Social responsibility is not an Indian virtue. Last month, hundreds from the ultra-regressive Tablighi Jamaat became the largest mass infectors of COVID-19. Their leader Maulana Saad had said, "If we gather inside mosques then Allah will create peace and comfort in the world." Religion’s truant stepbrother superstition is an epidemic in India, spread by the likes of Tablighis and mofussil netas who drink cow piss as a virus antidote. Our collective schizophrenia finds nothing incongruous in skipping a peepal tree at night while chomping on a McDonald’s burger.
Governments can create a modern nation only through meritocracy, not bureaucracy. Prime Minister Modi announced the Janata Curfew on March 22, followed by the 21-day lockdown on March 25. Tablighi Jamaat members from Malaysia, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia were collecting in India between March 10 and 18. The mishandling of the Tablighi affair is one of the biggest blunders by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which churlishly rejected WHO’s insistence on testing ‘unwarranted’ because there was no community transmission in India.
The Jamaat infection vector has disproved the claim: on April 5, AIIMS admitted to “localised community transmission” in some states. ICMR was in denial—it had deployed only 10 percent of its testing capacity. It made more tragic mistakes which added to the virus spread. Its model to study the spread only considered passengers from China and ignored flyers from Italy, the US, Europe and West Asia. The majority of COVID-19 patients in Kerala are from the UAE. Furthermore, no testing for asymptomatic COVID patients was done—another bungle since data from Singapore indicated transmission two or three days before the symptoms appear.
The conduct of ICMR, in spite of its powerpacked ranks of the best medical scientists, doctors and researchers, points at the failure of our government institutions. The stellar success of DRDO with an annual budget of Rs 1,7861.19 crore (2018-19) was to make paranthas and pickles, which can survive Siachen temperatures. It scuttled the purchase of gun-locating radar from the US, which could have helped the Army to locate Pakistani guns in Kargil, which killed hundreds of Indian soldiers. Prasar Bharati’s recent tour de force was screening Ramayan circa 1987, not Contagion.
Make in India is a dream worth having and sharing. If it is to succeed, Indian institutions must be freed from their bureaucratic stranglehold, which places smug sycophancy, political patronage and misplaced self-confidence over expertise and efficacy, which could save lives and resources. The pandemic is a grim opportunity which, if not seized at high tide, could drag India down to unfathomable depths of national and economic infirmity.
ravi@newindianexpress.com