Coronavirus: A time to unite and heal

The truism that global problems are ideally addressed by global solutions is applicable equally, if not more. Even if there is no unity in thought or ideologies, it is indisputable collective action can combat national emergencies.

India, today, faces like the rest of the globe an unprecedented danger cum emergency with the onset of coronavirus. That this virus has affected lakhs of people all over the globe and caused over numerous fatalities with no signs of abating, calls for both global cooperations.

Statistics on the spread of the disease and observations and actions by the Indian government and other medical institutions clearly point out that the numbers of those affected in the region and country is gradually and alarmingly rising. It was indeed a good initiative by India to get the SAARC nations together to synergise the fraternity to pool their resources and energies to combat this virus.

Indian PM Narendra Modi’s announcement to allocate 10 million dollars for the SAARC fund to fight this deadly disease is a step in the right direction and has been welcomed by all. The Pakistan PM intentionally not participating in video-conference, with PM Modi coordinating the effort, was rather immature.

It is equally important that within the nation, politics has reduced unity in thought, word or deed to resolve national problems, to abysmally low levels. Divisions within our polity in virtually every aspect is more the rule than the exception. Some unscrupulous politicians display a propensity to accentuate societal faultlines. Why should it be so in a nation, the largest democracy in the world?

Why should electoral politics rule the roost and macro-economic or macro-security cum strategic issues be sacrificed for transient political ends? It is perhaps opportune time for all those who love India to ponder over. That this exceptional challenge in the form of the coronavirus has arrived in more than a formidable manner should propel all political parties, especially the ruling dispensation to unite all political hues with sincerity and defeat this phenomenon. According to many analysts, the pandemic appears to be far more hazardous, in every sense of the word, than all the wars the world has fought.

Though the Union Health Minister and the Centre including its institutions like the Indian Council of Medical Research, various AIIMS, governmental and civil hospitals and state governments have undertaken many steps, it will be appropriate for the PM to get heads of political parties, of our large medical institutions and large hospitals together and announce a National Action Plan incorporating the views and recommendations of these political parties and other stakeholders.

To avoid physical and close contact this can be done by video conferencing which should be in camera for useful interactions shorn of publicity. For the time being, divisive communal politics and petty politicking can be kept in cold storage as their total elimination appears impossible currently. Historically, this great nation’s diversity is also its strength and it has amply demonstrated its steely unity in the past whenever national emergencies of various kinds have arisen. As the problem to contain the spread of the virus among our huge population is indeed humungous, there appears a lack of coordination among certain state governments. Lakhs of migrants are now marching back to their native states from the northern states to Bihar, MP, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and UP. The management of this migration is of monumental proportions.

This is no time to apportion blame on each other but the Centre and the state governments have to synergize their efforts and resources. In addition, strict measures to prevent the already spreading epidemic have to be enforced by all stakeholders. Our medical services require all the gratitude and support of the nation for their dedicated and courageous endeavours. Importantly, the services of the Indian Armed forces with their matchless high standards of professionalism and dedication to the nation should be utilized to the extent possible in combating the coronavirus.

Let posterity and history recall in the future, that when this monumental tragedy had struck India in early February and March 2020, India’s 130 crores people rose as one, and by synergetic endeavour set an example to the entire world.n Let India show the way.