India is a country of multiple religions, numerous languages and various cultures, but whenever there are challenges, India comes together and shows unity. There are no Hindu-Muslim riots; the cultural differences don’t matter; the only thing that matters is that we have to face the problem together and stand with our country. That’s what makes India great.
A great country doesn’t need to have superweapons, supremacy above dozens of countries. The biggest reserve of the great country is its own people, the people who stand together, the people who believe in the country’s unity, and more importantly, people who don’t take advantage of an adverse situation.
Indians did a transcendent job during this COVID pandemic. We have seen people like Rant Tata, Sonu Sood, Youth Congress National President B V Srinivas, the lady with the greatest hard Kallamma and many more. So many people came forward to help each other.
Even students of this country came forward to help their nation. I’ve seen my classmates helping others by finding oxygen cylinders and hospital beds for COVID patients. We, as a nation, did a great job fighting against this deadly virus.
Did We Get Help From Our Government In Fighting This Microscopic Enemy?
This is the real question many people are wondering about. People were waiting for our Home Minister for some action, but he disappointed every Indian. Things became so bad that a student union filed a missing complaint against the Home Minister. Even after that, Mr Shah was missing. I guess the Delhi Police failed to find him.
The effect of this pandemic could have been lessened if our government had even thought about the second wave of the corona, but we can’t blame them because they were busy in elections. Our Prime Minister Narendra, Modi Ji. was acting as the star campaigner of the Bhartiya Janta Party.
Oxygen is the life gas that India cried for during this pandemic. This type of Oxygen shortage has never been witnessed before, but this time it was predicted. However, the GOI never took this warning seriously even when there was an oxygen shortage before in the Modi-Shah government when 60 children died in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, due to lack of oxygen in August 2017.
There were many cases like the above mentioned, but even after this, the Modi Government ignored the warnings, which lead to the death of thousands of COVID patients. So, this was the negligible help that we got from our government in fighting this microscopic enemy.
Here Is A Quick Scenario Of Oxygen Shortage Throughout This Pandemic
India exported 9,301 metric tonnes of oxygen across the world between April 2020 and January 2021. In comparison, the country had exported only 4,502 metric tonnes of oxygen in FY20. The oxygen supplied was in liquid form and could be used for both industrial and medical use.
However, the demand for oxygen in India was not as high during the aforementioned period. During the first wave, the demand for liquid medical oxygen (LMO) increased from 700 metric tonnes per day (MTPD) to 2,800 MTPD. But during the second wave, it has skyrocketed to 5,000 MTPD.
It was only in the second week of April when demand for medical oxygen in India witnessed a five-fold jump, according to Crisil. The country produces over 7,000 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen per day, which indicates that’s where the problem lies. So why didn’t the GOI work on this?
Opposition Attacks Modi Government
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that the Narendra Modi government’s lack of planning was responsible for the shortage of oxygen that devastated lives in the second wave of the pandemic, arguing that the Centre must be held accountable for the crisis.
Continuing her social media series titled “Who is responsible”, Priyanka said that the oxygen crisis that killed a large number of COVID patients occurred because the Centre ignored specific warnings by a parliamentary committee as well as the government’s own empowered group on the pandemic, a charge the Congress has levelled several times in the recent past.
She explained how India was capable of producing the required quantity of oxygen to prevent any crisis.
Pointing out that the demand for oxygen at the peak of COVID-19 was 8,944 tonnes per day, Priyanka said, “This means that the oxygen shortfall at the peak of this wave was less than 1,500MT (as India’s capacity to produce oxygen stood at 7,500MT per day). So, what went wrong? The Modi government increased its oxygen exports by over 700% in 2020, a pandemic year. It also made no investments towards the early import of surplus oxygen.”
But Narendra Modi ignored it. Sometimes he forgets that he is the representative of the world’s largest democratic country; the government should listen to the opposition.
There was a time we refer to as the golden period of Democratic India when leaders fought with each other in parliament but also listened to each other. There was a time when it didn’t matter which party you belonged to while assigning any task. The only thing that matters is what you are capable of.
Personally, I think the number of deaths could have been minimised if the GOI took this pandemic seriously and did something for oxygen and ICU beds.