Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Congress and other Opposition parties had tried their level best on many occasions to showcase that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had blundered on several occasions from demonetisation, GST, triple talaq, CAA, NRC and NPR to abrogation of Article 370, Ayodhya case, farm laws and disinvestment. But the people of the nation stood behind PM Modi since his non-corrupt practices in the governance resulted in drastic reduction in India’s ranking in the Corruption Index by 2020. The Opposition knows that their attempts have failed due to a lack of sincerity and honesty in their approach against PM Modi.
Such has been the desperation among them that even at time when India is facing the Covid-19 pandemic, they seem fine with the idea of taking political benefits out of the unprecedented crisis. They are accused of going to the extent of manufacturing the “toolkit” for negative propaganda against PM Modi while he was trying to combat the pandemic. A section of the media too has fallen for such tactics, forgetting that these unprecedented times need unprecedented unity among all in the country.
Fact checking is very much essential to assess reality. We can observe the comments of a section of the media that the Modi-led government had handled the situation better in the first wave of pandemic but failed to take the precautionary measures during the second wave. But when analysed closely, these same media and Opposition had criticised every measure of the Centre during the lockdown and unlock phases in the first wave in contrary to their present statements. That means, they (opposition) are always masters to design toolkits against PM Modi and particularly those who always speak negatively about him have chosen the pandemic as the greatest opportunity for their political aims.
Everyone had projected that India would be the worst impacted country in the world due to the population density in the first wave, at that time also the Opposition was criticising the government. But, if we observe the facts, issues, and requirements pertaining to the second wave it is quite distinct from the first wave due to different strains and variants. PM Modi-led government had taken timely appropriate measures like lockdowns, containment zones, and unlock measures with the coordination of state governments. The Union government adequately cautioned the state governments from time to time after the first wave and appealed to them that they should take responsible decisions as per the conditions in the respective states since state governments were accustomed to act with the experience from the first wave.
In our federal structure Centre and state relations have been carefully drafted. Our Constitution, Articles, and Schedules have fairly defined their roles and responsibilities. But Covid-19 situation has created some confusion as the heads of the state governments like Delhi, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh are busy writing letters to PM Modi to escape from their failure and responsibilities though the Union government has been busy in maintaining the supply chain as per the requirements such as allocation of oxygen, medicines and vaccine distribution from time to time to maintain equality among the states on the basis of their needs. Initially, the second wave and different strains, thereof, created a huge unexpected demand for beds, ventilators, oxygen, medicines, doctors, other frontline warriors, vaccine production and vaccination drive. As per the information, 62,458 oxygen supported beds were available on 20 April 2020, the figure raised to 2,47,972 by 20 September 2020 and simultaneously, ICU beds and ventilators also increased from 27,360 to 66,638 and from 13,158 to 33,024, respectively during this period. Besides this, the number of oxygen-supported beds increased by 297%; ICU beds by 143%; and ventilators by 151% between 20 April and 20 September last year. It was a substantial improvement of resources under the practical constraints of a pandemic. Actually, this infrastructure was expected to provide a breather to serve in the second wave but unfortunately, these facilities were down by at least 25% at the initiation of the second wave due to the changes in attitude and mindset of people, there was a mood of relaxation as Covid cases were less. In contrast to this, a large number of Covid patients struggled to get hospital beds, oxygen, ventilators, medicines, and other infrastructure in the second wave due to a rise in positive cases like a tide that had created a huge gap between the demand for medical facilities and requirements in multifold. In this situation, almost all state governments had thrown the entire burden on PM Modi-led Union government to protect their skin and opposition parties, pseudo-intellectuals, and a section of predetermined media used the tool kits to blame Narendra Modi as a cause for the damage in the second wave. But the opposition could not answer what their governments had done when they were in power.
