Published as Lead article in oHeraldo, June 28, 2021
The fear and gloom which was in the air as a result of a deadly blow inflicted by the second wave of Covid, in the last one month or so, is now slowly receding. The aam admi who lived in a bubble of acche din had to wake up to a rude shock of finding himself left at the mercy of the virus by the nation’s top leadership which bungled big time. As usual, the civil society stepped in to cover up the botched up governance by contributing in whatever way possible to mitigate the crisis resulting from a neglected public health sector. Even while India was in distress due to a lack of healthcare facilities and the loss of human lives, an insensitive government remained busy avenging its party’s humiliating defeat in the West Bengal polls.
This is probably the worst health crisis to have struck modern India. The last deadly disease was the ‘Spanish flu’ in 1918 which had exposed the total neglect of the health sector by the British colonial regime. Mahatma Gandhi is said to have also contracted the flu and survived. Reports point out that it was the loss of 18 million lives in that epidemic which was instrumental in uniting the Indian people against British colonialism. Probably, it is this history which is causing worry for the current political dispensation as it sees its popularity graph dipping drastically. For the first time, in the last seven years, a nervous but yet arrogant and vicious governance is seen desperately attempting to play down the crisis and salvage its reputation internationally.
The bluff about the country’s preparedness for the second wave of the virus got terribly exposed. The gravity of the crisis was such that all efforts to keep it under wraps could not help the horror from spilling on to the streets and into the rivers. The leadership was compelled to swallow its false pride and ignore its religious and ideological prejudices to pacify angry citizens and salvage the situation by accepting international aid from western countries, without its usual fuss. The leadership tried to put up a brave face while its government machinery worked overtime to give a positive spin to the crisis and rubbish the damning reports in the international press. There was also a desperate attempt to deflect public attention towards some alleged ‘toolkit’ conspiracy against the nation which got prematurely aborted by social media platforms with the tag of ‘manipulated’ getting pinned to the posts. The paranoia which has afflicted governance is not even sparing the cartoonists from legal harassment.
The government’s approach towards the pandemic is ridden with mixed messaging. The public is left guessing as to whether the public health policies and programmes are directed at safeguarding the health of citizens, or for shattering world records to boost the political image of some supreme leader. At least on five occasions the intervention of the Supreme Court was needed to bring the governance back on track to tackle the Covid crisis. Despite the nation being forewarned by scientists about a third wave of infections, both the government and the citizens seem to have learnt no lessons from the past. As elections approach, it could be the same repeat story wherein the tragic loss of lives and governance blunders will be forgotten with the return to a toxic mentality of caste, religion and regional preferences. The government’s non-verbal messaging seems to show that capturing political power at any cost and resumption of normal economic activity by even ignoring Covid SOPs are far greater priorities than protecting people’s lives and arresting the pandemic. When the country is yet to recover from the shock of the second wave and come to terms with the loss of human lives, the focus in governance has already shifted to strategising for the elections which are due in some States.
For a social and political culture which has degenerated into high levels of toxicity wherein the rights of fellow citizens are no more valued, the attitude of self-regulation, self-discipline and self-restraint is now foreign culture. Merely changing the name of a virus strain from Indian to Delta cannot change the reality nor will it reduce the risk of infections. For a politics and economy driven by a mentality of surgical military strikes as a solution to restore peace, pounding the human body with vaccines with the claim of neutralising the spike protein and antigens of the Covid virus seems to give greater thrill and yield more economic profits, rather than investments in long-term holistic health of the citizens.
A society for which hygiene and sanitation takes the last priority, the hype around the vaccination being a shield against Covid infection may only further contribute to a false security and the ignoring of Covid appropriate behaviours. Cultivating hygiene behaviour remains the biggest challenge. If further human misery is to be avoided from not only the Covid virus but also from future deadly viral, fungal and bacterial infections, which scientists warn will be the new normal due to climate change, the holistic health of citizens has to become a topmost priority in every sector of development. We cannot expect a healthy nation with unhealthy citizens caused by poisoning of the air, water and human mind to drive power games and boost the GDP. The present pandemic is probably nature’s warning that the game of a proud and greedy mankind hiding behind toxic positivity is over. And if the suffering of the second wave is not enough for a society which cannot resist its urge of falling from the frying pan into the fire or jumping into the well to celebrate, then perhaps a more deadlier third wave is inevitable.
(The author is a Social Activist who has worked in creating awareness on the issue of local self-governance)
https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Opinions/Toxic-positivity-%E2%80%94-the-oxygen-and-steroid-of-failed-governance/176698?fbclid=IwAR1d_n4ZiKPKGJc58f1jszHBRDj_bxIba9hJCNgu3leDHHWKqZtilMWoemU
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