Two spectres: a worrying second surge amidst a successful vaccination drive, and another virus against which Indian society seems to have no antibodies: the politics of religion.
Wading into the large and impatient crowd jostling to get past security at Delhi’s domestic airport terminal last week was akin to being briefly adrift on a sea of helplessness. It was early in the morning and we all were bleary-eyed. But none missed the red flag—of an impending disaster that we were inviting with our collective apathy and slackness.
And here it is upon us. A year after we went into nationwide lockdown to keep at bay the marauding COVID-19 pandemic, we find ourselves back at square one amid a second surge that now threatens to surpass the first one. Following a respite that proved temporary, we are witnessing a worrisome uptick in the pandemic, with positive cases rocketing past 60,000 every day. Even daily deaths are spiraling, crossing 250 as against below 100 for most of February.
ALSO READ: A Jab To Block An Uppercut
That we have lost the plot somewhere is not surprising, as the unruly sight at the Delhi airport suggested. We have let our guards down, alongside our inexplicable reluctance to mask up. A recent study in Maharashtra puts reluctance to wear mask at 55 per cent. Empirically, it would in fact be much higher in the north Bengal town I travelled to where almost everyone I met mingled freely without much of Covid precautions. No wonder, Covid is once again having a threatening run across the country.
Ironically, the surge comes at a time India has emerged as a beacon of hope for other nations, exporting vaccines in large quantities to boost the global fight against the pandemic, while vaccinating millions internally. For records sake, what we have achieved is appreciable: millions have been inoculated so far and India is behind only the United States and China in terms of total number of vaccinations. However, our best falls short of what is needed, and more needs to be done.
ALSO READ: Shots Across The Seas
This issue of Outlook seeks to answer that critical question: Can we stop the surge and more importantly, what we should be required to do to make that happen? A complex problem such as Covid has no easy solution, but my team of reporters who worked on the story and spoke to a whole lot of experts tell me that ramping up the vaccination drive is critical. Also, new vaccines need to be added to the existing two approved in India—Covishield and Covaxin. The good news is that at least three additional vaccines are in advanced stages of trial in India. And we can hope to deploy newer vaccines to augment our existing drive in the not so distant future.
ALSO READ: Sell Your Best Shot
But while I still find some optimism in getting the better of Covid, it is only despair that stares at me when it comes to another scourge that currently holds us hostage—communal polarisation. Notwithstanding the alarming Covid situation, we are in the midst of crucial assembly elections, and as coronavirus cases spike, the political discourse on display has sunk to newer depths, making a mockery of the rousing slogan of Sabka Saath. The hotspot of such divisive politics is certainly Assam, where a perfume baron is raising unprecedented stink for nothing but his religious identity. As political parties attempt to exploit long-held perceptions of locals being swamped by outsiders for stoking paranoia, AIUDF’s Badruddin Ajmal and his community have been systematically “othered”.
The votes of some are being portrayed by certain leaders as a vote for Pakistan and our collective fabric is being grievously scarred. Irrespective of who wins the contests in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry, the loser invariably will be our social cohesion and idea of nationhood. Sadly, there is no ready vaccine for such a grave malaise.
Ruben Banerjee, Editor In Chief