otherwise, the work which is being carried forward since 1925 will be confined to history, and the third wave of Corona will completely seal the process.