Four-point narrative to counter India’s Covid handling

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 30

The Government has framed a four-point narrative to work its way out of a second and more devastating wave of Covid-19 that has forced the country to seek help from every available avenue and reversed its claim of being the pharma factory of the world.

While diplomatic missions have been actively trying to counter the avalanche of criticism about Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the foreign media, the Government’s narrative provides them with enough ammunition to frame a coherent narrative, said sources.

The first point is that the second wave is especially vicious because of the highly infectious double mutant. As a result, the health system got overwhelmed, which is not unusual and this state of affairs will not last long. The situation is quite similar to the health systems of advanced American and European economies that got similarly swamped at certain inflexion points last year.

The second is that the country does not really suffer from oxygen shortage, but the problem is that its main consumption and production centers during the second wave are located in different parts of the country and affected by logistical issues. The emergency imports of oxygen generating equipment will bridge the gap till the logistical issues are sorted out. This was most recently articulated by Health Minister Harsh Vardhan when he said there is no shortage of oxygen in the country.

The third is about the situation regarding Covid vaccines and life-saving injections. Here too, India needs help to fill the temporary shortfall in Remdesivir injections because of the sudden and steep rise in the number of patients. Indian companies are producing 60,000 injections against the current demand of 3-4 lakh injections. Imports are required till Indian companies ramp up production to the current demand. Similarly vaccine production would now get a boost from the raw material being sent from the US Government’s stocks while New Delhi will meet the “temporary’’ gap with imports from an array of countries.

The fourth point is that the aid pouring in from overseas does not mean a shift in India’s position about being self reliant during national disasters. While previous calamities such as the Tsunami were highly localised and affected only a part of India, the second Covid wave has hit the most populous parts of the country. This was articulated by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla who described the current situation as “very very unusual’’ and said this was not the time for looking at things from a policy point of view.

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