Power And Accountability

Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!

Power And Accountability

---

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

---

• Hitting everyone hard: The Covid waves in India have hit almost all families, directly or indirectly. Death, sickness, fear, economic shock, social isolation and partisan bickering are apace.
• Numbers lost all meaning: All figures related to death and infections have lost meaning, to the common mind. Life's fragility is so stark, humans are beginning to wonder if they matter at all in this scheme. All nations, including India, are struggling without any exception.
• Abandoned: Many Indians feel abandoned by the state, left to fend for themselves, or simply die. A corrupt, venal system seems to mock their helplessness. Arguments galore, but no apologies. The supporters of Modi are offering new arguments, and the critics finding faults. Opinions differ on lockdowns and vaccines, too.
• The Indian State: It suddenly came out as a weak state, unable to learn from crises of earlier years. In today's atmosphere of distrust, it looks like social media is driving all conversations. 

1. That the Indian state lacks capacity across multiple domains, is clearly visible now. Lack of coordination across governments is visible.
2. There's no institutional mechanism to actually make a long-term plan to beat the crisis.
3. There's no effective communication that can instill confidence in citizens. "All is well" wasn't the case, when it was being said so. 

• Elections in a pandemic: All political parties together should have opposed the conducting of 2021 assembly elections. But none really did. The Election Commission just went with the flow. The damage is there for all to see.
• Kumbh and Eid festivities: The nation isn't able to speak in one tone on these events even today, due to partisanship. If India is to get its public policy right, then the policy and politics both have to go right.
• What to do now: First, the PM has to collect the right experts around him, discarding the existing bunch. The long-term national response won't get framed at all, otherwise. Sadly, there's no state level model solution too, as all states have failed in containing the virus. Yes, there's no Kerala model. The only way is to learn best practices from one another.
• As citizens: Let all citizens hold the powerful to account, and remember that India's rise won't stop due to this crisis. India will rise no matter what.
• Summary: The regular citizens will make sure India will rise, and the criticism by intellectuals won't matter. But the citizens have to ensure that the politicians remember they were complicit in the death and destruction.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

Join UPSC Self Prep course | Online Course (PT Gurukul)  | Covid Special Course | Join PT courses

* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.