As the second wave of the pandemic recedes and the unlock process is on across states, activities are beginning to build up and are gaining steam. This optimism however is conditional to the successful handling of the pandemic situation hereafter including the likely strike of a third wave. To be fair, unlike the second wave which seems to have taken the country unawares, preparations for the third wave are on top gear to meet that eventuality. It is in the fitness of things that this emerging new phase will see hectic activities on the governance and political front too.
The talk about a likely cabinet expansion has been in the air in Delhi for the past few days, capped by a fresh round of meetings Prime Minister Narendra Modi held with senior ministers like Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari as also BJP chief JP Nadda among others. Home Minister Amit Shah too was meeting parliamentarians in groups. A pandemic in itself should not have paralysed the governance process of a nation as huge as India. Yet, unlike China or other nations, the natural instinct here was for most people to swing into a holiday mood. When salaries were promptly being paid to government employees, safety was their next priority and governments allowed a relaxed phase for the bureaucracy. Offices could have functioned with proper maintenance of Covid protocols and most officials had their own vehicles but that did not happen.
Curiously however even the work at the ministry levels went into slow motion. Contrast this with the promptness with which the workforce in the health care sector, the police and security establishments, and other essential services functioned. They even stretched their limits and worked overtime to save lives and the nation itself. They did not run and hide behind a safety curtain. Some of them paid with their lives. Hope is that their families will be adequately compensated.Curiously, at the central government level, some 28 ministerial berths remained vacant over the past many months. This has had a telling and adverse effect on governance itself. Even a pandemic of this kind does not justify such a drift at the highest level. This couldn’t-care-less attitude is what keeps India backward despite having the advantage of a huge population of youths. With lack of effective handling, the economy is down in the dumps; there are hardly any good tidings on any front in recent times. Covid is used by the powers-that-be as an excuse, caught as they were in a characteristic lethargy.
