The BJP government is at it again. It has developed quite an expertise in coining catchy phrases, slogans and managing headlines as its main tools of governance rather than hard work, comprehensive planning and delivering on its promises. This time the eye-grabbing phrase is ‘Tika Utsav’ (Vaccine Festival) from April 11 to April 14 with the supposedly noble intention to vaccinate large groups of people against Covid-19. The country is in the grip of a fresh wave of the pandemic which is assuming even more serious proportions than the first wave. All this while most states have sounded alarm bells about dire shortage of vaccine supply. The response of the Central government is to trivialise the grave crisis. It doesn’t seem to have learnt from its inept handling of the pandemic when it announced a thoughtless, ill-planned and inhuman lockdown on March 24, 2020 and urged the nation to bang thalis, clap and light lamps to ward off the virus.
The only difference this time is that it is now armed with the two vaccines, namely Covaxin manufactured by Bharat Biotech and AstraZeneca’s Covishield produced locally by Serum Institute of India, and that apparently induces it to put the nation in a celebratory mood. The catch is even in this the government is ill-equipped and the two vaccines are yet to pass the ultimate tests of efficacy. While Covaxin has still not received any field test report back-up, Covishield has been banned across Europe for numerous blood clot related deaths taking place. So much so that France’s top health regulator on Friday advised all recipients above the age of 55 of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to get a second shot of another alternative vaccine. India has no third option.
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That is why it is trying to hide its failure to cushion people against this fresh onslaught of the virus behind yet another headline-grabbing exercise. Interestingly, while the farce of the Tika Utsav has started, Orissa alone has been compelled to shut down 900 vaccine centres due to non-availability of vaccines.
The daily caseload has now gone up to 1.68 lakh and the number of deaths stands at 900 plus a day. Till last month, March 2021, the daily caseload was about 15,000. The latest figures surpass those at the height of the first wave and present a scary scenario.
The problem is compounded by the fact that the Centre has monopolised the procurement and supply of the two vaccines. Apparently, the reason is to claim all the credit for itself and indulge in thoughtless vaccine diplomacy and politics. The first is intended to impress the world about performance of the BJP government and enhance its image battered by its anti-farmers’ policies, suppression of dissent and nose diving economic growth due to wrong policies and mismanagement. The second is the outcome of cynical calculations to put states ruled by non-BJP parties in a bad light by supplying far less vaccine doses than those given to BJP-ruled states.
The record of vaccinating people doesn’t inspire any confidence either. So far, over 10 crore people have received the shots in a country with a population size of 135 crore. The combined output of the two manufacturers – Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India – is now 2.4 million doses a day, while the need is for 3.7 million doses. The infrastructure to meet the need is simply non-existent. The government seems to be oblivious to this fact and has therefore adopted an ostrich-like policy to bury its eyes in the sand of the Tika Utsav propaganda rather than face reality and take steps to remedy the situation as most other countries across the world are doing.
The pertinent question that the government needs to answer is what has it been doing to improve the treatment and hospital facilities since the pandemic started last year. There have hardly been any efforts to address the problems of high hospital occupancy, shortage of oxygen and test centres, while great stress has been laid on vaccination. But, even on this count the government is displaying a cavalier attitude. The Delhi High Court got so exasperated by the Centre’s handling of the vaccine supply that it asked it to explain in affidavit the rationale behind keeping strict control over the class of persons who can be vaccinated against Covid-19. A Bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech have more capacity to provide the vaccines, but it seems that they are not exploiting it fully. “We are not utilising it fully. We are either donating it to foreign countries or selling it to foreign countries and are not vaccinating our own people,” the judges observed, exposing the Centre’s utter lack of concern for its own citizens.
The Centre is blaming the state governments, especially those run by non-BJP parties, for inadequate vaccination. But, the complaint is it is supplying vaccines in far more numbers to BJP-ruled states than to the non-BJP governments. For example, the UP government is getting adequate doses unlike the Maharashtra government, even though the latter, being the country’s financial capital, is far more exposed to the infection than any other state. Naturally, the spike in the second and third waves is the maximum in Maharashtra. Punishing the people for their political decision in a democratic setup will eventually harm politicians of all hues.
This apart, anyone watching videos of the BJP rallies being held for West Bengal elections would definitely realise the attitude of senior-most BJP functionaries towards the Covid situation and safety of their supporters. It is a matter of shame that even the Prime Minister is often photographed without a mask.
