Covid-19: Carefree government, scared subjects

There has been a lot of talk about how there is no democracy in China and how they do not share information with others even in a situation like Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, India always boasted of being the biggest democracy. This was true till recently, but now things seem to be fast changing and most of the governments seem to be moving more towards authoritarianism.

The new unwritten law seems to be that no one has the right to criticise the party in power and no one has the right to demonstrate or protest against any of the government's decision even when there is health emergency like situation. The minute one announces to organise a rally or a dharna, one is put under house arrest and the activists are taken into preventive custody.

Even a simple comment on Twitter criticising the government is viewed as a big crime and some ruling party activists would file a complaint and the police arrest the person who had posted the tweet. But if anyone from the ruling party indulges in abusive tirades against the Opposition, the law enforcing authorities turn a blind eye despite a complaint being filed.

The political language, of course, has undergone drastic change and decency has been dumped during the last six or seven years. Of course, it had its genesis when the agitation for separate Telangana was more. Even educated party leaders seem to have lost their balance in this regard taking decency to a new low. What seems to be most important is to take up works like demolition of the old Secretariat building.

The kind of hurry that was shown in taking up demolition of the old Secretariat building of united Andhra Pradesh and later of Telangana when the State and the country are reeling under health emergency like conditions where people are not able to go to office, where students are not able to attend schools or even write supplementary examinations, clearly shows how callous an elected government can be. If the education of children could wait for one academic year, the demolition of Secretariat could also could have waited for at least next six months.

In one word, whether it is politics or administration, nothing seems to be going on the right track. It appears that the rulers are getting priorities wrong. On a single day on Friday, the Covid-19 cases have jumped to a record high of 26,506 in India. In Telangana over 1400 and new cases were reported. Of course, the only solace the State can feel is that in the neighbouring State, the number of new cases is more by 100.

If we take a look at the way things were handled in Telangana ever since the lockdown was lifted, situation seems to have gone out of control. The State's claim that it had woken up earlier than all other States and that it was TS that had created more medical infrastructure than all other States got exposed as there has been steady surge in cases but no proper medical facilities. All reports including those by the Central teams made it clear that the number of tests conducted in the State is much less compared to even smaller States like Jharkhand and Odisha.

In June, the State government suspended tests for coronavirus for two days in Hyderabad and surrounding districts amid a massive backlog of samples waiting to be tested. In the recent couple of weeks, there have been cases where few Covid-19 patients died due to non-availability of ventilators. This is another area where transparency has been lacking.

There has been no unanimity in the figures quoted by Ministers or officials regarding number of ventilators purchased and active use in the State. The Health Minister had boasted of creating an ultramodern 1,000 bed Covid-19 hospital at Gachibowli and the Chief Minister named it as TIMS (Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences). But then, all that remained more as a publicity event as the hospital is yet to become operational. Why it is so, no one knows. Why did such a situation arise despite the government's claim of waking up early? It is difficult to explain.

The Chief Minister is in his farmhouse for the past ten days as about 15 staff members in CMO tested positive. Though the Health Minister is holding review meetings, it appears that the administration continues to be directionless in handling the situation. The latest strategy it had adopted was to go in for rapid antigen tests instead of depending on RT-PCR tests. By switching over to rapid antigen tests, the results would be out in 30 minutes. This will help the government to go in for more numbers of tests, it is claimed. However, it is unfortunate that no Minister or official is presenting the real picture. People naturally are concerned as different kinds of news has been emerging on the social media saying that the State is suffering from shortage of blood, oxygen and ventilators in government hospitals and that the private hospitals are fleecing the patients. Amidst this scenario, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan adopted an assertive posture more as a confidence building exercise. After epidemiologists, doctors, medical students, and the High Court, it is now the turn of the State Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to openly disagree with the government's strategy on Covid-19 testing. All this seems to have irked the government.

When the Governor asked the Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary, Health, to come to Raj Bhavan for a meeting, they took 36 hours to meet her. It is alleged that they were asked not to go to Raj Bhavan by the CMO. Apparently, the government does not like an active Governor.

The government was also unhappy that the Governor visited NIMS hospital. She did this as she is herself a medical professional and wanted to have first-hand information of the situation so that she can advise the government. But the government feels that the Governor should not take any such independent initiative. They might not like Governor's initiative but what about the High Court pulling up the government over the issue and directing the authorities to make public the complete details of testing, contact tracing, number of persons sent to quarantine in State-run institutions, admissions and discharged Covid-19 patients in each of the hospitals etc.

Instead of adopting lackadaisical approach, it is time the government takes all political parties into confidence and plays a proactive role in bringing the situation under control. It is said that the government had even ignored the letters from the Governor to the government giving certain suggestions based on her personal assessment of the situation.

The only ray of hope for the common man who is risking his life every minute of the day is the possibility of a vaccine being released by mid-August, though it would take much more time before people can get themselves vaccinated and feel safe. Till then, we are undoubtedly sitting on ticking time bomb.