The timing of the headline of this column on 1 May is purely coincidental. It isn’t meant to be some kind of a play on words either. It is, unfortunately, the best description of the state of distress India is in. It’s calling out to all major nations for assistance, from oxygen to N-95 masks, to oximeters and vaccines. And when these arrive by the giant cargo-plane load, we have central cabinet ministers tweeting in joy. Until a few weeks back, they’d be dismissing any suggestion of the ‘new’ India seeking foreign aid with contempt.
We aren’t scoring a point. We can’t afford to. We are all in it together. It is, in fact, to be welcomed that the government is open to foreign aid in such a colossal national emergency, and is also seeking it.
The European Union and the UK have both said they are responding to requests from India. The UK’s assistance is coming from its Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and the US’ from USAID. Modi government’s ministers are hailing these as shining examples of shared values, friendship and so on. We learnt this growing up in our humble small-town homes that when your kitchen runs out of sugar, you are not ashamed of borrowing a cup-full from the neighbour. As the neighbour might in need.
Our situation is a little bit worse than a household running out of sugar. When both Imran Khan and Xi Jinping rise generously to offer assistance, you know you are in a bind. If you read between their lines, one is telling us we aren’t such a big power compared to it that we pretended to be. The other, patronisingly, is showing us our place in the region.
Especially as, at the same time, it also calls a meeting of the subcontinent’s foreign ministers to discuss mutual cooperation. Subtext is Covid assistance.
The message to our immediate neighbourhood, which India protectively seeks as its own zone of influence, is that we know how you all need help with your Covid counter-measures. Don’t count on India. At this point it is India that needs help from the world.
What China means to say is, see, India cannot even ship the vaccine doses and pharmaceuticals you ordered earlier. Of course, it was said that the meeting was open to India’s foreign minister too. That was just some unsubtle turning of the knife. That’s the reason we say, no harm seeking assistance from your friends and saying grateful thanks when your adversaries are sneering. In perfectly nice and decent diplomatic jargon.
Also Read: As Modi govt faces up to Covid disaster, BJP learns a tough truth — the virus doesn’t vote
What are we then arguing about?
Here is a proposition. While offering help to another country in need requires a big heart, it equally needs one to seek it. That level of humility cannot come from a closed mind. Because then you’d be a North Korean, Cuban or the current Venezuelan regime. And yet, if we can have such a large heart and an open mind when in a murderous quagmire, would it have hurt if we had displayed some of it earlier? Particularly when we were declaring victory over the virus and declaring ourselves the ‘Vaccine Guru’.
The prime minister told the world that India was its pharmacy when less than 1.5 per cent of our population was vaccinated. I would welcome letting Serum Institute of India (SII), our largest vaccine manufacturer, fulfil its contracted foreign orders, or even our government gifting some to friendly nations and talk about ‘Vaccine Maitri’ (friendship).
Large nations should do those things. But only if those large nations also look within and ensure they’d not be out in the world market looking for the same thing they gifted away. Do you give away a katori of sugar to your neighbour if that is all you have left?
Once again, this isn’t so much a lament about the fact that we sent away a little over 6 crore doses that would have come handy now when our vaccination centres are logging desultory, pedestrian daily numbers.
Another 6 crore, for a population like ours, would have cushioned us for a couple more weeks if a real vaccination drive, of the kind India needs right now, begins. But, the fact that we kept sending these away while not placing orders with our two brilliant domestic companies to scale up production and keep stockpiling for domestic needs, underlines terrible over-confidence.
We know that placing these orders in advance would need faster price negotiations, maybe that margin price of Rs 150 or about $2, when the UN was apparently paying $3, was seen to be a big political win. Also, an order of the necessary volumes would have required payment of sizeable advances and run the risk of audit trouble later. Those are things bureaucracies worry about. Not a leader who came to power on the promise of cutting through these.
What we have right now is a self-created perfect storm. We have this algebraically confusing differential pricing where the Centre pays one price and the states another. I’d have no argument with what price the private sector charges or pays as long as enough doses are available with the government.
Second, there is the age-group based policy and pricing confusion and distinction. Third, the Centre has had to finally pay the sizeable advances the two manufacturers had asked for much earlier. If only this decision was taken in time. And, finally, after all this, there aren’t enough doses. While the programme gets opened to all adult age groups this May Day, most states won’t have enough to provide their share for the doses.
How perfectly does it echo the familiar old story of the man in a village caught stealing onions? He was held guilty by the panchayat and given a choice of eating a hundred onions or shoe-beatings. He chose the onions first, gave up after ten, the shoe-beatings next, quit after ten, went back to onions, and so on until he ended up having both.
