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Video Producer: Shohini Bose
Video Editor: Vivek Gupta
Camerapersons: Athar Rather, Shiv Kumar Maurya
India is inexplicable. Arguably, it also has the most inefficient State on earth. Too many infants die, many who survive are malnourished, we exploit women citizens, our forests are depleting, our rivers are drying, urban drains stink and overflow, undertrial prisoners languish without bail, minorities ghettoise in dread, and young people remain unemployed in their most productive years. Yet, we see a curious paradox. Indians continue to have a touching faith in their State!
Suddenly, glossy logos and jingles began to assault our senses. Airtel, Orange, HDFC, ICICI, Jet, Kingfisher, Indigo, Zee, Star, Sony – all private products trying to wean disgruntled Indian consumers away from dour/dull MTNL, BSNL, Bank of India, Air India, and Doordarshan.
Yet, every survey in those days would throw up a mysterious conundrum:
Frankly, while it may have appeared counter-intuitive, there was a somewhat cruel explanation for this “love of the State”. At one level, we suffered under a super State that had kept us poor, but at another level, that grinding poverty also kept us in bondage to the state.
Until now. Until a tiny virus has forced the monster on its knees. In 45 days of trying to vaccinate the country on its own, the Indian State has struggled with an astonishingly paltry daily average of 350k doses. At such a poor vaccination rate, it could take 1,800 days, or five years, to just vaccinate the cohort of 300 million vulnerable people, from frontline workers to the 50-years-plus elderly.
So, the Indian State scampered/retreated, throwing everything open to the “oft ridiculed” private sector – now anybody in the cohort can walk in at any health facility anywhere in India showing any kind of photo ID to get the jab. From “no, you won’t”, it’s now pleading “please do anything, dear private people, but save my country from Armageddon”.
So, we’ve seen two massive retreats by our imperious state in a single month. I reckon the Ides of March came early this year, in February, when the Indian State made peace with its incapacity.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)