- The national lockdown imposed last year on the back of the SARS-Cov-2 virus being declared as the pandemic, an unknown but deadlier pathogen, out to overwhelm humanity with all its might. Indeed, the virus has forced several countries, irrespective of developed or underdeveloped, to their knees squeezing the economy to extremely suffocating measures. No wonder, many of the country’s leadership are grappling to come to grips with the situation to break out of the vicious cycles of waves sweeping across unchallenged. Millions of precious lives and livelihoods are the biggest casualties in the bargain is stating the obvious.
PC: SUSHOVAN SIRCAR
- The Indian government did what was expected of it last year by declaring the abrupt national lockdown giving little time to understand the gravity of the decision. Mind you, reeling of extremely depressing challenges that ensued the draconian lockdown would serve little purpose. Suffice to say that the brutal instrument of lockdown did had a telling effect on not only the economy but also the way our lives would be structured which is anything but comfortable even now. The Prime Minister was lauded by the world community for the brave decision but equally was subjected to ridicule and castigation by the domestic opposition parties. To each his own, you see.
- Now that we are back to square one vis-à-vis the ominously surging confirmed infection rates scaling stratospheric heights, a déjà vu moment appears to seep into our collective conscience for the future portends even more challenging times. Disappointing to comprehend why, we as a nation, fail to learn from grave experiences despite knowing full well what is expected of each one of us. As the confirmed infection rates head north, all those familiar tales of shortages of beds, lack a steady supply of oxygen, unavailability of life-saving drugs, rarely available ventilators, cry for ambulances, and of course, general chaos prevails all around.
PC: Ratnadip Choudhury
- It was just a matter of time before the political parties, heavily invested in winning perpetual state assembly elections and by-elections, also spare their precious time in realizing the enormity of the virus situation. As usual, our reactionary leaders are confounded with challenges that could have been kept under some semblance of control if only they had learned from earlier experiences. Yes, we all will be recapping our previous horror tales with one more round of restrictions and/or semi-lockdowns seeming inevitable as the government authorities run helter-skelter making efforts to tame the dreaded enemy.
- Thankfully, the union government has let go of its unyielding centralized form of arriving at decisions, especially concerning the imposition of lockdowns. Now the onus has been passed on to the state governments to decide on the matter. The states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Delhi have gone ahead with one or the other form of restrictions in line with the evolving local situation. Makes sense since many of the states are doing reasonably well in handling the pandemic. Hopefully, the lockdowns will be constructively utilized to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure to meet the patient’s requirements.
