Please spare us the fake positivity and do some real work. People are dying
Samrat
As more and more dead bodies of unidentified human beings come floating down the Ganges, and the lines of dead at crematoria persist, lengthening now in one place and then in another, there is a discernible sense of urgency animating the higher echelons of India’s Central government. Last week, the Hindustan Times reported that around 300 top officials of the central government had been put through a workshop to help them manage “perception through effectively highlighting positive stories and achievements” so that the government would be seen as “sensitive, bold, quick, responsive, hard-working etc.”
The effort is naturally not restricted to government officials and ministers. The powerful communications machineries of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the larger family of Hindu nationalist organizations of which it is a part have also been roped into the public relations exercise. Criticism in foreign media such as British newspaper The Guardian is being combated through the establishment of fake news websites, with a headline from one called Daily Guardian saying, in capital letters, “PM Modi has been working hard; don’t get trapped in the opposition barbs” being shared on social media by several Union ministers. So let it not be said that the PM and his acolytes have not been working hard. They have been making heroic efforts to manage negative perceptions surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic and its management.
These attempts at drumming up positivity are entirely in keeping with the way the pandemic has been managed from the very start. On March 13, 2020, senior officials of the ministries of health, home and civil aviation had held a press conference in Delhi to share the positive news that Covid-19 was “not a health emergency”. At that point, India was still exporting Personal Protective Equipment and masks. On March 19, the export of PPEs was finally banned. By then the disease had spread to 160 countries.
As cases in India began to rise, healthcare workers in various parts of the country were forced to improvise PPEs out of raincoats and motorcycle helmets. The medical staff who complained about this received a “harsh backlash” according to an open letter written in April 2020 by the Resident Doctors’ Association of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. By this time, India was already importing PPEs and masks from China, after having first exported them there.
That was not what most people heard. They heard that India had turned crisis into opportunity, going from zero to producing 2 lakh PPE kits a day.
The push for positivity included the thali-banging that many believed would destroy the coronavirus through its vibrations, the attempts to defeat the “mere flu” with chyawanprash and cow urine parties, and a general myth that Indians had superior immunity compared to populations in Europe and North America that were then bearing the brunt of Covid. This attitude of positivity continued with the false notion that the disastrous 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed in March 2020 had helped India successfully beat the pandemic.
It led to the present situation, where it has become commonplace to type out one or two condolence messages a day. Meanwhile, Europe and North America have beaten back the virus, at least for now. People are going to malls, restaurant, parks and beaches. Cinemas are starting to reopen.
Even when the pandemic there was at its worst, human life rarely became as valueless as it has here.
Our country now has thousands dying of Covid daily. No one really knows how many. People, rich and poor alike, are dying without proper treatment. Of course, India as a country will endure; Covid kills only a little more than one percent of those who get the disease. The recovery rate is naturally high. However, India’s population is close to 1400 million. Do the math. Even if herd immunity kicks in after the virus has ripped through 70 percent of the population, estimated casualties would be around 10 million. That is ten times the highest estimate for Partition casualties.
Cheerleading is not going to save us from this catastrophe. Medical facilities, oxygen and vaccines will. Nor is there any immediate use of further theories on whether the virus originated in a lab or in nature. Either way, our priority now should be saving lives. Irrespective of whether it originated in a lab or in nature, Covid was first detected in 2019, and the mutant now wreaking havoc in India was first detected circa October 2020 in Maharashtra. What was the national response to it from then until last month? Eight-phase polls, cricket matches and the Kumbh Mela?
Please spare us the fake positivity. Too many people are dead. At the rate at which vaccination is progressing, as a simple calculation by author Chetan Bhagat showed, it will take more than three years for India to get its population vaccinated. We know that the virus mutates constantly by itself, and there have been other mutants before — in U.K., South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil, Denmark and USA. The longer the virus is around and the bigger the population in which spreads, the greater the chances of new mutants developing.
We simply cannot afford to have it ripping through our population for the next three years. What we are facing is a reality problem, not a perception problem. The promises of sufficient vaccines for all by the end of the year are very positive, but it is not positive words that will bring genuine positivity in people’s lives — an end to the pandemic should suffice. Clown tricks will not be required to spread positivity when Covid ends.
The writer is an author and journalist
