Prompt 7: Political instability and COVID-19

 At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, India proactively protected their 1.3 billion citizens through lockdowns and other programs.   While this was widely successful, the second wave of COVID-19 is beginning to take a toll in India, and politicians are doing little to combat the issue.  According to the New York Times, India reported 145,384 new infections a day (Mashal & Kumar).  While this is still relatively low for a large country, these numbers can quickly spiral out of control.  Indian politicians have also started to hold political rallies to gain support for future elections. Still, these events do not correspond with the public health efforts to lower the rates of transmissions.  Public health officials have urged the government to deploy vaccines to its own population (India is one of the largest producers of pharmaceutical products in the world). Still, the prime minister has downplayed the pandemic.  India only has administered  340 million vaccine doses, which is less than 5% of the population (Kumar).  There was also reporting of 14 people selling "covid vaccines" that were really just salt water; the police are currently investigating (Kumar). Public health officials also claim that Priminsiter Modi and the Indian government are vastly underestimating the pandemic's real toll.  Without a realistic and non-hypocritical response to this disease, the political nature of the Indian government will not be working for the people.  Politicians are overly worried about how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting their political campaigns. Still, they forget that their actions in the present are actively changing the future.  In Delhi, a passed law stated that if a taxi driver was not wearing a mask, they would be punished, but on the same day, politicians held large gatherings and drove around the city unmasked (Kumar). The actions of local and national politicians should not be rooted in their security of a political future. Instead, they should start to make improvements to stop the disease like mandating lockdowns, distributing vaccines, reporting an accurate number of cases and deaths, and eliminating hypocritical actions to protect the citizens politicians represent. 

Kumar, Hari. “Indian Police Investigate Whether Scammers Gave Thousands of Shots of Salt Water Instead of Vaccine.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 July 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/04/world/asia/india-covid-vaccine-scam.html. 

Mashal, Mujib, and Hari Kumar. “Complacency and Missteps Deepen a Covid-19 Crisis in India.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Apr. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/world/asia/india-covid-vaccine-variant.html.