Covid-19: Where a new India is born
Invest in health care, address inequity, stop communal politics, and let compassion prevail
Since a prolonged lockdown due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) offers an opportunity for the creative juices to flow, I may take a bit of poetic licence this week to adapt a poem of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore for a “new” India in the coronavirus times.
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high. Where a pandemic isn’t an alibi for untrammelled State power, but instead redefines the State-citizenship engagement by putting citizens first. Where rules are enforced not by fear or diktat, but by information and knowledge, where prime ministers and chief ministers work together as a collective and not as adversaries, where autocratic tendencies are replaced by democratic consensus, where domain expertise is valued more than routine cheerleaders.
Where a national lockdown is planned through greater consultation and not implemented at four hours notice. Where when a few members of Parliament wear masks and call for the House to be adjourned, the presiding officer doesn’t ask them to remove the masks. Where toppling an Opposition state government doesn’t get precedence over a health emergency.
Where the health care infrastructure is built over decades and doesn’t become a jugaad (makeshift) solution to combat an immediate crisis. Where investments in public health take precedence over investing in personal advertisement. Where government hospitals are rebuilt, instead of restoring Parliament buildings. Where quality health centres are given preference over gargantuan statues and boulevards. Where pitched battles are not fought over places of worship, but over whether a disputed land should be given for a school or a hospital.
Where doctors aren’t just acclaimed as “coronavirus warriors” in a pandemic, but are respected at all times. Where respect isn’t about lighting diyas, with taali-thaali, processions and air shows, but is really about giving our health workers better working conditions and quality personal protective equipment. Where junior doctors don’t have to agitate for higher stipends and seek police protection when they are attacked for doing their job.
Where those who suffer economic and physical dislocation aren’t treated as invisibilised migrant labour but given their due as equal citizens with equal rights. Where those who built our homes and cities are not one of “them” but truly one of “us”, deserving of social and financial security. Where those non-governmental organisations which raise their voice in solidarity with the poor and homeless are not dismissed by the top law officer as “prophets of doom” but are appreciated for being society’s conscience-keepers. Where journalists who report on the travails of displaced labour aren’t labelled as “vultures”, but hailed for showing truth to power.
Where providing basic transport services for labourers to go back to their villages doesn’t become a Centre-versus-state tug-ofwar or pit state-versus-state, but instead allows for a melting of inter-state borders. Where a Uttar Pradesh-bound train doesn’t end up in Odisha, and a railway track isn’t bloodied with the crushed bodies of fatigued fellow-citizens. Where a teenaged girl cycling 1,200 kilometres to take her injured father home isn’t celebrated as a potential Olympic medal winner, but seen as a grim reminder of the desperate poverty that breeds grit and endurance. Where social distancing is not an elite privilege, but an option available to all citizens. Where 50 people do not have to share a single toilet and a dozen people sleep in a single room even as single families can live in multi-storeyed skyscraper splendour. Where the stark inequities are reduced by a welfarist State that places a premium on providing lowcost housing for all with basic sanitation facilities. Where the slum of Dharavi is not seen as Asia’s largest, but as a reflection of the degradation of urban life that forces millions to live in squalour.
Where members of a specific community aren’t ostracised and spurious links drawn between religion and a virus only to further narrow political agendas. Where vegetable vendors aren’t boycotted because of their religious identity. Where the media doesn’t seek to sensationalise the news in the race for Television Rating Points with provocative hashtags that only spread disaffection and enmity among communities.
Where a pandemic breaks through all caste and class barriers. Where a co-operative society or resident welfare associations do not become private fiefdoms. Where domestic help aren’t stigmatised as coronavirus carriers or denied their wages and barred from the forbidding gates of a housing complex. Where the realisation dawns that this was not a virus spawned in the slums but imported by the flying class of the country. Where we remember that the affluent can Netflix and Zoom their way through a lockdown, but the poor still need to work for a daily income.
Where companies who donate generously to the PM Cares Fund don’t forget to care for those around them. Where all government relief funds are subject to higher standards of public scrutiny. Where job cuts are the exception, not the rule, and compassion overrides commerce. Where governments provide mega-stimulus packages that ensure above all else direct cash support to the most vulnerable. Where we see reform opportunity in a crisis but don’t allow the reformist zeal to descend into cronyism once again. Where reforms are designed to protect the interests of labour and not just of well-networked industry. Where we look to build a “self-reliant” India but not as an attractive slogan but as a living reality. Where our law-makers abandon the foreign accessories –— the branded watches, designer glasses, luxury cars –— that are such an intrinsic part of their lifestyle.
Into that heaven of true freedom, let my country awake!