Also Read: There’s a need to hold up a mirror to Modi govt on Covid management, and this is the picture
Trickle-down economics never worked, President Joe Biden said in his address to the joint session of Congress earlier this week. He also tweeted that economics would now grow bottom up and middle out. There will be many sharp, and smart voices countering it, with equally sound intellectual arguments. It’s an eternal debate in political economies.
But one area where the trickle-down effect can’t be contested is leadership. Leadership trickles top down. And the more successful the leader, stronger this downpour. Triumphalism, premature declaration of victory goes straight into the heads of the teams also.
That’s why nobody checks if you have enough vaccines, oxygen, remdesivir, even paracetamol in store or not. Because there isn’t one major country in the world where the virus hasn’t returned with a second wave. Everybody celebrates victory, and refuses to see the signs of trouble as they emerge.
Delhi’s test positivity rates didn’t go from a ‘goodbye Covid’ 0.23 per cent to 32 per cent overnight. This kept growing over four weeks until it exploded. Nobody woke up. The top leadership was busy winning elections and dissing federal counterparts just when India needed unity and consolidation. The headiness trickled down.
Not even the explosion in Kerala and Maharashtra woke anybody up. It was seen as a problem of two distant states. If we were hoping that our state boundaries will protect us from a virus that treats the oceans with contempt, we were setting ourselves up for slaughter. And, bringing India back to a crisis where it needs foreign aid after four decades.
Of course, that still doesn’t mean our triumphalism has subsided yet. If it were so, we won’t embarrass ourselves again by using our top diplomats to complain about foreign media coverage of the gravity of this crisis, what brought us here, while we seek and accept help in the same crisis, from the same countries.
Also Read: Modi’s India loves global praise, but turns angry Vishwaguru at slightest criticism
All current situation,(all would agree unanimously) is created by the govt.,who freely indulged carelessly in Election campaign & horseracing in the greed of power & seeking personal glory by vendetta on people criticizing them.There are multiple veiled scams in financial ,social,economical comfortably & conveniently committed by the party to deprive the nation from necessary health care system ( atleast post- 1st covid wave) by spending multi crore exchequer ‘s hard money on non priority projects…only to boost their image.It is very unfortunate that still voters has not learn any lesson from current situation for which the party & govt.not only responsible but..also heavily Accountable to the nation..in particular..
When India offered help to US, Italy , UK etc they were not shameful. These journalist just look opportunity to criticise Modi.
Has Sekhar Gupta ever used his columns to ask his followers to wear mask and maintain social distancing.
Has Sekhar Gupta ever questioned on the preparedness for second wave. A good journalist has to be ahead of time. When he will write on his failure.
Article lacks holistic understanding. Ill timed criticism.
This guy can be a great stand up comedian.
True it is ! India is at its worst condition which would be never before if this government stays more.
I don’t agree that India should not had shared vaccine with the world and used it for its own people. India is pharmacy of the world and had India showed the selfishness it would had affected the Indian pharmaceutical business for ever.
We get the rulers that we deserve.One look at the comments section tells us why we only deserve incompetent bigots to be our ministers.We will continue to wallow in darkness and not all the fire raging in all the funeral pyres across the country is enough to remove the darkness in our minds and see the obvious truth-We have been had for a ride for seven years.When all this Prime minister is interested in is image building and PR and everything is done only with the next election in mind, however inconsequential, this was bound to happen at some point or the other.If it was not corona virus, make no mistake, something else would have happened eventually landing the country in trouble.Charlatans get shown up for who they are. eventually. India is probably the only country in the world whose Covid strategies (if there were any)were getting formulated with zero input from scientists .It was all based on the whims and gut feeling of the supreme leader.
Serum Institute took all the risk and got a license from Oxford and Astrazeneca for making their vaccine and mass produced millions of doses even before knowing whether it was ever going to work and as soon as the trial results were out and the vaccine was shown to work, supreme leader decided to use it for his PR and image building around the world ,rather than use it for the primary purpose of protecting the country’s citizens.The massive scramble that was on between countries to secure vaccines for their populations, the EU-Aztra Zeneca vaccine row all should’ve been adequate warning for any discerning leader.But ,not for our narcissistic, image loving PM and his bigoted cronies. We fully deserve what we are getting as a country.
I was just going through the comments people before me have left. Around 3/4th of the people are negative towards the article. They are defending some fictional honour of a megalomaniac leader who has time and again shown his incompetence to run the Government.
