DailyPost 1680
ELECTIONS & INDIA HAVE BOTH LOST
The capability of the elections to throw up leadership and governance mechanisms to lead us to progress and prosperity is totally suspect today. Leave aside that, even their capability to save lives through not world class healthcare but through the lowest end availability of oxygen and drugs has been ripped apart. Political parties have won elections today also, but the election itself has lost. The channel having declared itself as India’s election headquarters, decided to silence itself, of the poll counting endless programs given the sombre atmosphere in the country. India too lost as a huge part of the COVID-19 may or may not be out of these rallies, for sure this mindset has cost our lives. It propelled the country into insanity.
*Superficiality is the name of the game. Even today people are coming out to celebrate. What is the nature of leadership which the workers and party office bearers are provided with? What is the composition of the workers? What attracts them to their leaders, defines the organization. With the nature of following the political parties have, what is the percentage of professionals belonging to different fields, who can bring some value to the party. If need be, these professionals can be a readymade adjunct to any government. It can come in handy in a crisis of the present nature. Or all of them keep waiting to feed the power they have worked so hard* to achieve. The sad part is whether we accept it or not, the governments have become adjunct to political parties in power.
When the politics is defined by doles, the poor and countryside have got completely addicted to it. Then there is no need for gainful employment. The governments anyway don’t have that on offer. If there is no need for any gainful employment then where is the need for reasonable education, leave aside quality education. Under this pall of gloom celebration happens. Health has never been on their radar, the human development index ranking stands a testimony to it. The health infrastructure has been in tatters for ages, with the major chunk of it being Primary Health Centers. Even the district hospitals don’t add any glory to the governmental effort. Where has the ruling class been going for their medical treatment is the true barometer of what we have.
The bureaucracy has been an active party to this skewed development. Skills and expertise of any kind is not available, whatever might be the crisis. It is the same meetings, media briefing, twitter messages and judicial interventions. End of the day it’s the same story. The democratic life cycle ends there. There is nobody to maintain the Oxygen Supply Chain end to end. The oxygen manufacturers association who know the supply chain in and out would have done the job. It is difficult to believe that even a few thousand cryogenic containers supply chain cannot be handled to our satisfaction. There is no physical war. Govt. is devoid of professionals and does not allow the professionals to be tasked for the job.* Can’t the manufacturers of Remdesivir maintain the supply chain with the support of the Govt. How does the Drug Controller transform himself overnight? Can’t all the big private hospital chains and government ones led by AIIMS run a completely data driven NATIONAL HOSPITAL BED MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?
LET’S UNDERSTAND THAT CREATION, DELIVERY, OPERATIONS AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT ARE HIGHEST END PROFESSIONAL, EXPERTISE AND DATA DRIVEN TASKS.
Sanjay Sahay