By Sahil Mahajan
Former Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggesting measures to successfully combat the second wave of coronavirus that has crippled the nation is not merely a communication between the two leaders, it is a template of the mutual political cooperation in the times of the national crisis. If this is taken in this spirit, then there is a clear way to move out of the crises that has dented the image of our country and exposed tremendous weaknesses in the system. This calls for a united approach, and that is what Azad has suggested.
In these times, certain things have exposed that there is an inherent tendency among the Indian politicians to run each other down instead of addressing the problems. This time, it is not a problem of winning or losing an election, it is a much wider problem with international ramifications. Right now, India is being looked down upon as a country that is not in control of itself. Rising above the political blame game is the need of the hour.
The damage that the political battles that are being fought by the political parties and leaders in public, trading charges against one another is immense. This has been exacerbated by some of the ugly facts that have come to light – floating bodies in the river Ganga , and 24×7 burning pyres of never-ending arrival of the bodies for the final rites. The Indian image lost its moorings when the overflooded hospitals, shortage of oxygen and ventilators made it to the international headlines.
India cannot blame a foreign hand in this crisis. This crisis was brought by all of us who chose complacency over the Covid appropriate behaviour. The guard was lowered ahead of time without heeding the advice of the scientists. That is all in the past now. The nation is paying the price for the mistakes committed since October last year.
A fair analysis of what Azad has said in his letter to the Prime Minister can be done only when it is understood that who he is? Azad comes from a rural background, who has seen the real-time rural life, undergone and understood difficulties of living in remote areas, accessing education and health care . He rose in the political ranks of his party, Congress, and has travelled all across the country and abroad, that may sound very usual for a politician who has served as high-ranking minister in the Union Government, but in his case, it is something more than that. He never forgot his roots and when he became Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in 2005, an era of development with special focus on primary education, health infrastructure and road connectivity in the hitherto inaccessible areas started. That was a period of transformation for J&K.
The letter draws PM’s attention toward the crisis and the remedial measures. There are four points – availability of oxygen; availability of vaccine, re-hiring of the skilled medical and para-medical staff and increase of the field infrastructure. These are fundamentals to fight the pandemic, and perhaps are shared by many in the country. But when Mr Azad says so, he has a vast experience of being part of the government right from the early 1980’s to the very recent past, and understands the needs of the people in various parts of the country. Then, not only he is speaking or suggesting as the former health minister but also head of the task force of Congress for tackling the pandemic . The letter is a decent document of decent language in which the path to solution has been suggested. The implementation of these suggestions can deliver the country out of the morass and despair in which it is caught . This would send a message that the political class in the country is on the same page.