By VENU DHINGRA
As an ordinary citizen, I may not possess the technical and administrative know-how to analyse the present situation, but I can’t help praising our government and bureaucracy for handling the situation so very well.
The lockdown, enforced by our leadership, came at the perfect time. It helped us control the spread of the COVID-19, whereas the casual approach of countries like Italy, Spain and the US, caused them many casualties. Our system which we felt was not in place, or so we always thought, is working so well, not only in metros and small towns but even in small villages. Even at the panchayats and block pramukh level, they are taking rounds of their qasba or gaon and getting the tests done of anyone who has come into the village in the last 20-25 days.
The government has been able to maintain all-inclusive records of people who came to the country from abroad in the last more than one month and their names have been shared with the administrative team of every city, town and village. The team is keeping a track of their health by way of regular phone calls and enquiries regarding their health.
In a town like Dehradun, in the last two days, our area Corporator came to our house to get chlorine sprayed, then Dehradun Government Hospital staff going from house to house enquire if anyone is unwell, which is an example how well the health and administrative system is working.
The mass movement of migrant workers and labourers was unfortunate but it was because these labourers panicked on their own and not because Arvind Kejriwal asked them to leave. The good gesture by other state governments to arrange for their transportation helped the country to survive this, too, but with very few (guess only) casualties.
It was working, our system, our government, till the Jamaat incident happened. The Jamaat incident is extremely unfortunate with theories such as planned operation floating around. I have no idea whether it was planned or it was total ignorance and illiteracy on their part. But unfortunate it was…
But, when we look at the broader picture, there are enough reasons to feel proud: we still are the best-administered country in this situation till now, notwithstanding our population, geography, climate and, of course, our stupidity level. In fact, our country when faced with a problem, almost invariably deals with two simultaneous issues –
1. The issue.
2. The stupidity attached to the issue.
I have no answer to the second one…
A very basic issue of India one should not ignore is that our country lives in 3 centuries, concurrently, and therefore, we deal with so many varied problems at one time. Despite that, as a proud citizen, I can say that, as a country, we have been able to face and tackle this alarming situation well.
At this point of time, the whole world is still evolving, trying to grapple with the situation, completely unaware of the extent of mass destruction, and with no known solution in place.
We are all in the phase of trial and error, trying out all possible solutions to a problem which no one has been able to define in the first place.
Oh, let me tell you, I am not a bhakt, or a fan of Arvind Kejriwal, or any other neta, and a fan of all, at this point of time, but let’s understand that the situation is humongous, grave and uncertain. And so we just can’t sit in our houses and ridicule the government machinery right now.
Even during this grave situation, we are all in the safe confines of our houses, supplied with all the essentials including food and fresh water, sleeping comfortably on our own beds. This means the government supply level, health level, law and order, medical facilities, policing, ….all are in place…I guess one can come to this inference without much debate as my logical mind says so.
Yes, definitely a Plan B and a Plan C should be ready and there should be a route map ready to help manoeuvre the country out of this crisis… And I am sure the government and responsible people in the system must be at it: to deal with bankruptcy, hunger, economic slowdown, unemployment etc., etc…
We all need to deal with it together standing united, especially as the lockdown has been increased till 3 May. We should all stand for each other, and India is one country which will stand together, as our culture teaches us.
The magnitude of charity happening is an example of our oneness… People helping their staff and giving their full salaries, food and health supplies, etc. All of this is just amazing.
My point is just that we should stay positive with a positive outlook, and not look at everything with a disapproving and judgmental stance. This certainly is not the time to criticise.
We should sit and analyse the situation from the perspective of the person sitting in the “hot seat” of leadership and decision making and trust in his capabilities… As an elected representative with the mandate of the people, he sure has capabilities; that’s why he is sitting in that position…
These are just the thoughts of an ordinary tax-paying citizen of this country. Sorry, if I was wrong anywhere.
