People are on a life and death roll as coronavirus is turning the citizens of the country into COVID-19 patients and this time the death toll is raising alarm bells whilst disrobing the good, bad and ugly of different Chief Ministers of the country. As COVID -19 is playing fire with Indians, in various forms, the country’s leadership stands exposed internationally and in the battle internally – between States governed by non-BJP govts and BJP – it is the former that are proving to be leaders with their hands on the pulse of the electorate and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal could well be the one feeling the souls of his people.
New Delhi, is therefore the standpoint that attracts people from all over. Delhi was hit hard by shortage of oxygen and medical infrastructure was getting overwhelmed. The number of positive cases and deahts kept spiking. Delhi was running out of beds with ventilators and oxygen. The AAP govt claimed that the Centre was not seeing the storm coming and even if it did, it pretended to look elsewhere. Deaths kept mounting with oxygen shortage and in these circumstances Kejriwal broadcasted his plea with the country’s Prime Minister, to the world which had its effects. It did not demean the PM. Instead, it got him to act; to take notice that Indians were dying and that the world was watching this spectacle. The CM went a step further by ordering oxygen for his citizens from foreign countries thus underlining his belief that nothing is impossible. The resolve of the AAP govt to mitigate the problems faced by its people, can be laced with many flavours. With lack of oxygen turning to be the biggest bottleneck, the Kejriwal govt started nursing it first. Permission was granted to establish 44 oxygen plants. The govt got France to throw in their technology with 21 ready to use oxygen plants and imported 18 oxygen tankers from Bangkok. An oxygen war room was set up to monitor the supply, to see that its citizen would not feel “murdered” because of the lack of oxygen.
Lack of oxygen was one thorn in the fight against COVID-19; lack of infrastructure was the other and this translated in terms of lack of beds and ICU beds. Realising the spike in positive cases, the AAP administration ramped up beds from 6,000 to 20,000 in two weeks and built 1,200 ICU beds in the same period.
Lack of medical oxygen, lack of beds and lack of Remdesivir has led to a boom in demand for these essentials needed to fight COVID -19 in the black market, which was not allowed to freely operate in New Delhi with the Kejriwal govt taking direct control over the procurement and distribution. The Kejriwal government has not only stepped out to help the sick but also those who helped the government in the fight against the virus with the kin of deceased corona warriors being given Rs 1 crore ex-gratia payment.
There is no doubt that this pandemic has brought out the best and exposed the worst of administrations and AAP’s CM Kejriwal, without a kernel of doubt, falls in the former. The question that begs an answer is who will go the extra mile in Goa?
