I have been noting the condemnation of the decision to impose a nationwide
lockdown in response to the Corona virus pandemic on various fora. I felt compelled
to share my reasoning as to why I think such condemnations are premature and irresponsible,
and therefore warrant a strong rebuttal.
It is always easy to use hindsight to dissect the shortcomings of a decision.
I do not believe that the decision taken at the time that it was, could have used
the benefit of sufficient analysis and planning. The PM was facing an impossible
choice: “Damned if he acts, damned if he doesn’t.” When the decision was taken based
on recommendations from WHO and ICMR, most states had already declared lockdowns,
or were in the process of doing so. In a sense therefore, it was the least bad time
to decide. The decision was unprecedented in its ramifications, and in my opinion
was not amenable to the usual prerequisites of an executive decision such as trade-off
analysis and risk assessment. It was akin to a split-second decision to be taken
on a battlefield.
Consider the realities of our situation as a country: we have a fund-starved
healthcare system whose ability to deliver is stifled by reservation and an insensitive
bureaucracy. A significant proportion of our labour force, which earns it livelihood
through daily wages, does not have proper housing and sanitation facilities. We
have the world’s highest proportion of voluntarily internally displaced population.
Most of our systems function, not because of institutional capabilities, but because
of a few people’s dedication. We are a nation of 1.3 billion people where it is
computationally impossible to model the complexity of social interactions preventing
any solution from being scaled up. We are not a particularly disciplined people.
Planning and strategic depth in thinking is an anathema to our way of operating
as a nation. We need to be realistic in our criticisms. The way the situation is
turning out is anybody’s guess in that it’s too early to predict how it will unfold.
I think the PM has had the conviction and courage to not succumb to political expediency
and to invest the substantial goodwill he enjoys and his political capital despite
the certainty that his leadership would be strongly challenged. This is laudatory
and deserves our collective commendation. He has also had the humility to acknowledge
the undesirable albeit unavoidable collateral consequences of his decision and seek
forgiveness. I think it we owe it to ourselves and our fellow citizenry to refrain
from comments about what could have been done differently and lend support by any
means possible to navigate through this crisis. Dissemination of such comments now
undermines our capability to marshal the collective efforts and respond effectively.
I also find it noteworthy and a testament to our resilience as a nation that
by and large order has prevailed, and no regions of the country have descended into
anarchy despite the tough situation. Hopefully this state of affairs will sustain,
and there will come a time when we will have the luxury to perform a pragmatic and
responsible post-mortem to identify gaps and reform our systems to ensure a better
response to future crises.
Jai Hind.
Aniket Bhattacharya
[Aniket Bhattacharya is the first guest columnist to feature on this blog. He loves all things related to Embedded Systems, his family, fast-paced novels, and self-composed songs with completely incomprehensible lyrics, though not necessarily in that order.]
