Since the twilight of 2019, the pandemic of Covid-19 has been absolutely consistent, reinforcing and concentrative in regard to playing havoc with the human family, beyond any cavil of religious, racial, ethnic, lingual or political discrimination while our regime, rulers and officials, surrounded by incompetent advisors, half-baked scholars and pseudo intellectuals, have been demonstrating their utter failure to curb this Corona monster and insensitivity to the masses’ lives. They are still ham-fisted to foresee the fast approaching calamity. Like so many other bipeds existing in our part of the globe, I am also feeling suspended in the troposphere of sheer bewilderment, chaos and tremor and cannot decide whether I should mourn the might of the rapidly strengthening virus, indifferent and absurd response of socio-communal quarters, or the highly poor, irresponsible and pitiable performance of the South Asian governments and the political circles to tackle this disaster.
If, on the one hand, the general public is incongruously confident to deny the existence of this lethal virus or to bravely bear the insignificant stroke of this evil, the government’s disaster management processes and campaigns against Corona rampage are highly pathetic, ill-managed and ill-fated, on the other. The role of both private and state-owned mass media is not an exception in this roller-coaster of misfortunes’ dark series.
It is highly staggering to witness the Prime Minister as well as other federal and state ministers of the 6th most populated nation-state of the world playing fast and loose with the public health issues by delivering stupid statements and referring to absurd solutions. For last 6-8 weeks, these fathers of the nations have been stating that they will go for strict measures like smart lockdown, full lockdown, and curfew if the situation worsens or does not improve in a week. During last such weeks, the situation in our part of the world has been deteriorating not on weekly basis but on hourly basis. By the way, what the hell is that “week” these honourable and knowledgeable ministers are talking about? What is the concept of “worsening scenario” in their mind? Are they waiting for millions of the dead bodies on the roads?
To add salt to the wounds, if one reliable and worthy advisor or minister warns us about the devouring jaws of the imminent Covid monster and advises us to opt for a self-imposed curfew in his or her press conference on national media, the other endeavours to make us believe the situation is improving, and reiterates to go for the opened markets for the sake of economic growth. Most painful fact is that our Premier’s all claims are refuted and made null and void by his on cabinet members within hours on all media. So, amongst the various cock and bull stories, every individual, here, whether a commoner, a politician, a social scientist, a medical expert or from any walk of life, cherishes his or her own concept and idea of the plague and its present status and mode.
Switching onto the flashbacks, the last year, we had to take a very simple step by sealing our border with a neighbouring country to avoid this plague’s maiden penetration into our motherland, but we surprisingly wasted our time and took decision when the calamity had already pounced upon us. Alhamdulillah, we were saved, comparatively, from the first wave with the help of the Almighty and our better-late-than-never taken decisions and steps. Here, is the turning point and the root cause of our contemporary disaster; we took the disease as well as immunity to it for granted and, as a collective nation, started making fun of it and threw away all safety and security measures and norms like wanton boys. I still remember, there were continuous news of 3-4 deaths a day on the media and the streets of all towns and cities of the country were portraying a scenario of curfew or war-ridden state. Now, the news are full of shocking jolts and we are living our lives in a way far more casual and careless than what it was in February 2019.
Contemporarily speaking, the whole world banned its passenger transportation from and to Britain in the beginning of March, keeping in view the advancing moves of the third and the most lethal wave of the Covid-19. But, again, we were shamelessly and inefficiently failed to take a timely decision and the result is more than obvious. To add to the misery, taking into consideration our highly childish and clumsy approach and affection and reverence for the pandemic, the British government imposed travel ban upon us, after just a 2-3 weeks. So, this was our achievement. For God’s sake, behave like a wise state, so that the masses may respond and follow in a mature way.