Sidharth Mishra20

Ram Rajya in Kejriwal’s Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have given the mantra of looking for opportunity in the crisis but its Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who makes the most of it. The present Covid crisis has given him the opportunity to put the blame at the doors of the Centre for the large number of people dying in the city in absence of health care. Even the courts have been convinced, who in turn have issued reprimand to the Centre asking it to help Kejriwal government.

Not going into the merits of the court orders, they did best what they could as governance collapsed, it’s the sheer failure of Modi’s image managers that allows Kejriwal to wriggle himself out from tight situations. So obsessed are Modi’s image managers with their factory of falsehood that most of the time they miss the woods for the trees.

When Covid’s current phase was knocking at the doors of the country and its Capital, city’s Finance Minister Manish Sisodia was presenting a Rs 69,000 crore ‘patriotism’ budget. The highlights of this budget were installation of 500 flag masts and planning programmes on the lives of freedom fighters. There was announcement of ‘Desh Bhakti’ curriculum but nothing to showcase by the way of strengthening the health infrastructure of the city.

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Our World Is On Pyre

My father, a medical graduate of early 1950s, often recounted the service he had rendered in the cholera, malaria and typhoid epidemics in the 1950s. He would end conversation saying, “Hope your generation never gets to see an epidemic.”

His soul must be sad seeing his country facing the epidemic for the past one year and with no light at the end of a very densely dark tunnel. In his epidemic stories, one thing was very clear that it was the government infrastructure and machinery which led the fight. During that time hardly existed any facility in the private sector. This time around government is not visible at the grassroots, and private sector unequal to rise to the challenge.

For the past two weeks the fear of opening the social media handles lest a notice announcing the passing away of a known name pops-up has only increased. Writing obituary has become difficult as many are dying young still to have lived a full life to be written about.

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Living And Surving In Midst Of A Carnage

Number of people dying in pandemic remains a figure till one doesn’t lose a known face, a dear acquaintance or a close relative. There would not be very many left in the city of Delhi and its prosperous suburbs to whom death in pandemic would have by now remained just figures; it has become part of painful personal emotions in the majority of the families. Thus government flaunting figures beome inconsequential, as almost everyone is in pain of a grievous loss. 

Delhi for many has been like a lifeline. It gave succour to everyone in need, be it for education, for a job, for a shelter or be it treatment for an ailment. Today Delhi is gasping for breath. Delhi is important because it’s the microsom which represent the nation, and the nation too is not any less breathless.

The way people in the city are haplessly falling victim to a failed medical system, the death in the numbers is only comparable to when Nadir Shah raided Delhi and let his soldiers loot, rape and kill its citizens. The current narratives going around in the city are not just about people dying because oxygen was not available but their struggle to survive and make every attempt to live despite death staring in their face.

Sidharth Mishra20

A Heavy Price Paid For Abject Failure Of Governance

In the midst of the Covid 19 surge one managed to get the second dose of the vaccine after fully following the six-weeks gap between the first and second jab. There was a marked difference which one could see which has dawned on the venue of vaccination during this period of six weeks.

The first jab had come in the environment of hope, with a lot of laughter and posing for the camera. Six-weeks later the setting had turned tense to use a very mild word. No selfie-points this time and no chatrooms for those patients resting following the jab. We were seated in a row facing a huge statue of Sai Baba, and one could read prayers on everyone’s lips. To them it did not matter whether Sai Baba was a Hindu or a Muslim saint. To the helpless what matters is the succour and not from where or from whom its coming.

Our religious and electoral commitments have indeed reduced governance in the country to the level of mental penury. There isn’t anybody in any government, whatever the political hue, which is saying that there is a crisis of worst possible degree.

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The Khaki Confusion on the Roads of National Capital

In the Kingsway Camp area of North Delhi, there is a small market known as Edward Lines. This market essentially served in the older times the Delhi Police Lines which exists next to it, rather the market is on the periphery of the huge Police Line Campus. Over the past few years, it has seen some change but a set of shops have remained rooted in good old times.

These are four or five shops of tailors and drapers, who specialise in stitching khaki uniforms worn by the Delhi Police personnel. They have varieties of Khaki fabric to suit every pocket from a constable to the Indian Police Service (IPS) officials.

For the past few months these shops are witnessing a boom in their business, as the Arvind Kejriwal Government has let loose on the streets of Delhi khaki wearing civil defence volunteers, whose uniform differs with that of Delhi Police only in the colour of the beret, which is similar to worn by the Indian Army commandos.