Money9 Edit | Thank you, Your Honour!

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The Supreme Court demonstrated on Thursday that it won’t be a mute spectator and those in power must be held accountable for their actions, or lack thereof. There is no denying that the India’s Covid-19 situation is grim to say the least. Calling it a “national emergency-like situation” is hitting the nail on its head.

The adage coined by Albert Einstein, ‘In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity” has been turned to ashes. The opportunity to build a future-ready healthcare system has been squandered away by sheer complacency, lack of planning and misguided priorities of elected leaders. States must also own up for their own misgivings too, even as the Centre responds to the Supreme Court’s notice.

In year-two of a pandemic, a ‘self-reliant’ superpower-to-be cannot be caught napping and in a situation when everything from oxygen to life-saving drugs to medical infrastructure is in short supply.

It doesn’t take vaccine-science to get supply chain right. MBA graduates can deploy working operations models for demand-supply equilibrium overnight. Add a few IIT graduates and demand forecasting of essentials gets more accurate. Why couldn’t politicians rallying for votes, unmasked, find time to outsource this task to an educated, experienced working group of medical practitioners and operations managers?

Politicians needed a rap on their knuckles. The apex court has stood up for the cause of citizens suo motu. Covid-19 is here to stay and not being prepared to deal with the virus and all its mutations is not an option. Chest-thumping on vaccine supremacy is one thing, providing essential survival apparatus is quite another. While our scientists have won India accolades, our unabashedly misplaced political will to plan and provide for the latter have cost us dear.

If only the leaders had acted suo motu in the interest of the people beyond the ‘voters,’ the country may not have had to witness the extent of the morbidity it does today. With the ‘national plan,’ let there be light, and enough oxygen.