The Covid surge
Syed Mustafa Ahmad
The unprecedented increase in the number of Covid-19 cases has made it clear that there were some serious lapses that has made the present situation possible. When in September 2020, the Covid-19 curve has flattened, India began to feel that it would be soon over. In the same vein, in January 2021, our leaders at the helm began comparing the Covid-19 downfall with the victory by Indian team against Australia in Australia.
However, India acted very prematurely and at the eleventh hour, let the grand victory of containing virus during the first wave for religious rituals and election fervour. In a huff, everything was opened: shopping malls, schools, markets, election rallies, religious ceremonies, etc.
Without taking any clue from the Spanish flu and the recent second waves in many parts of the world, Indian government reacted in haste and the result is that we have more than 4,00,000 cases in a day. The Kumbh Mela and the election rallies in particular, did the most of damage. Allowing about 3 million people to assemble at a single place, without any regard for physical distancing, hygiene, masks, etc., they acted as super spreaders.
In the previous year, when the Tablighi Jama’at event engulfed the whole India, at the time of the KumbhMela, the same very voices that used to yell that it is Corona Jihad, are silent.
This paradox is understandable in this fraught situation. Ours attitude should have been to fight against the virus in whatever way we can. But the irony of fate in our part of world is that here everything is seen through religious lens.
Or sometimes, it takes caste as its base. India, being a developing country, with no health infrastructure, the first wave should have acted as a wakeup call for us, but instead learning a lesson from it, we began to count chickens before there was any chance of hatching.
Yes, when superstitions and illogical behavior reign, we can only expect that there will be shortage of beds, oxygen cylinders, hospitals, staff, etc. In this hour of grief, let us fight together against the situation and resolve that we will not allow the situation to slip out of our hands. Hope good sense prevails.
KV Network