But, PM Modi silently concentrated on his job to get things into order. Let us ask some questions, what was our medical oxygen capacity in normal times, we used to produce 900 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen per day. Now, that figure has increased to about 9,500 metric tonnes per day to supply the life-saving gas to hospitals treating Covid patients, which means the capacity has increased by 10 times. Today, we have sufficient oxygen available on hand and the situation is under control. We know about the miserable situation of Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and other parts of the country for the first three days of the second wave due to oxygen shortage but today things are settled due to the relentless efforts of the PM Modi-led Union government. When PM Modi’s team was busy manufacturing indigenous oxygen from PSUs and private industries like Reliance, TATA etc., importing medical supplies and equipment from other countries by air, rail, and road, installing oxygen plants with PM Cares funds including one lakh portable oxygen concentrators were being ordered to procure and 500 more PSA oxygen plants developed by DRDO were being sanctioned, Rahul Gandhi’s team was busy in negative propaganda with their tool kits.
Our problems were not over with oxygen supply alone. Simultaneously, there was a scarcity of Remidesivir injections, ventilators, and other medicines. Can we think in the right direction in this scenario when the Congress, communists, and other anti-Modi forces operated their tool kits to influence the international media deliberately against the brand image of our nation just for the sake of diluting our Prime Minister’s goodwill in the international fraternity? When these anti-Modi forces joined to use the pandemic as the opportunity to tarnish his image with pre-designed tool kits, Narendra Modi maintained silence to complete his job in a cool and calm manner and provided ventilators through the PM Cares fund as well as Remidesivir and other medical kits. These negative forces should honestly answer what sort of physical and human medical infrastructure was there before 2014 and why the state governments were unable to facilitate basic medical infrastructure. How can they blame PM Modi for everything? He has faced the challenge to bring things in order though the damage is beyond everyone’s expectations. There is one more blame on PM Modi regarding vaccine production and vaccination drive. First, Rahul Gandhi parivar, anti-Modi forces, and some sections of journalists negatively propagated the efficacy of our indigenous vaccine and many of them even declared they won’t take this vaccine, which impacted the vaccination drive initially. Now, the same people are asking when will the vaccination drive be completed and how will we increase vaccine production. How can they speak about the vaccine and vaccination drive when they have doubts about the efficacy of our indigenous vaccine? Isn’t it politics around the pandemic by the anti-Modi forces? Besides this, few state governments like Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Delhi wrote letters to PM Modi for the augmentation of vaccination drive.
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh had pointed out the policy of the Union government pertaining to the 50% share of vaccine production allocated to the state governments and private hospitals for the age group of 18 to 44 years since the cost of the vial is as high as Rs 25,000 in some private hospitals. But here the question is that the state government in Andhra Pradesh is incompetent to coordinate or control the hospitals. It is not a good idea to divert their failures by writing letters to the Prime Minister to escape from their responsibility. Why did the Chief Minister not conduct any virtual meeting with the private hospitals to address this issue? Interestingly, the private hospitals in neighbouring states have been serving vaccines for Rs 12,500 per vial to the people, why can’t Jagan Mohan Reddy manage the same and not try to corner the Union government for his ineffective and inefficient administration capabilities.
As per experts’ opinion, both government and private hospitals together can complete a successful vaccination drive. Those who can afford the vaccine will choose private hospitals which reduce the stress on the government. PM Modi-led Union government has convinced Bharat Biotech to transfer the formula of Covaxin with the BSL3 standards Biotech company for the augmentation of the production. The Union Health Ministry has declared the schedules of availability of 260 crore vaccines from Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute of India, and others from August to December 2021.
Though PM Modi is moving ahead for Shrestha Bharat with reforms in his seven years of governance, the opposition is hand in glove in an international conspiracy against him for Bhrashta Bharat by using the tool kits to tarnish the image of PM Modi-led Union government for their cheap political tactics. But truth always prevails and the people of our nation know the truth.
The writer holds a degree in commerce and works as an FCA. The views expressed are personal.
