Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 5: Even as India reported 1.20 lakh new cases in the last 24 hours on Saturday, the lowest in the last two months, the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen launched a scathing attack on the “confused” Indian government that led to massive Coronavirus trouble in the country.
India also found itself on the backfoot at the G7 meeting of the health ministers, where the country was a guest, strongly opposing adoption of “vaccine passport” policy saying that such an initiative could prove to be “hugely discriminatory” against the developing countries compared to the developed countries. India’s opposition stems from the fact that only three per cent of its total population had so far been fully vaccinated with double doze.
Speaking at an event organized by the Rashtra Seva Dal, the noted economist Amartya Sen alleged that India’s “confused” government focused more on taking credit for its actions rather than working to restrict the spread of Covid-19, resulting in schizophrenia that led to massive troubles.
He believed that India was better placed to fight the pandemic than most other nations because of its pharma manufacturing prowess and also higher immunity levels but squandered its advantages due to the wrong priorities assigned by the government.
Stating that India could not play on its strengths because of a poor response to the crisis due to confusion in the government Sen said, “The government seemed much keener on ensuring credit for what it was doing rather than ensuring that pandemics do not spread in India. The result was a certain amount of schizophrenia.”
His scathing remarks came in the backdrop of the second wave of the pandemic seeing the number of officially reported cases topping over 4 lakh a day and over 4,500 deaths daily, and also concerns over under-reporting. Some eminent personalities have said a sense of early “triumphalism” led to the crisis.
Sen, who is a professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University, cited writing by Adam Smith in 1769 wherein the father of modern economics argues that if one does good things, he does get credit for it. And the credit could be sometimes an indicator of how well one is doing.
“But to seek the credit, and not the good work that generates the credit shows a level of intellectual naivete which has to be avoided. India tried to do that,” Sen added.
“It (government) was trying to generate the credit boasting across the world that India will save the world perhaps. And at the same time, allowing the problem to develop and have a grip over the lives of Indians across the country,” he added.
Sen said India was already afflicted with social inequities, slowing growth and unemployment at record highs, which came to haunt it during the pandemic.
“A failure of economy and failure of social cohesion was the basis of the failure of the pandemic attack as well,” he said, adding that limitations on education led to difficulties in assessing early symptoms and treatment protocols.
Sen also argued for a “big constructive change” in healthcare and education above all, but also in economic and social policies in general.
India reported 1,20,529 fresh Covid-19 cases, the lowest single-day rise in infections in around two months, taking the infection tally to 2,86,94,879, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
The death toll from Covid-19 climbed to 3,44,082 with 3,380 new fatalities, while the number of active cases was recorded below 20 lakh for the fifth consecutive day. The active case count has reduced to 15,55,248, which comprises 5.73 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate has improved to 93.08 per cent, the data showed.
The number of recoveries continues to outnumber daily new cases for 23 consecutive days.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 2,67,95,549, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.19 per cent, the data stated. The 3,380 new fatalities include 1,377 from Maharashtra, 364 from Karnataka, 463 from Tamil Nadu, 136 from Uttar Pradesh, 135 from Kerala, 113 from West Bengal.
A total of 3,44,082 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported so far in the country including 98,771 from Maharashtra, 30,895 from Karnataka, 26,128 from Tamil Nadu, 24,497 from Delhi, 21,031 from Uttar Pradesh, 16,034 from West Bengal, 14,927 from Punjab and 13,162 from Chhattisgarh.
The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
Meanwhile, at the G7 health ministers meeting, the union health minister Harsh Vardhan raised concerns about the availability of vaccines and low rates of inoculation in developing nations.
“At this stage of [the] pandemic, it is pertinent to also discuss about India’s concern over the idea of a vaccine passport. Considering the fact of lower levels of vaccination in developing countries in contrast to the developed countries and still unaddressed issues related to equitable and affordable access, supply and distribution of safe and effective vaccines, India would propose that implementation of vaccine passports will be hugely discriminatory and disadvantageous to the developing countries,” he said.
“India would suggest that the same should be implemented duly taking into consideration emerging evidence on [the] efficacy of vaccines and under the overarching coordination of WHO duly attending to the anomaly of access and affordability as it exists today,” Dr Vardhan said.
Several countries including the US and the UK have talked about vaccine passports for letting their citizens travel abroad or visitors from other countries to come in. The European Union has also been working to introduce a vaccine travel document for tourists.
The G7 health ministers meeting in Britain agreed Friday to step up coordination against future pandemics and other threats, but made no new commitments to speed up vaccine deliveries to less developed countries.