COVID- 19 Second Wave in India- Does It Smell Rat?

Before putting down a single syllable here, we offer our sincere condolences to all those who have lost their loved ones to COVID-19. Next, the purpose of this note is not to undermine pain and loss of any death. All deaths are painful and irreparable. But scare mongering and creating panic are the worst one may do, that is further worst, when motivated by personal political ambitions. But politics is politics. It is the duty of citizens to use their discretion, notwithstanding difficulty to discern grain from chaff in the present day partisan media.

An old story goes that once the angel of death was passing by a village. Villagers asked him, why is he here? He replied, I am on my way to pick up from the next village. The turn of your village is tomorrow. And the next day when he returned, he found that the entire village was already dead (by the scare of death).

It is the time for speedy actions and hope. Health Workers, Good Samaritans, Charities are doing commendable job. Power to them. But without direct and indirect support of the administration they won’t be able to achieve much.

While in pain, let emotions not cloud facts. There are enough to charge our emotions for their gains. Let’s beware. We may not have any faith or respect for any opinion these days, including if any here; but ought to have faith in data. I know we are in times when we have scant regard even for data, but we have tried to use the most credible (or the least evil, if you liked to call) available to us.  Till we find better, let’s work with these. We have provided the reference data source from which we may update/ review ourselves, time to time. The data referred here is as of May 17, 2021.

 (based on) https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

How do Corona deaths sit in the broader context of deaths in India?

Here is the first shocker:

Guess how many persons died in Road Accidents in India in 2018, 2019:

2018: 151,420

2019: 151,110

(https://www.statista.com/statistics/751799/india-road-accident-deaths-by-age-of-the-victim/)

Road accident deaths surpass Corona deaths.

Also guess how many people died in India in 2018 , 2019 (due to all causes)

9.7 –  9.9 Million +

(Based on) https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/IND/india/death-rate

If anyone analyzed the causes of so many deaths in that country, year after year, from 1947, adulterated food and air pollution, due to failure of the administration, would top. Did you hear a whisper?

Past can’t be turned back. But something new and promising is happening in India. People are learning to demand accountability from politicians.

1. Accountability from Modi.
2. Accountability from all those religious leaders who asserted right to religious congregations.
3. Accountability from all those who opposed vaccination.
4. Accountability from all those who baselessly bad- mouthed Indian vaccine.
5. Accountability from all those who did not implement ‘Ayushman’ (free health insurance for the poor) in their States for their politics.

Thanks digital world, there is no dearth of records and evidence. Hope the Indian courts pick up one or two suo moto and make an example out of it. Instead of pushing everything under ‘social media is unverified’, it is the time to call out and verify. That will bring accountability to social media also.

As someone said, the prime responsibility for unhinged social media rests with USA; and for COVID-19 with China. This wind of accountability is definitely going to blow into every part of the world.

When Harshad Mehta scam in 1992 had unfolded, the then Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh had gone on record to say that it is a system failure (not specific persons’ failure, while that and all scams are person specific). Today everything is a specific person failure. Does it smell rat?

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