The resignation of senior virologist Shahid Jameel as head of the Indian SARS-COV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), a forum of scientific advisers set up by the government to detect variants of the coronavirus, is a great setback to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic at the height of the second wave. For obvious reasons, Jameel stopped short of spelling out the reasons for his resignation, but he had given ample indications of his frustration over the government’s refusal to act on the basis of scientific inputs provided by experts in the field. In fact, the interviews he has given to the media, starting with the New York Times, four days before his resignation, leave no one in doubt about the criminal negligence of the government to adopt an evidence-based policy to save the people from the clutches of the virus. What has been in the realm of speculation about the government’s complacency and cynical electoral and religious calculations seems now confirmed by the details that this virologist shared with the media.
Jameel wrote in the NYT that India would have to increase testing and start isolating infected people. The most sensational disclosure is his assertion that all the measures endorsed by the scientific community in India “faced stubborn resistance from the government.” He divulged that on April 30, over 800 Indian scientists urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide access to the data that could help them further study, predict and curb the new virus. But, unfortunately decision-making based on data became, as he regretted, “yet another casualty, as the pandemic in India has spun out of control.”
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Members of INSACOG reportedly told the government that it would have to impose “major restrictions.” However, the government went on to host large election rallies with tens of thousands of people ahead of the polls in West Bengal and Assam. The Centre also gave tacit approval to the decision of the BJP government of Uttarakhand to organise the Kumbh Mela festival where about 4 million people congregated with little or no safeguards against COVID-19. That too, a year ahead of schedule as the Kumbh is held every 12 years and was due next in 2022. The government also did not pay much heed to its advice on ramping up vaccination ever since the new strain was detected in January. The attitude of this government is being perceived, internationally, as one that does not bother for the well being of the citizens. This is a sure fire method of creating a new phase of history, a history replete with death and destruction of the nation.
