THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
The nation is suffering the horrors of the second COVID wave sweeping unprepared India with wrong priorities, complete breakdown of healthcare system and scenes of corpses everywhere, helpless overwhelmed medical staff, bereaved families, courts having to help government to do their job. Millions of helpless deaths beg the question “did COVID kill them or the system?” To quote Vishwajit Rane interviewed on a foreign TV channel, “People have a right to hold accountable those at the helm of affairs”. That has rarely happened. The BJP, led by our supreme leader goes on to denigrate and bury the old guard and replace them by changing the face of India and rewriting its history. Cyclone Tauktae’s damage and there is worse to come due to political unsustainable “development”. The catastrophic cost our nation is bearing, a result of obsession which is briefly 1) Win elections at all costs in all States 2) One party, one supreme autocratic leader, Hindutva ideology 3) Ensure nation does their bidding without question 4) Use all the nation’s resources as priority towards this grand superior vision 5) The Constitution of India needs change in due course to bring all dismantled institutions inline 6) Do this ruthlessly and inhumanely.
This seems obvious after seven years of government. The recent Centre’s no-holds-barred tactics in the Bengal elections with their election machinery which had the PM and HM organising huge rallies and road shows for about a month, using all the resources of money, govt machinery and facilities to win, permitting the Kumbh Mela completely ignoring COVID, is now out of their depth in tackling this virus. The IMA says, “Astonished to see extreme lethargy and inappropriate action by Union Health Ministry.” They overconfidently sacrificed people’s wealth, health and lives to ruthlessly forward their agenda. The Supreme Court mercifully refused the Centre’s bid to restrict free speech on social media and reporting. Unfettered social media is playing a big role in saving citizens whilst most netas are missing in action, NGOs and people like Sonu Sood try desperately to fill the void.
Post Independence Pakistan and India settled down after much bloodshed and animosity which unfortunately exist to this day. India was in turmoil with Muslims who chose to stay back in India and our enlightened leadership chose to build an India with unity in diversity. Nobody bet this would be possible or would last. In fact Winston Churchill was quoted: “Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low caliber and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles.” This of course did not happen, although some say we are fighting to make his prediction come true. Democracy was not easy, but we surprised the world by forging unity in diversity when it mattered.
Our Constitution shaped under the Chairmanship of Dr Baba Ambedkar was our anchor. Nobody can wipe out this history and perhaps that is why the current govt is working overtime to win every election to not only have a Congress but opposition muft Bharat, legitimise their importance, so they may wipe out all this progress and stamp their own saffron-coloured version of what happened unhindered. The stature and learning of Nehru, Ambedkar, President Radakrishnan, Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel and politicians of those days, the dignity of Parliament as compared to present days, I have sadly experienced. Perhaps that is why the sneering of the elite, denigrate/eliminate intellectuals, historians, artists, writers and consider western educated people prejudiced?
Before 2014 when BJP came to power at the Centre the IMF predicted we would become an economic power house. We did have plenty of problems, not the least corruption which movements like Anna Hazare brought to the fore. Modi came to power as PM, kissing the steps of Parliament before stepping into it for the first time. He promised acche din. With maximum headline grabbing showmanship in India and abroad he became like rock star. All his good work was nullified by blunders, like when he imposed decisive unprepared demonetisation, hasty implementation of GST, declaring a lockdown with four hours notice before midnight, each causing widespread terrible trauma, misery and resulting in continuously destroying the country’s economy, which witnessed a mass exodus of labour with loss of 230 million jobs and jeopardising prosperous industries throwing millions of Indians back into poverty, less scientific temper and promotion of Hindutva.
The mantra of religion, nationalism and strong leader seems to be all that matters. Modi is the star campaigner that wins BJP elections no matter what. There apparently is deep seethed variant communal virus smoldering inside India. No matter what hardship and injustice people are forced to undergo with polarisation, false information, economy in doldrums, the rising prices of petrol and essentials, inflation, violence, police brutality, building massive statues of politicos and vanity projects, destroying democratic institutions, wrong priorities, dirty politics, deaths, etc, Modi mumkin hai. BJP is not India. With the narrative of unpredictable ferocity of COVID and resultant deaths an act of God, no accountability, the buck mysteriously never stopping with the PM of India, the nation is precariously poised.
(The author is a retired naval officer, freelance writer resident in Porvorim)