Assuming that this is not the famous troll army of our own govenment – if people still think Modi is not responsible for this catastrophe, then I say YOU DESERVE THIIS. You chose this, you and your family members deserve to DIE on the streets begging for oxygen, and medicines. If this is the mindlessness you have then you deserve what is happening to and around you!
Ofcourse PM Modi wasn’t prepared for it,but none of the countries in this world are , irrespective how much developed they are.
We need to account that we have a population of 1.3 billion and our health care system will take ages to support such volume ,we can’t compare our crisis management with the countries like New Zealand which has a population of 49 Lakhs.
Then again our political mindsets have become so polar that even the so called intellectuals ,flag beareres of truth journalists have forgotten the basic notion that with the single word which they will utter publicly will be believed by some quantity of masses if not all and because of this fact they should feel some sense of responsibility and avoid any propaganda or false narratives.
With so much money behind every social and political driveforce we need accept that this is how it is going to be form now on ,nothing was,nothing is and nothing will be in black and white ,but grey is the color for each and all ,its upto you to decide if which shade of grey is lighter !!
Your opinion is hard hitting fact which stares at the face of
al the governments across all spectrum of ruling class be it state govt or central govt. Ex president of US used to say “” buck stops here ” today ironically even central govt and state are passing the buck. People are losing their loved ones amidst this politics. Responsibility for this mayhem should be fixed on those who possess extraordinary power but failed in protecting lives citizens.I would urge citizens of country not to be blind supporters of any political parties be it congress or bjp or any other political outfits.issues based support which matters walfare of the people is need of hour before voting to elect public representatives.
I feel like puking reading the comments, you guys have lost your sanity. Had it been anyother country, we know whose head will roll. Keep dreaming about acche din, because ye jo din hum dekh rahen hai iska kaaran andhbhakts hai.
Pls stop this trash “the misprint” tabloid. You talk only trash about BJP government. You guys should be sent behind bars. Thankfully our law and order is not that strong. Wind up your operations and leave this land before you all get trashed and thrashed.
Actually what does this article wanna prove and how it is timed, just a simple question to Mr Gupta ” what’s your contribution in this pandemic” only criticism.
We are yet tot fail, but articles published by such anti country man will make us fail.
“Kuch Accha na bole sako, tho atleast buro mat bolo”, and one more thing Shekar ji Apne Tikka liya hai ya Nahi????? Apka sawal may apka jawab Hoga…
We are desperate and in real mess so far covid crisis is concerned. We should have stock piled oxygen Ramedisivir and other medicines anticipating 2nd wave .
This is a storm that is a fact.
All the modi bashing is fine, but I doubt whether this time really only modi is at wheel. He was at wheel last time and did excellent. Then chores of cooperative federalism, and how Health is a state subject and center other than epidemic control act no locus standi on control of the ship. When first wave subsides control was handed back to the “STATES” what they did with it is nothing but Truimphalism on Modi’s success and politics in each and every aspect of handling of pandemic.
Let me know how States, Courts, and Politicians will react if he take back the control of the ship.
Lastly the picture on the article don’t you think CMs of major Covid striken states should also make the cut it is every bit there failure as well.
I saw some people here blaming SG about talking after the fact but it is far from fact. Numerous CTC were done where he rung the bells about low Covid testing and highest positivity rate in Maharashtra, Kerala MP when Central teams were deployed from time to time but it was seen as tool of state shaming by opposition although these included BJP and Non BJP ruled states.
SG you like politics, but don’t you think more than anything politics has failed people in this crisis?
May god bless us, May god bless India.
We gotta blame ourselves. We all are contributing to the crisis by not taking precautions. This Modi bashing continues irrespective of the situation, centre or statye controlled. They all just need an excuse.
Negative reporting or pinpointing shortcomings is very easy .SG article lacks in respect of 1. Covid having international ramification and how other countries have dealt it, and how successful other countries were w.r.t controlling second wave of covid 2. It was without any concrete suggestions with regard controlling the second wave. 3. How third world countries having spent bare minimum resources as a percentage of GDP on medical infrastructure since independence could have thought of alternative ways to control the covid. 4. What role communities, judiciary, state /central legislative and state/ central executives could have played in a better way.
You urban naxals in the print always tried to spread negativity. Do not worry May day will come again in 2024.
It is leader who sold jumlas of achhe din have to take blame and first provide relief to all patients. Then give Bhushan.
