Apathy everywhere
Whenever I open social media or any news websites these days, all I can see is the indifference of people towards other people and society at large. I don’t mind if you go on and call me a pessimist for seeing ‘only’ negativity, but can you explain the ongoing events in our country with overflowing positivity?
India is in the midst of a second wave of coronavirus pandemic and some people are ‘choosing’ to just not care about it.
The Government of India along with Government of Uttarakhand have decided to conduct Kumbh Mela from April 1st to April 30th this year. When concerns were raised regarding the ongoing pandemic, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand reportedly said “faith is stronger than fear”. When the cases began to rise exponentially, the PM suggested to cut it short after the main shani snaan event was over where reportedly more than 2 million people took a dip in a single day.
While many people rightly pointed out the lack of outrage from government officials and media towards Kumbh compared with Tablighi Jamaat, some people cleverly tried to divert the topic saying that both the events should not have happened. Of course both of these should not have happened but what they failed to realize(or acted not to) is that one of them was a government sponsored event while the other was clearly not.
Also, at the same time, there were elections to five states in our country where leaders attracted large crowds openly floating the covid norms and restrictions issued by Election Commission of India. As the ECI stood as a silent spectator and a innocent bystander, leaders boasted about the large crowds attending their rallies. While the current government uses every opportunity to pitch its One Nation, One Election theme, I cannot understand why there have to be 8 phases of elections in West Bengal alone. After the end of the 6th phase of elections in Bengal, the ECI has finally banned election rallies and asked political parties to hold virtual rallies instead. Too little and too late ECI !
Besides the state apathy, we also find the indifference of celebrities towards the suffering of common people. As Maharashtra continues to be the covid hotspot in our country and Mumbai as its epicenter, the Maharashtra government issued guidelines imposing 144 section of the IPC and limit non essential services. From the next day onwards, movie stars started flocking airports triggering a celebrity exodos to Goa and Maldives as they perhaps thought it is the ‘perfect’ time to take a holiday as the film shootings were halted.
This February, when music icon Rihanna and young climate activist Greta Thunberg tweeted in support of ongoing farmer’s protest in India, there was a storm of tweets from cricketers alleging that our sovereignty is being compromised and we need to stand together. Back to mid April as the second wave is ravaging our country and people are gasping for oxygen cylinders, there were/are many people tweeting and amplifying the SOS calls of the relatives of admitted patients for essential vaccines like Remdesivir and oxygen cylinders. But you can’t find these cricketers tweeting about it as they are busy playing IPL and selling unnecessary crap to consumers via ads.
Coming to the general public, have some shame and stay at home unless it is an emergency. Your complacency is causing this virus to spread. Your movie stars won’t go bankrupt if you stopped watching their movies in the theatres. Your muscles can wait to get lean. Also, a small clarification, pubs and restaurants are not EMERGENCY.
Amid all this, there is a ongoing fight between the center and states for the allocation of oxygen cylinders, private pharma companies deciding different prices for the same vaccine for different distributors(Center, State and Private Hospitals), shameless profiteering by firms in the middle of the pandemic and this report which tell us that the Covishield has the highest price tag in India than any other country in the world despite Serum Institute of India (manufacturer of Covishield) being an Indian company. Interestingly, our own indigenously developed Covaxin is priced much higher than the Oxford-Aztrazenca Covishield. Another important point to be made here is, Covaxin is developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology(publicly funded government institutions). Obviously a question arises which is, who owns Covaxin? Read this amazing article in scroll.in about intellectual property rights of Covaxin .
The last couple of days have been not so easy for everyone around us. Some of us got infected while some of them lost their loved ones. So next time when you venture out to ‘hangout’ with your friends/family think twice before you set your feet out. Also, show some compassion to people around you. A small helpful gesture goes a long way.
Until then, take care and stay safe. :)
PS: I saw this article few days ago and did not know how to react. What do you think about it? Comment below.