In his nation-wide address last evening , PM Modiji did
not declare ,
National Health Emergency [ - as urged by me in my
email yesterday ],
Instead he announced ,
Nation-wide 24 hour LOCKDOWN
for 21 days { presumably under National Disaster Management Act }
For details of how Lockdown will affect our lives, read
:
PM also announced a budgetary provision of Rs 15,000
crore to fight the pandemic – mostly to be spent on augmenting HEALTH SERVICES [ Hospitals - Ventilator supply
etc ]
There was only a passing reference to ECONOMY – that too
, a warning that economy is bound to suffer and jobs may be lost , causing hardship to people – especially,
to poor people
He spoke of the fact that developed countries , despite
their substantial Healthcare Resources , have failed to control the pandemic
. He stopped there without terming the efforts of these developed countries to “REVIVE
the ECONOMY “ by spending $ 500 billion - $ 800 billion - $ 1,000 billion , as
totally MIS-GUIDED !
How come “ misguided “ ?
Developed countries want to pump in those billions of
dollars , to “ Keep economy running normally – as before
“ – presumably to save job-losses
That means enabling / encouraging , factories
and offices to stay open and keep working
In turn , that would require all transport ( whether Public or Private / whether
Passenger or Freight ), to operate “ as usual “
In short , no restriction on people congregating / mixing / bumping
into one another , as before
Essentially allowing everyone to shout ,
“ Welcome to
Community Transmission ( Stage 4 ) “
If in doubt, look at this
data as of yesterday :
================================================================================
|
Country
|
Deaths
|
Confirmed Cases
|
% age Death to Conf.
|
|
Italy
|
6,820
|
69,176
|
9.8
|
|
Spain
|
2,991
|
42,058
|
7.1
|
|
Iran
|
1,934
|
24,811
|
7.8
|
|
USA
|
797
|
55,233
|
1.4
|
|
India
|
9
|
562
|
1.6
|
Now you will understand the wisdom of Shri Modiji ,
when he said :
Ø Jaan
hai to Jahaan hai
Ø को
= कोई
Ø रो
= रोड पर
Ø ना
= ना आवे
He could have added :
Ø सिर
सलामत तो पग़डिया बहोत
As of now , no country has :
Ø a Vaccine
to Prevent Corona
Ø a Drug
to Cure Corona
It may take weeks / months to develop these , by which
time , Corona would have infected MILLIONS of persons in those Developed
Countries
By which time , thousands would have died in
those countries
Let no one have any doubt that our only salvation lies
in SOCIAL DISTANCING
through LOCKDOWN
Of course , there will be disruption in supply of our
daily necessities, but for a few days before things settle down . Government
Agencies will get overwhelmed. We need to “ grin and bear it “ !
I have only one
request to Shri Modiji , viz :
Even as jobs get lost as Economy slides ( possibly for next 1 year ) , and may take another 1 year to return to 5 % GDP, let some officers ( by name ) – and not
departments / sections / Ministries , silently / quietly work to implement :
How
to convert Temporary into Permanent ?
The only thing that Task Forces / Committees /
Empowered Groups etc manage to “ achieve “ is giving all the members, a “ Sense
of Enlarged Participation “
.
Diffused /
Shared Responsibilities ( where you cannot hold a SINGLE person as “ Accountable
/ Answerable “ ) , cannot get things done
Hold a person by his collar and tell him : Get this job done by XYZ date . Period
And , if you must have a Task Force / Committee , just
pose the problem and tell each member :
“ We don’t need
suggestions from you as to who
should do what
Please , stand up and say :
This is WHAT I
will do by XYZ date
=========================================================
25 March 2020
( First Day of Lockdown )
hcp@RecruitGuru.com