AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria on Saturday the 17th April said that lack of Covid-appropriate behaviour and mutation of the virus are the two key reasons behind the rapid spread of corona virus infections in India. The lay people do not understand mutations of the virus or its dynamics. Even if they understood, there is hardly anything they can do about it. However, inappropriate behaviour is understood by everyone for an illustrative guide to covid appropriate behaviour must be available on everyone’s mobile. One may fine the individuals for violating the norms. Who fines when the arbiters themselves willingly violate the norms? “Fiddling while Rome burns” is an accusation that has been levelled at many politicians with varying degrees of fairness. It defines Nero the Roman emperor, who did everything for the people’s love, but went down in history as an arsonist. Doesn’t the story of the ‘Great Fire’ of Rome or our unfolding Covid story fit this pattern? When Rome was up in flames, in 64 CE, Nero chose to build a grand palace, the Golden House. People even rumoured that the emperor himself must have ordered the city to be set on fire.
History of Rome, has it that while the whole population was in a state of shock, some were leaping into the flames. Nero However, from the palace roof top, assumed the lyre-player’s garb, and played out ‘Capture of Troy’, which the enemies of the spectators believed, was ‘Capture of Rome’. Are there Nero’s amongst us? Wherever we turn, we seem to be seeing powerful men and women itching to hit the strings as soon as something or other goes up in flames.
The Active cases are mounting. So are the deaths. There are shortages everywhere, be it vaccines, hospital beds, ventilators, oxygen cylinders, burial space or pyre space, you name it and there are shortages. Never in the history of the land, have we seen such pathetic state of our hospitals as we are now seeing. The government hospitals being what they are, even the private hospitals are found wanting. The healthcare has been pushed back as never before. Almost 3 lakh cases and 2000 deaths reported every day may look small, if the prediction of 5 lakh cases and four to five thousand deaths a day is to be believed. It is extremely distressing to see every single day at least two deaths and five looking for a Covid bed received on WhatsApp. Still, there are several who are having a dream recovery from the nightmare of their illness, all thanks to the wonderful doctors who are changing people’s destiny. What can the people expect now? Unmistakably, the human psyche is being shaken.
Come to think of it. The entire might of the government be it the Centre or the State, is in the poll bound States, as if the very survival is dependent on winning, at a time when the pandemic is raging. The economy is stuttering. Migrant workers leaving station is once again becoming the norm. No State is in lockdown but everything is shut. There is all round distress. Are governments not responsible to their people? What is the role of the journalists both decorated and those waiting in line to be decorated? The only news that makes rounds 24×7 on every channel is the most acerbic diatribe of leaders in Bengal or Assam or the other States. The Debates only centre round, who ordered firing that killed five or who leaked tapes or who tapped phones, or who triggered riots or when and how Didi would meet her nemesis or when and how the Centre could be taught a lesson. What ‘Dharma’ is this that we are now following? Kumbh Mela, one of the most important Hindu celebrations, in Haridwar in Uttarakhand was a disaster waiting to happen. Similar was with Ramazan crowds. Everyone worth the administration in the government knew that there would be massive crowds in millions congregating to offer prayers. The fleeting visuals on the TV screens only prove the point. It took a most unfortunate death of a seer for the second largest ‘Akhada’ to withdraw from any further participation. Could the administrations not have planned for this eventuality, not by bragging on the precautions taken this time round, but by completely calling off those events?
As if this was not enough, a great capital, both financial and human has been invested in seeing that the election machine is kept running. The massive rallies that can give any leader a hormonal kick even in normal times, were all pointers to equally massive disasters that were waiting to happen. Social distancing was a mockery on public display. Did the powers that be, think that Covid would not make a foray in such large gatherings or that it would also be as timid as the people cheering the leaders in the political ‘akhadas’ on the streets? Can even the most uneducated say that these election rallies in the four States and the Union territory will not add to the Covid mayhem? Will the politicians without an exception own up the potential health emergency that they have so willingly and wittingly created? Even as the Virus was spreading with an eerie agenda of its own, saner voices were seeking to club the remaining part of the elections spread as it were, over the next fortnight, but no one paid heed. Should the political parties not heed their own inner voice and call of public rallies and substitute the same with virtual rallies? Every one of us is working online from home. Our children are learning online. Our teachers are teaching online. It is not as if all these are attributes that we were born with. Is it way too much to ask our Honourable Courts to intervene on a PIL and render all rallies virtual?
Yes, the Governments are doing their bit and expect the people to follow suit. People too must support all initiatives of the governments. But people being people, will only follow their masters. The masters must set the benchmarks. “Fiddling while Rome burns”, cannot be the norm or else the visuals that fill our drawing rooms can be even more eerie. Can we afford to see a whole ‘covidharmonic’ not ‘philharmonic’ orchestra played out there while the people bear the brunt?