DailyPost 1684
THE POLITICS OF LOCKDOWN
Is there a validated formula for lockdowns? Has the capability of the decision makers improved to decide on lockdowns over the last 15 / 16 months? Are lockdowns decided as a desperate act of having failed in everything else? What is the data that goes into making this decision? Do we indulge in data driven judgements with patience and perseverance? How much of our decisions deliver the desired results? If not, what are the reasons? Are these reasons looked into, while deciding a second time? Are all the medical care providers and all the associated services providers professional feedback taken as inputs? What is the nature of experts which keep guiding the government at the structured level? Does the opinion of the elected representatives add any value to this decision making?
These are few of the questions which the right-thinking individuals have been asking for more than a year now but in an intense manner for around the last two months. Ironically as it may sound, it was on 7th of April 2021, DailyPost went with the title ”Lockdown is not a bad word”, one month down the line full lockdown has been declared. The country is completely at a loss and cannot afford the procrastination governments are indulging in for no rhyme or reason. Had there been a national lockdown at the appropriate time, we would have been able to stall a large part of the mayhem. At a time of a national humanitarian crisis which the country has not witnessed in living memory, governments are in a Decision Limbo. Can it not be left to the experts to decide with precision and then the govt / the executive enforces it effectively to the minutest detail.
The writ of the state runs only till the place you have the spine to enforce. The rest of the geographical area is stateless. The request drama of enforcers is difficult to fathom out. Will we end up tomorrow requesting people to pay income tax or to follow any other law or rule in this country. Having failed in the folded hands request saga, the same is being extrapolated in Janata curfew and its variants across the country. The Allahabad High Court had given a directive a long time back. A political party is not a government and a government is not a political party. Governments are created as professional organizations, to execute and enforce, what it is mandated to. It can be mercenary, if the situation so warrants. Purpose being the welfare of the people.
THE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENTS SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN LOST TODAY.
Sanjay Sahay