Playing “Vishwa Guru” One Moment and Citing Legal Bindings the Other- Did PM Modi’s Vaccine Drive Fall Short Due to Premature Boasting and Celebration?

What went wrong with the Vishwa Guru image of PM Modi? Learn more...

Tuesday, 18th May 2021

As India grapples with the second wave of the dreaded coronavirus pandemic, questions about how the condition so deteriorated, have arisen and while the citizens are being blamed for letting their guards down, disregarding masking up and social distancing norms, failure of the government to ramp up the healthcare system has also contributed to the present state of shambles the country is in.

The government’s complacence and premature declaration earlier this year of having “conquered” the virus should probably have been the first sound of alarm.

As White House advisor Dr Anthony Fauci said earlier this month, “The reason that India is in such dire straits now is that they had an original surge and made the incorrect assumption that they were finished with it, and what happened, they opened up prematurely and wound up having a surge right now that we are all very well aware of is extremely devastating.” He also added, “One of the important things is don't ever underestimate the situation.”

The deplorable shortage of vaccines for our own people is staring us in the face now, especially after the boastful declaration by the Prime Minister not very long ago that India is not only vaccinating her own people but exporting vaccine doses to 70 countries. He had also said with a lot of pride that we have exported more vaccines to other nations that we have used for our own citizens, implying an extreme form of self-sufficiency.

Now, as the tables have turned, BJP leaders have not lost a moment in shifting accountability claiming the bulk of the exports were done under licensing agreements and thus they were left with no other option.

Rubbing salt on the wound, a few days ago activists in Delhi were arrested for putting up posters criticizing and questioning the PM’s decision to export so much vaccine, revealing the shackles that are slowly binding the voice of democracy in the country.

However, while the country’s media has been muted, The PM Modi’s international image, so carefully built over the years, is in disarray.

The state-of-affairs is getting ghastly by the day as dead bodies are being ‘thrown’ in the river and ironically all that can be seen of the PM is only in his likeness on vaccination certificates, not to mention the Home Minister who has been conspicuously absconding ever since their reprehensible loss in West Bengal assembly polls.

Is anybody thinking about what the need of the hour is today? With the government of India singing an entirely divergent tune, it is on the rest of the elected representatives and each of the countrymen to do their bit in hauling the country and its people from this dark hour.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

NDTV