Hubris & bigotry are heartless and shameless - Soter

 Published as Lead article in oHeraldo on May 24, 2021

Images of multiple funeral pyres lighting up the night sky along with images of public gardens and parking spaces being converted into crematoriums, as a result of India’s deadly second wave of COVID infections, remain splashed all over in social media. Even more horrifying are the images of dead bodies floating in river Ganga. With a government in acute denial this information which leaks into public domain could probably be only the tip of the iceberg. FIRs are being lodged against citizens to prevent them from exposing the collapse of the health system. Scientists are left demanding access to data which could help study, predict and curb this deadly wave. But a government which suffers from chronic cultural supremacy refuses to admit the reality and face the Truth. 

While the nation was kept in a positive mood by selling a fantasy of becoming a five trillion economy and attaining cultural supremacy, its citizens got caught unaware and left gasping for oxygen when COVID struck again with a vengeance. The gains from a socially and economically costly national lockdown, imposed a year ago to defeat the virus, were squandered within a couple of months by hubris and toxic nationalism. The false pride, boastfulness and overconfidence of a right-wing nationalist Government, which was lost in showcasing to the world the triumph of its Prime Minister over the COVID crisis, miserably failed to foresee the worst case scenario and step up preparedness. 

While the cases of COVID infections showed signs of rising across the country, select religious festivals and tourism were allowed to go on full steam, probably to prove to the world the desi cultural immunity to COVID. Adding to this blunder were the mammoth election rallies held in some States with no SOPs followed. Hubris was elated on seeing the massive turn out for its election rallies and snubbed those warning of a possible health crisis arising from such crowded gatherings. The ignoring of SOPs was possibly part of the image branding to show the world that life is back to normal and position the infallibility and omnipotence of the nation’s leadership which claimed to have defeated COVID-19 in just 21 days. 

The adverse publicity in the foreign media triggered even more arrogance and brazenness in the government to deny and twist facts. While people were dying in hospitals and on the street for want of oxygen, 300 top government officials were imparted with a training session on how to create a positive image and manage public perception about the government. If the first COVID wave was about pushing a desi alternative to WhatsApp and Twitter, the second wave is about launching a desi international TV channel to counter BBC and CNN. It’s ultimately only the image of the supreme leader and his government that counts in governance policies. The people’s lives do not seem to matter for the heartless and shameless Hubris and Bigotry which drives governance. 

What happened in Goa, three months prior to the outbreak of the second wave, defied logic and was terrifying for anyone with a little knowledge of infectious diseases. Goa’s borders remained wide open to import every strain of the COVID virus. While the government remained criminally negligent, the public were as callous and took advantage of the situation to also enjoy the party. Responding with COVID care initiatives after the crisis has struck may appear very noble, but this is more like offering medicine after allowing the injury to be caused. It is nothing different from the government’s response of shedding crocodile tears after a disaster occurs. Probably several lives may have been saved, and such loss and pain averted, if aggressive awareness programs and enforcement of COVID appropriate behaviours had been taken up by religious and civil society groups soon after the first wave had subsided. 

While experiencing emotions of fear, anger, grief and panic is natural when people suffer all around and near and dear ones succumb to the viral infection, to think and behave irrationally and irresponsibly can in no way be a constructive response. The naivety and lethargy in Goan society has allowed political and economic opportunism to toy with the public’s emotions and exploit a crisis to self-impose lockdowns, measure popularity and gauge public tolerance for nuisance. We fail to realise that such unhealthy precedents being tolerated in a democracy could only come back to curb civil liberties in future. We already see the fall-outs from the abuse of steroids and antibiotics in COVID treatment. With COVID not expected to vanish so soon, how long will citizens hide behind lockdowns and vaccines? 

Unfortunately, reason and truth in this country, as also in Goa, have remained quarantined by the unholy alliance of politics and religion. As a result, the cart gets put before the horse and cure gets preferred over prevention. The response to the COVID crisis is no different from the response to the drought crisis in the country. Corrupt politics always enjoys and thrives on a crisis. The more the emergency, the greater is the scope to evade accountability and transparency in government spending. COVID has exposed the fault lines. It is confronting people’s political attitudes and lifestyles along with the modern infra development models. Positivity for the government cannot be about faking statistics and jailing opponents. It has to be pivoted on the 12 principles of good governance; not on suppressing and dressing statistics to mask the unpleasant truths of a botched up governance.

(The author is a social activist).

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Opinions/Hubris-bigotry-are-heartless-and-shameless/175233