When
India was suffering through the initial phase of Covid -19 in the year 2020, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi coined the term ‘Vocal for Local’ by which he must have
meant, to not only buy local products but also be vocal about promoting them
proudly. It aimed at achieving the goal of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant
India), another term propagated by the present regime.
While
Indian citizens were still facing the heat of Covid-19 and Hospitals still
trying to restore normalcy after the dangerous phase of Covid-19 was over (as we
believed), this deadly virus took a U-turn for which we weren’t prepared. The
government, which had the responsibility to control this deadly virus, in its
sheer negligence and messed up priorities, failed to protect India from the
Tsunami of Covid-19. This Tsunami of Covid-19, brought to fore the inefficiency,
indifference, and ignorance of administration which failed in its basic duty of
saving the lives of people.
While
we were manipulated by the various terms coined by our Pradhan Sevak, none of
them served the purpose when numerous people died due to Oxygen Shortage in
Country. When Hospitals in Delhi made SOS calls for oxygen supply, we couldn’t
help ourselves from questioning the government about its empty promises of
installing Oxygen Plants from PM CARES Fund.
Not
only this, but another fact-finding about the export of Oxygen also raised many
questions over the Government’s actions. Between April 2020 and January 2021,
India exported over 9,000 metric tonnes of oxygen, according to a Ministry of
Commerce report. In the financial year 2020, only 4,500 metric tonnes of oxygen
were exported. From January 2020, when India was exporting 352 metric tonnes of
oxygen, the exports increased by a staggering 734 percent in January 2021. The country exported 2,193 metric tonnes of oxygen in December - a 308 percent
increase compared to 538 metric tonnes in December 2019. The government, however, claims only industrial-grade oxygen was exported and that it is
"malicious propaganda" to suggest that India had exported scarce
medical oxygen in the pandemic year 2020-21.
Only
the holy Cow knows the truth, but there’s no hiding from the fact India has
shortage of oxygen cylinders, supply chain, and hospital beds. Such shortage of
Oxygen leading to numerous deaths of patients made even the various state High
Courts Question the policies and inaction of the Central Government as well as
State governments.
It
was expected that India is home to major vaccines for Covid-19, i.e. Covishield
and Covaxin, wouldn’t face any difficulty in the mass vaccination Drive which
started on 16th January 2021. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on
January 22, “On the world’s biggest need today, we are completely self-reliant.
Not just that, India is also helping out many countries with vaccines”. And as a matter of fact, India
has shipped 64 million doses of vaccines to 86 countries in Latin America, the
Caribbean, Asia, and Africa. The recipient countries include UK, Canada, Brazil , and Mexico. Both Covaxin and Covishield have been exported - some in the form
of "gifts", others in line with commercial agreements signed between
the vaccine makers and the recipient nations, and the rest under the Covax
scheme, which is led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and hopes to
deliver more than two billion doses to people in 190 countries in less than a
year. Well,
if you’ve been going through News, you can find the reality of Vaccination
Drive as well. As per sources, 9% of the Indian population has received at
least one dose, 2% of the Indian population (1.3 billion) has received both
doses of the vaccine.
The situation in India is so fatal that India’s total COVID-19 cases passed 18
million on 29th April 2021 after another world record number of
daily infections, as gravediggers worked around the clock to bury victims and
hundreds more were cremated in makeshift pyres in parks and parking lots. India
reported 379,257 new infections and 3,645 new deaths on Thursday, health
ministry data showed, the highest number of fatalities in a single day since
the start of the pandemic. All this and more while I’m writing this Article!
The government of India is left with no choice
but to rely on worldwide help to fight the world’s worst Covid-19 crisis that
has hit India. The U.S., the U.K., France, and Germany are among many of the
nations that have pledged medical aid after the tragic second wave of the
pandemic shattered India’s healthcare system. Even China, with whom New Delhi
is entangled in a border standoff, has offered assistance. After celebrating
initial success in Vaccine manufacturing Indian Government is losing behind
its the aim of self-reliant vaccination because there’s a shortage of doses for its
own people and now India has to import vaccines for the successful vaccination of
its citizens. Indian Government recently allowed import of Russian vaccine
Sputnik V and expects to secure a big amount of the 60 million AstraZeneca
(AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine doses from the US.
Not
less than a year ago, the “Vocal for Local” slogan was propagated in India to
beat the pandemic with aim of boosting domestic manufacturing of everything from
personal protective equipment to ventilators. The ultimate goal being
’AATMANIRBHAR BHARAT’, was propagated as everyone’s responsibility.
But
the Indian Government due to its irresponsible handling of the pandemic,
inefficient system to coordinate with States, inability to take the criticism
for inaction/lack of action, and indifference towards ordinary citizens’ lives
failed in its own policy of ‘vocal for local’. By receiving worldwide help
(which godi media has shamelessly hailed as a win for Indian diplomacy) is
actually a failure on the part of Government-The government which asked its
Citizens to make a ‘Self-Reliant India’, failed to make it one.
This short visit from ‘self-reliant India’ to ‘receiving worldwide health aid’ has
not been an enjoyable one for us. I hope we are no more manipulated by the
empty slogans and fake promises, coming from anyone!
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