By H H Mohrmen
The second wave of the corona virus attack laid bare the grim reality that the country is ill-prepared for the onslaught of the pandemic. The whole world watched in disbelief as citizens of this great country fought valiantly what they already know is a losing battle. The pain is not so much about the disease because everybody knows that sickness and death are part and parcel of being alive. But the fact that most of the deaths were and are avoidable because they were caused due the failure of the system is a hard pill to swallow and also a very painful scene to watch. It is heart wrenching to note that in the last few weeks much of airtime and newsprint in the country was devoted to reports on what happened in the hospitals and crematoriums or burial grounds. The focus of the media cameras in the last few weeks centred on the pain and grief that people suffered across all over the country.
The scene is the same everywhere in almost all the hospitals particularly in the states which were hit hard by the pandemic. The most common image is of people who desperately trying to get a bed in the hospital for their loved ones. Patients lying inside ambulances or hospital corridors waiting to be admitted to the hospital is one image that shall be remembered for a very long time. People who tried to get at least one cylinder of medical oxygen for their sick relatives and having to carry the cylinder around is another image that will remain etched in public consciousness for a very long time. But the most heart-rending scene was to see relatives wailing and crying for their loved ones who had lost their fight against the decease. The image of many funeral pyres burning the dead bodies at the same time is an image that one wishes to never witness again in one’s lifetime. Death of course is natural because there are only two ultimate truths in life – birth, the doorway and death the exit point of life, but to die for lack of hospital beds, or lifesaving drugs or medical oxygen is something that one cannot accept in this modern day.
Truly, a person who is born will one day die some way or the other, but no two deaths are the same. One death cannot be compared with the other because every loss is different from the other. A family which loses one of its parents is losing the past of their lives and parents who lose their children are devastated to see the dreams they had for their son or daughter being shattered just like that. But one question that is in everybody’s and particularly in the minds of those who lost their loved ones in the ordeal is why? Why is this happening to us?
Like a sprinter who celebrates his winning while he is still 50 metres away from the finishing line only to be overtaken by a runner behind him, the NDA government too has celebrated its supposed victory over the pandemic too soon. Perhaps ‘end game’ is one statement that Dr Harsh Vardhan the Health Minister of country would not like to repeat. This year the second wave of COVID pandemic has caught the government off-guard. In spite of the instantaneous announcement of last year’s lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus, the soul of the nation was not as badly hurt as it happened this year. Even if many had criticised the government for the way it announced the lockdown which compelled the migrant labourers to literarily walk home to avoid starvation and death, yet the general consciousness or the soul of the nation is not as heavy as it is today.
This time the leaders of the Government were caught unprepared. While they were still trying to comprehend the unscheduled and abrupt end of the election campaign in West Bengal and were waiting for the election results, COVID positive cases and numbers of death from the pandemic rose exponentially in the nation’s COVID infection graph. The BJP leaders who had just finished campaigning for the different state assemblies, suffered a double blow as they were overwhelmed by the problems that came with the second wave of the pandemic and their party’s loss in the election.
This time around the Government no longer has time to call the citizens to join in clanging of utensils, no more burning of diyas, candles or shining mobile phone torches either. Neither is there showering of flower petals from the sky to honour the frontline warriors. Everything seems to happen so fast that it left most people in fear and the Government dumbfounded. Whoever is in the driving seat is obviously shellshocked and is in a dilemma as they don’t seem to know what they are doing or what to do next. The general public lives in fear and desperation and the relatives of those affected and those who lost their near and dear ones to COVID-19 are angry. They are so frustrated that they even lost their respect for the doctors and the nurses who were there to help them. It is sad that the health workers were at the receiving end of the people’s ire over the failure of the Government.
This time around there were no more praises and accolades for the health workers. It is not that they did not perform their duty as well this time around when the second wave hit, as they did last year. The reason is that much of the problems they encountered this year are beyond their control. The doctors and nurses too are frustrated because they feel helpless not because they are not equipped professionally to handle the situation but because part of the system has failed them. The HealthCare System in the country has not totally failed but it is the absence of basic infrastructure that is supposed to be in place which has failed them. The doctors, the nurses and health care professionals are only one part of the system. It is the duty of the Government to provide the necessary infrastructure to complete the system. Unfortunately, the health workers have to bear the brunt for the lack of infrastructure, which is not their fault at all.
It is true that lack of hospital beds is one major problem in the country but we do not have enough doctors to man the hospitals either. The doctors have gone beyond their call of duty and have work beyond their shifts, but they cannot save life unless the required infrastructure is available. The question is why is a country of more than one billion people not having enough doctors?
The Government should have learned from what had happened last year that health care system of even developed countries like Italy and US crumble due to COVID-19 attack, but as the saying goes those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it. The Government has not even learnt from China the place where the corona virus originated. China must have hit the right buttons somehow because till today mortality due to the pandemic in the whole country is only about 5000. Whereas in India people are desperate and angry as they see no light at the end of the tunnel. The reason is because the Government which had failed to prepare for the second wave is seeing no other alternative other than to impose a lockdown.
Now that we have seen how much damage the second wave has had on the country, the question in every citizen’s mind is, “Are we prepared for the third wave?” On the other hand the deaths due to corona virus should not remain just statistics for future reference. Instead, their names should be inscribed on some national monument. In fact, if the Government goes ahead with the Central Vista project, the names of all those who died in the pandemic should find place in the monument.
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