Lockdown not an option

Refer to ‘Don’t lock us down’ (Nous Indica); even partial lockdowns aggravate the struggle for survival of the poor in terms of healthcare and availability of food, pushing the daily wage-earners and industrial workers into misery and deprivation. Not having leveraged resources (like in the US) for an oversized population, India’s situation is becoming far more vulnerable. Life is terrible if one is unsure of whether, or from where, one will get the next meal. Shunning the ongoing power politics and hypocrisy, the situation now calls for a well-coordinated strategy of inoculation for all age-groups, involving the Centre, state governments, health authorities and the private sector, besides public participation, to avert not only health emergencies, but also another economic recession.

Abhimanyu Malik, Jind

Aggressive vaccination

We desperately need to vaccinate the frontline workers, including factory workers and office-goers, who are potential super-spreaders, to keep the wheels of the economy moving (‘Don’t lock us down’). Also, we need to get children back in classrooms as they have already lost a precious year of their academic calendar. College-going students must be vaccinated immediately. The distinction between ‘need’ and ‘want’ lacks merit.

Manish Sinha, Chandigarh

Curfew doesn’t help

Apropos of ‘Curfew no solution’, this time the current wave of Covid is more virulent and could send more people to hospital. Looking at the gravity of the situation, state after state is imposing night lockdown which is undesirable as it may create alarming unemployment, jeopardise the economy, besides hurting the migrant labour. The only option is to go back to ‘test, trace and treat’ and the stress should be on administering the vaccine to maximum beneficiaries, creating awareness about the vaccine and ensuring compliance with Covid safety measures. Greater citizen responsibility, aided by the administration’s stern action and vaccination, is the only way out.

SK Khosla, Chandigarh

What a paradox

On April 8, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh tweeted ‘no gatherings till 30th April’. It was presumed that it would include Baisakhi gatherings at various gurdwaras, but no, the preparations of Baisakhi at Damdama Sahib are continuing. Lakhs of people come every year to seek blessings on ‘sajna diwas’. There will be a surge in Covid cases. The SGPC just wants to fill its treasury. The same thing is happening in Uttarakhand, which is preparing for the Mahakumbh mela in Hardwar. Why in India, it’s always religion that controls everything, at the cost of the safety of people? At the same time, the Punjab CM has decided not to open educational institutions till April 30.

Rashpinder Singh Sidhu, by mail

Caught napping again

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. This precisely depicts the prevailing situation in our country. Besides the swelling cases of Covid, medical infrastructure is proving to be insufficient to cater to critical patients increasing on a daily basis. When the vaccines were launched, the authorities failed to address vaccine hesitancy for months. Despite knowing that immunity would develop after the second dose only, first jab numbers are being released to the media. We are self-congratulating ourselves. Vaccine is in short supply at some centres, even as there is wastage of vaccine in some states. Despite last year’s experience, and knowing in advance that medical and science fraternity had predicted a more severe second wave in coming months, the political establishment and bureaucracy failed to pull up their socks. Instead of taking corrective measures in advance, they have been busy in fighting elections. Only symbolic restrictions are being imposed. We have gone in the medieval times, where kings and ministers sat comfortably in their palaces while the public and the army fought against enemies and natural calamities on their own.

Rajesh Goyal, by mail

Vaccine disbursement

Apropos of ‘Vardhan: No bias in vaccine allocation’, such allegations in the time of the pandemic prove that scams will always exist. The government should show transparency in the utilisation of vaccines. The vaccination process should be under strict government surveillance to ensure that people are getting the right vaccines and that there is no shortage, or fraud.

Sakshi Sharma, Amritsar

Free to choose, believe

Reference to ‘An adult is free to choose his religion: SC’; in his bestselling book, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins was right when he wrote that religion has killed more people than all other wars put together. ‘Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature,’ Marx declared, ‘the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.’ Let citizens choose how they wish to pursue their faith and beliefs.

HN Ramakrishna, Bengaluru

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