DailyPost 1687
LEAVE IT TO THE EXPERTS / MICRO CRISIS MANAGERS
Every crisis is not political nor can it be handled politically. Every issue is neither law and order or communal, so the strong arm of the state fails even before it is deployed. Every crisis cannot be handled by routine bureaucrats indulging in policy tweaking unconnected to an unfolding apocalypse and every crisis is not a one off show, like a tsunami or flood, it can be there to stay. We are faced with one such crisis, which none of stakeholders have ever faced and their other set of experience is not good enough, the necessary expertise and skills are desperately lacking. One would not doubt the will, because of the simple human trait that nobody wants to be a loser and that too when you control the humongous state machinery.
The catastrophe is still unfolding, no one knows the head or tail of it. No one knows if we would have further waves and how many. Social media has become our friend, philosopher and guide. This is even more comforting in the background of blank helplines and bribe and bed scams. The only way out, if we don’t want to put the country in further peril, is to fully fall back on Experts and Health Sector Epidemic Micro-Managers who can make it happen. Faith in science means faith in experts; national and international, who have through their knowledge and expertise, made tides turn. The only service the political and permanent executive can do, is to execute what they are told by the experts / expert committees.
Supreme Court has always had a fancy for Expert Committees and without a reason, they have never failed the Apex Court of the country. We saw this during the iron ore scam time, also one committee of doctors helped in the euthanasia case and now with days of wrangling between governments we have the 12-member national task force to allocate oxygen across India. Between 12 of them they would have every single information, knowledge, expertise, understanding of ecosystem and business intelligence to decide and to take it through to the last mile. If experts make mistakes, they can investigate the reason thereof and take remedial action superfast to back on rails again. They never fail lock, stock and barrel. Experts don’t run away, evade or create non-existent narratives. Trained and having practiced to perfection, they are happy to do, what they can do best and more so, if it means so much to humanity.
With Joe Biden in command, Dr. Anthony Fauci could facilitate a great turn around. What Trump did to him and the US is still very fresh on everyone’s mind. If this is the reality of Oxygen and the only medium-term solution, can it be anything different for the other parts of the already broken puzzle. If we were to have an Expert Committee tasked with Universal Vaccination, 7/8 months back at least, we would have been differently positioned today. Same applies to the Hospital Infrastructure, no one knows what exists and what doesn’t and what is the road ahead. The misery of our times; scientific bed management system for the country, with fully robust IT systems to support. When will our medical care professionals fully burn out is anybody’s guess, their wherewithal is nobody’s concern, they are left to fend for themselves. An Expert Committee to take care of human resource imperatives of the Medical Care Professionals Ecosystem. The statutory warning is that these should be executive committees with government duty bound to execute their decisions.
THE TEAM WHICH BRINGS YOU DISASTER IS NEVER THE TEAM WHICH WILL TAKE YOU OUT OF IT.
Sanjay Sahay