by the Editor: Siddharth Sehgal

There could be two possibilities, either all the scientists, research institutes, data, and reports did not give an accurate assessment to the central government about the pandemic or the central government didn’t pay heed to the warnings, given the current scenario where PM with all his cabinet is campaigning in West Bengal one can tend to believe the latter argument.

The current predicament we are in is of our own making. People completely forgot Covid, masks were missing from public spaces and governments also did not prepare for the second wave. It is true that people became careless but that’s how people are. Both central and state governments could have made preparations but the big part of responsibilities lies entirely with the central government because they are the ones with all the resources to tackle the pandemic. They are the ones who should have lead by example. Prioritizing West Bengal and other state elections right now is simply a very poor choice, given the gravity of the situation.

Why aren’t there enough beds? Why we didn’t anticipate the need for medical oxygen which is in short supply across the country? Why we don’t have enough stock of drugs such as Remdesivir?  Why we do not have enough vaccines? Why politicians are holding election rallies and common citizens are being fined for not wearing masks? What plans do we have for businesses that will be impacted because of Covid restrictions? Do you think burning pyres in crematoriums will give public the confidence in their governments? People are flooding social media with appeals of help, is it so bad out there? What happened to PM Cares fund?   Someone has to answer all these questions.

In this wave, I don’t think there is anyone who does not have a friend or family member infected by Covid-19. Right now, every effort should be made to increase our medical infrastructure and save lives. We had a year to prepare. We could have learned from our own and others mistakes and yet, here we are at the same point, where we were last year, panicked and frightened.