Shekhar : Your reporting is normally very balanced. However I find of late your facts are quite mixed up and you are projecting your hallucinations as news ! I was very impressed 3 episodes ago when you mentioned that an announcement of the Army managing this huge logistics exercise was imminent as this gave hope and balm that we will see normalcy return to this otherwise intensely incompetent and political blame-game, scoring brownie points and shoddy display of apathy etc which has done nothing to bolster the confidence of the hapless citizens of Delhi who are locked indoors and silently praying that they should never need a RTPCR test or god forbid a hospital spell. Please research your facts/opinions before putting them out. Regards.
Remember, India also gave other countries vaccine, medicines when they were in distress. I don’t think anybody is saying we are atmanirbhar in everything. The PM also said we need to become atmanirbhar, he didn’t say the other. I think by mentioning the tweets of ministers you are tweaking the message of PM to justify your Mayday title.
Any views about rallies by Amit Shah and Modi in Bengal, when they were expected to be in capitals and make plans to tackle COVID situation.
On exam day, you go to exam hall and nowhere else
Pure propaganda and complete tutty
Says a pathetic IT cell poster trying to earn his living on message boards.
Basically the mind set of us Indian people have led to this to really be frank. Resources everyone knows the state, preparedness on govt front when lessons learnt issues of past pandemic were in news govt should have worked on it. And us it was a alarm bell to be more alert with precautions. But our over confidence and lack of knowledge to learn from past pandemics to make everyone aware failed. Everyone failed in every field in awareness and preparedness. Pointing fingers at each other it has not only become habit but a culture instead of projecting solutions so that it will help not only each and everyone but overall Govt and India
Wow another pathetic post. I don’t know why these are getting in Google news feed.
Idiot it’s not propaganda. 1 year of covid experience , 1 year of time still government did no preparation to counter this .now they are just busy in elections . All resources are available only In news . On ground people are dieing in mass. Up cm idiot is in his on dreams . Achhe din yahi Hai I ke
Everybody knew the 2nd wave of Covid-19 is coming. Not preparing for the same is really foolisness. It is also sure more waves will come. We musy learn & be prepare for the same
Right now it’s a war. So whether it’s Shekhar Gupta or any Indian,or any over clever politician for the sake of our mother let’s all come together.
We have our hero’s in our Industrialists. One such although he was not favourite, is Mr Mukesh Ambani, so also many others. The Doctors, the nurses,and most of India.
This uncalled for article, when I had held Mr Shekar Gupta in esteem has in my eyes and many others brought him to a common bogey man. Now is not the time to be cynical and sarky and analytical – leave it to the experts the analytical part. If you have the courage of your convictions, do all this later when things normalise. A simple apology because no man is God, is ok if you are human enough.
We as a Nation must all come together.
A lone man who may not be sleeping at all is fighting for all of us, so all of us pitch in this War in which ever way we can. A prayer for all, irrespective of political orientation please ensure the Captain is not let down and may more deputies emerge even if they are from other parties.
Jai Hind
Bhai modi could be hero only in comics but in real life he is and uneducated illitrate fool, even he he is not capable of being a sarpanch how cloud a country like india make him a PM .
I really hope he slept properly. A sleep deprived person is likely to take lots of very dangerous decisions as we have seen in the past seven years.
Well said. I concur. Blaming and pin pointing is an easy game. No nation can be our comparison as we outweigh their population. IT is new wave with new challenges, and stand with the government to do the needful rather than stabbing from back.
Be Indian first, support and do what you could too enhance the situation.
Don’t speak false news and panic the public. Share useful information that could help the next and affected.
Jai Hind!
A baseless, one sided and nonsense article
Sure .Lets all sing Bhajans, may be that is what will prevent COVID..
Khoon nahi khaul raha kya neta logo ke attitude ko dekhkar
Kisi ne bola k we made a mistake. Everyone is justifying and putting blame on others. When u claim short sighted victory, u shd have the guts to also admit ur mistakes
Very Well said, Mr. Gupta. I am a fan of your articles and news clip. It is amazing to see how people still have blinders on. Too bad India doesn’t have a viable opposition.
Extremely stupid article and very poorly timed.
It is gross negligence of the govt not to cater for covid second wave. Actually emergency be declared and President rule be imposed forthwith to save the manslaughter.
The problem with your writing is not that you have all the right to cricise but it is malicious and this is why you could not manage to know the Views of Govt. also from Horse’s mouth.
What are u saying man..Has any neta from any state, centre came forward to admit that they made a mistake and are taking corrective action. And do u really expect Any Indian politician to talk sense. What do u do when u make a mistake in your professional job. You admit the mistake and take corrective action
Do u think BJP will have guts to say that we were wrong