Reimagining India
I write this mostly to centre myself amidst the raging pandemic in India.
For those outside India and reading this, the numbers published are grossly underreported. If someone like me, totally unrelated to the medical profession, has been dealing with requests to organise hospital beds, Remdesivir, oxygen, etc. on a daily basis, one can only imagine what healthcare professionals are dealing with. I count myself lucky to not yet be asked to organise cremation space, unlike some friends and colleagues. In the meanwhile, people are being arrested for trying to peddle fire extinguishers in the name of oxygen cylinders. Yet others are running scams demanding huge advances for oxygen, without delivering anything. An acquaintance paid INR 320,000 (around USD 4350) for six doses of Remdisivir on the black market, to save a family member. The legal price is supposed to be INR 899 (around USD 12) for 100 mg, as regulated on 17 Apr 2021.
This is not a collapse of our healthcare system. If anything, the country survives owing to the healthcare professionals and citizen volunteers going way above and beyond the call of duty to save lives.
It is a moral and ethical collapse. It is a collapse we engineered (and continue to intensify) with our collective choices based on convenience and reactivity. Our government chose to go through with several state elections, the Kumbh mela (a religious gathering of millions) and the Central Vista Redevelopment Project (building fancy new houses for the powers that be), even as we are begging for foreign aid to deal with the pandemic. This was a government that got re-elected in spite of all the warning signs that were obvious in terms of their intentions. And now we conveniently have hashtags trending that demand resignations of the trio that seem to represent the loudest voices of our collective consciousness.
I wish we take a moment to pause, to gather ourselves, challenging as it may be, before reacting. It is easy to demand resignations and feel momentarily jubilant if they come through. But all we are doing in the process is catering to our egos that demand immediate gratification. Even if the resignations come through, we have no opposition in Parliament at the moment. The pandemic has revealed several thousands of amazing grassroot level leaders who have owned up their responsibility as citizens and have done immense work in mobilising communities and resources. However, they are still busy dealing with the pandemic and have no time to organise themselves politically. We cannot afford to go into forced national elections in a country of 1.3 billion people with the Covid situation being what it is (at least for the next few months). It is very likely we will see a surge of cases in the coming weeks with people returning to various states from the Kumbh mela (for example, Madhya Pradesh in central India has reported 99% of the returnees have tested positive). And even as the state election results have been a relative sigh of relief, it is important to note that we were primarily voting for the lesser evil.
The current situation is a clarion call for conscious citizenship. If we do not recognise now that we cannot afford to be apolitical, we will be signing the death warrant of a dream that was India. Being political is not about being a politician (though we certainly need more conscious politicians on the scene). It is to engage actively in our role as citizens. If our aspiration is towards democracy (and that is a distant ideal for now), we need to understand that duties come before rights. For now, our duty calls us to be responsible for our own health and that of our communities. Conveniently vacationing to escape lockdowns is not a privilege to exercise right now. We need to stay home as far as we can afford. Mask up. Avoid seeking hospital beds unless absolutely advised to do so by doctors. Stop hoarding oxygen out of fear. If you can afford to extend support for Covid relief, make the effort to vet local organizers and check what they need: your money, time, networks, etc.
And then in the long run, before our next general elections, reengage as citizens. Let’s assess our political choices. Get over our fear-based biases that massage a certain identity. Reconnect with the human beings that we are. Engage politically ourselves or with the local candidates we would like to support not for their party affiliations or religious beliefs, but for their intent and impact towards building a collective future that works for all. This will entail honest dialogue with oneself, and perhaps with others. It may not be easy. But it will lead us into a more authentic expression of ourselves.
The trauma of what is happening in India will take years to heal. For now, we can only fight the fire. But we also need to observe ourselves starkly in the process, and allow today to reveal what we need to be tomorrow. May the dreams of our ancestors guide our way.
#RukminiIyer #India
