Mankind is passing through a very difficult phase due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
It has been perhaps the toughest challenge for humankind since World-War-II. It
has already been more than a year when the virus was first reported in China and
since then has spread like a wildfire to all the five continents of the world.
The problems and challenges thrown up by the pandemic are unprecedented.
Initial reports indicated that the developing countries like India with high
population density would bear the major brunt of the Corona pandemic
considering factors like weak health and medical infrastructure and other factors
like poor-hygiene, poverty and lack of resources to deal with this crisis.
The western media of course was very vocal in cautioning against the spread of
the virus in India and was skeptical regarding steps taken by the NDA government
to contain the virus. They even called India’s crisis and response to
the pandemic as a humanitarian-disaster. They were even suggesting doom’s day
for India.. Some critics went to the extent of undermining the government’s
response by alleging that the number of affected persons was not being disclosed
by the government.
The entire exercise of the Centre to prevent the spread of the virus as well as to
deliver the key health infrastructure like medicines, ventilators, PPE kits etc; was
under cloud. Not only India’s health care infrastructure was questioned but even
the well-timed and well- executed lockdown was doubted since migrant workers
and other sections of the society were hit hard. The world was observing with
suspicion and curiosity how the second most populous country of the world
would survive this pandemic.
It was indeed a daunting task for the government to fight the negative publicity
and the challenge that pandemic had posed. The situation was war-like in which
the countrymen and the world had to fight against an invisible enemy. It needed
effective, tough and visionary leadership which could take decisions to save the
countrymen from the clutches of this fatal pandemic. It also needed proactive
steps and focused approach on the part of the nation instead of just relying on
the systemic-methods and knee-jerk reactions. It also needed instilling a feeling of
faith in the nation that together we could overcome this crisis. At operational
level, countering Corona needed three pronged strategy; awareness, prevention
and curative steps in case the virus affected our countrymen on a large scale.
How the nation has sailed through the unprecedented crisis under the leadership
of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a history in the making. How India
successfully fought this challenge and emerged with flying colours would surely
be part of the syllabus of the top management schools like Oxford, Howard,
Stanford in future. The nation has almost passed the storm of corona in the
stewardship of the Karmyogi Prime Minister.
Right from the beginning, the government was so pro-active that even before the
very first case of corona-virus was reported, almost every Indian was made aware
about the preventive steps for corona through the use of phone-ringtone and
other measures. In his address to the nation, the Prime Minister went for
lockdown with the message ‘Jaan hai toh Jahan Hai’( if you have life only then you
survive). Life of the citizens was given priority over anything else. On the
economic front, a slew of measures were taken to boost the reclining economy
and also to give direct benefits to lakhs of poor labourers and needy following the
lockdown. In his faith and reliance on make-in-India, the PM not only saw modern
allopathic medicine as a way to treat the people but brought in the Ministry of
AYUSH to play the role. This ‘immunity-mantra’ well projected by the PM soon
became a buzz-word which not only created immunity in the masses but also
created awareness about ayurveda. The health infrastructure came into focus
with the maximum attention to the curative health-emergency like masks,
hospitalization, PPE-Kits, ventilators and oxygen cylinders. Every resource of the
nation was diverted to this cause. Simultaneously, the Indian scientists were
encouraged to develop a curative protocol and a vaccine.
The world is still gripping with this virus. On 26th January 2021, the USA reported
4101 deaths and the UK has reported 1631 daily deaths. Even with their highly
developed healthcare infrastructure, the western countries are unable to handle
this crisis. Foresighted steps taken then by the government are paying high
dividends. As of today, not only India is able to contain its virus-spread and bring
down daily cases from nearly one lakh in September 2020 to below 9100 per day
with active cases falling below 1,74,000. The recovery rate is nearly 97 % which is
the highest among the most affected countries.
The only effective way to save the dying humanity from the tentacles of corona is
a vaccine. One is reminded of the incident of “Lakshman-Murcha” in Ramayana,
where Lakshman fell unconscious after being badly hit by Meghnath and was in a
dire need of sanjivani (medicine) to save his life. When everything was in gloom,
Lord Hanuman despite all the challenges of time and roadblocks could find out
and deliver the herb in time to save the dying Lakshman. Credit must be given to
the team India led by Modi who encouraged Indian scientists to develop India’s
vaccine in a race against time. The India vaccine is not only safe and reliable but
very cost-effective also. India is heading for the largest vaccination drive in the
history of mankind wherein it aims to vaccinate its 1.3 billion population out of
whom 2 million people have already been vaccinated. It has already trained 2 lakh
vaccinators and 3,70,000 men-team to help with 29,000 cold storages. India is
seen as healer of the world be it export of preventive medicines like
Hydroxychloroquine or curative Remdesivir or health care equipment like PPE
kits, Ventilators etc. India is now following its ethos of Vasudev-Kutumbakam
wherein it is giving doses of made in India vaccines to other countries. India has
already gifted vaccine-doses to Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar,
Morocco, Brazil, Seychelles etc. While China is blamed as a spreader of the virus,
the world is hailing India as a healer. India has emerged as the physician of the
world and has turned out to be a pharmacy of the world which is not only nursing
its own population but the entire world.
Tarun Chugh
