Ahealth crisis plagues India for more than two months. This may, therefore, be the right time for a prognosis, to analyse the past and suggest a roadmap for the future. The crisis is unprecedented and the whole world will have to pay the price. The moot question remains ~ what is the price and how long does it take to recover? The success will be directly proportional to the unity and strength of the efforts of all stakeholders.

The per capita efforts of this country are generally among the highest in the world, while per capita returns or income are among the lowest. Most of us work hard, but it is mostly unplanned and at cross purposes, thus neutralizing the overall gain. If one looks forward to dramatically good results, the only hope lies in effective leadership. Let’s accept the fact that our country’s leadership has largely done well in these trying times.

In such cases, the X-factor is always the character of leadership which may inspire confidence. The tenacity and tact to rally citizens to a common purpose is simply laudable. There is no secret in declassifying the failings of the USA and Italy in this pandemic, which can be squarely attributed to leadership in case of the former and the wobbly political system in the latter.

Most of the countries floundered on account of complacency, while our cautious approach saved us from the tragedy witnessed in the western world. Though we cannot be sure as yet about the course of the pandemic graph, but the validated formula of Testing, Tracking and Tracing has been applied reasonably well in our case till now. To find fault, there have been questions about criteria and scale of the testing, but the fact remains that criteria, if entirely wrong, would have resulted in far more casualties.

So far so good. It is imperative to put unflinching faith strongly behind the efforts to keep the Corona curve linear. A country of our size and population ~ by one measure equalling to a total of 90 other countries ~ has done well thus far. Let’s not forget that any serious lapse would have resulted in mayhem in the landmass holding more than 17 per cent the world’s population. Though the overall handling of the situation has been fairly competent, we do need to look at the issues which could have been better managed.

Notably the predicament of migrant labourers who could have been moved in March itself, with minimum risk, when Covid cases were listed in three figures. It was necessary to ensure no movement of people with facilities of shelter homes. In the absence of buildings, train racks and buses could have been used to serve as shelter home. This has been successfully done in Delhi. This coupled with better implementation of DBT and ration delivery could have addressed the situation considerably.

Arguably, there was little or no forethought, lack of anticipating the problem, and political omission and commission on the part of a few. We could well have evaded the heartrending sight of reverse migration. Sometimes, even good intentions, if not supported at the required levels, lead to unpleasant results. Different interests working at cross-purposes (Tablighi event, Punjab religious gathering, disregard of lockdown by many, inadequate airport checks, etc) only compounded the calamity.

As supposedly proud Indians, how can we think of our fellow citizens fighting hunger and particularly when more than 60 million tonnes of foodgrains are in reserve. Such reserves are kept for a rainy day and we can’t imagine a worse crisis than this. Medically, we need to continue on the path of testing, tracking, tracing and of course, treatment. The corona curve needs to be kept at the level we can manage medically.

Curb on movements would be the key. Economically, the bottomline should be food for all, cash in the hands of the poor and reasonable economic activity. For the time being, let us not bother about reducing the foodstock reserve or the rising inflation. The forward path should give ‘Thumbs Up’ to information systems and technology (i.e. renewed investment in digital economy) and ‘Thumbs Down’ to unnecessary movements and government spending.

Migration needs to be curbed by strengthening the rural economy, with renewed focus on ‘Skill India’ and ‘Make in India’. This will help to improve job prospects and also provide better bargaining power to migratory workers. Modification of labour laws by some states has been a progressive step and should be replicated by others. Any criticism of any action by anyone must accompany a solid workable alternative.

Let us all converge our efforts towards surviving, both medically and economically. At present, all must follow the singular agenda of getting back to normal, may be a New Normal, so that we survive and also progress. The Government seems to be firing on all cylinders to minimize the adverse economic impact. The initial Rs 1.7 lakh crore economic package, followed by RBI’s measures and the recent massive stimulus amounting to Rs 20 lakh crore is a huge boost.

In particular, the focus on the lower strata of the populace is definitely commendable. The idea of ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ is the most welcome step. However, with the focus on a technology driven system, the ration card (linking it with Aadhaar) must work like a debit card and hence facilitate the drawal of any amount of rationed commodities, within entitlement, and at any place in the country, by any member of the family.

With the recent economic booster, the Government has displayed enough confidence in the idea of India with the hope of making the nation self-reliant. Now, it is up to the industry, entrepreneurs, farmers and all other stakeholders to realize this dream. The present juncture may prove to be a great opportunity.

As Winston Churchill once said famously, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. The five pillars of selfdependence, articulated by the Prime Minister, need to be pushed vigorously. There are challenges, but also is there a great opportunity, and the proclaimed fifth pillar on demand ~ Atmanirbhar Bharat ~ could be the greatest strength of this country’s 1.3 billion population, if we remain honest while pursuing our efforts.

This will provide traction to our attempted forward movement and in the process lend great momentum to the Indian Elephant, which will then not be stopped by any obstacle.

(The writer is a Brigadier of the Indian Army, now serving on deputation as Registrar at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Berhampur, Odisha. The views are personal)