Prisoners Of Nationalism

Context: Analysing the devastating impact of hype nationalism that blinded the government in acknowledging the impact of the second wave of the pandemic.

Reason for the government failure: In timely acknowledging the COVID 2^nd wave –

• Centralisation of power: Concentration of power in the hands of few men – who were busy canvassing in West Bengal – is one of the reason responsible, which has developed at the expense of federalism
• Compromised bureaucracy: Bureaucrats and experts were either “yes men” or not listened to.
• Blind nationalism: In January, PM was confident about transforming the fight against coronavirus through intensive vaccine development and promotion of Ayurveda. However, this seems to be blind nationalism on three counts:
  • Consultation of experts was avoided till March, for e.g. the national scientific task force on Covid-19 formed in 2020 to advise the government did not meet between January 11 and April 15.
  • Blinded focus on pseudo-remedies:
    • For e.g. The Health Minister endorsing Coronil as an effective medicine against Covid-19 without any scientific basis.
    • The government supported the clinical trial of a medicine derived from panchgavya — cow’s milk, butter, ghee, dung and urine.
  • False belief on the Indian vaccines to guide the pandemic: Despite the fact that these Made in India vaccines have shown some of the lowest AEFI anywhere in the world.
• Two-fold vaccine diplomacy: Despite the fact that now India is struggling to produce vaccines even for its citizens.
  • India became a key player in the UN-backed Covax programme, which is supposed to provide 2 billion vaccine doses to middle and low-income countries.
  • Export of two vaccines at free of cost to Mongolia, Oman, Myanmar, Philippines, Bahrain, Maldives, Mauritius, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Seychelles, as “a goodwill gesture”.

Negative Implications:

• India’s as a weak state: A weaker India may even be a good thing from the viewpoint of western countries (to tackle China in the Indo Pacific), compromising its strategic autonomy.
  • This may also result in the embarrassing questioning directed towards India over various human rights and freedom of expression related issues.
  • For e.g. The EU-India Summit, which focussed on climate change and connectivity, has also emphasised the importance of strengthening mechanisms for the promotion of human rights”.