Yeh jeena bhi koi jeena hai?

I am plain lucky, or perhaps just blessed. I say that since almost a year before the lockdown (the first one, ever, circa March 23, 2020), I quit my job and retired, for good. I travelled the length and breadth of the country, and became a fast-ageing gallivant. What fun it was – flying down the highways and screeching around corners in the hills, breathing in the crisp mountain air and taking in the serene sights, without a care or worry in the world, no Corporate phone calls and e-mails to bother me!

But good things often have a way of coming to a juddering halt and this phase did too. That happened when I, along with 135 crore Indians, was told that India was headed into a 21-day lockdown that would surely rid us of the terrible new evil called the novel Coronavirus. We all know that story thereafter, so I shan't waste column-space on how that battle is going. What I can tell you is that deadline after deadline of various targeted achievements have been missed by the authorities, even as you and I have just to meet ours, especially tax payments, which have to be serviced even after retirement, or else. That's fine though, and I am glad to be paying taxes, for that means I am still earning. For millions of Indians, that is not the case. Worse, for crores more, there are bigger worries than lost employment. Let's talk about a few, and why these nibble away at our innards.

Constant fear, despair

The biggest thing is constant fear and worry. We now do not despair just over the immediate future, we also worry if there will be a tomorrow at all in the torrid new world, where the 100 next days are all that matter. And because of this, COVID-19 will not just go down in history as a once-in-a-100-years pandemic that took our pants and knickers off. It shall also be reminisced for how it brought us together as a nation and brought in a semblance of united humility; against a disease that spares none and devours more than we could have imagined. Ironically, that unity comes with a caveat – we are scared of being near anybody else, loved ones or not. All our dreams are on the backburner now, as is the yearning for glitzy cars and gizmos, for the undeniable and incorrigible truth is that the greatest wish right now is to just see this phase through and survive.

We have reached an inflection point, the true bottom-line. As I have mentioned before, butter chicken and traffic jams are back in our lives, as are crowded bazaars and marketplaces, with the latest lockdowns being lifted. Today, we in united India gives one-another a little bit of space, if only for worry of our own safety. When we don't, most of us warn the wavering next-idiot fellow-countryman to take care and "better pull your mask above your nose".

Sure, we will probably survive, 'par yeh jeena bhi koi jeena hai, lalloo' ("Is this any way to live, my loveable idiots")? This famous Bollywood dialogue doesn't sound quite so romantic anymore, does it? It cannot and it will not, for we and our families are suddenly hanging in the balance, a little twist and quirk of life. All I can say is hold the fort, for it is the only thing that we shall have to live on with for quite a bit now, again. We are staring doomsday in the face for quite some time to come.

No access to vaccines

And why is this going to be a long-drawn battle? Well, because the virus seems to have a mind of its own and keeps changing its character and tactics, similar to what our authorities are doing on the vaccines' front. People who proudly promised us COVID-19 vaccine jabs a few months back are oscillating like a nine-pin that gets winged by a bowling ball. After screaming from the rooftops that the

miracle cure would rid us of the virus soon, they suddenly fell silent for weeks, and a vicious blame game ensued. It took the intervention of the Supreme Court to bring about some semblance of order to the melee.

One can't even begin to really use the appropriate adjectives for the bungling that has happened with India's vaccination drive. It is only after the country's apex court cracked the whip last week that the central authorities even approved the usage of international vaccines in India. And do remember that this clearance came a month after states had been asked to negotiate independently with these very same overseas suppliers and procure vaccine stocks directly. Now, of course, the authorities have hastily put up a new vaccination plan and are moving ahead with much-hyped gusto.

But their chest-thumping and fascination with Kumbh Melas and legislative elections has cost you and me almost six months and innumerable deaths and indescribable suffering, with India now emerging as the COVID-19 center of the world in April and May this year, at a time when most of the rest of the Developed World is announcing plans for 'life after the pandemic'. Unpardonable indeed…

Inequitable spending

As mentioned last week, economic prospects and jobs are tanking, taking their worst beating, ever, since independence. And there is no respite in sight. As chambers of commerce last year and Uday Kotak last month said, there is an urgent need for the Government to step in and announce fiscal incentives to prop up the economy, even consider the option of printing helicopter money. Admittedly, given the grim COVID-19 backdrop and the foreseeable future, Governments worldwide have to shore up their economies and Corporates. India is no exception. The Government needs to consider a hefty multi-lakh-crore fiscal stimulus, and fast.

Corporates too have to do their bit in the larger scheme of things. Remember, after the first few hiccups in the economic reforms pushed in the 1990s, Indian Corporates saw 20 straight years of economic and promoter wealth growth, and the number of Indians in the 'World's Richest' lists zoomed. However, that newly-Capitalist India did not share its wealth. So here is a clarion call to Indian Corporates, similar to what is being followed around the world. Today, Corporates have the responsibility and opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Government and the masses to rebuild the economy.

A big irony here is an acute lack of funds due to inequitable spending. Even as millions slip into joblessness and crores below the poverty line, the Government's outlays and spends on indulgences like new aircraft (both civilian and military), fleets of cars, a new Central Vista and a spanking new Parliament House are totally mind-boggling.

The fallout of politics

And if all this weren't bad enough, we have repeated and extended election exercises across the country. We all saw what happened in West Bengal, where the absolute might and muscle of many was brought on to root out one single enemy. Leave alone the fact that all efforts came to naught, but the simultaneous and long-drawn assembly elections in that state and some others brought in their wake the second coming of the dreaded virus. Add in the Kumbh Mela for good measure, as also the absolute lack of discipline amongst our own masses and we all witnessed the scariest and most depressing visuals this country has seen since partition.

And the saga continues. We already have political parties poaching like scavenging animals to get bigger names into their own clan – and the means employed to do this are as vicious and despicable as they are naked and transparent. Clearly, our politicians have either written off the pandemic, or don't care two hoots about it. And the new scary kid on the block is the countdown to the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, by and far the largest and always the bloodiest in the country. Already, there are reports of gatherings in the state, even as the top leadership of all parties begin their customary huddle and prepare for battle.

Thus, the impending congregation of hundreds and thousands comes into sharper focus. After two months of gloom, doom and death, we have finally managed to get some degree of control over the pandemic's latest coming. State and Panchayat elections played a major role in triggering the second wave of the pandemic, and the second set of severe curfews and lockdowns. Will state elections again be allowed to become the reason for a third coming, or a fourth? When will we, as a nation and a polity, exhibit at least the basic tenets of discipline and honor?

The writer is a communications consultant and a clinical analyst. narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal