New Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya faces the biggest test of his political career

Mansukh Mandaviya’s appointment as Union health minister is perhaps the most important one in the mega-cabinet reshuffle.

In the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, which has claimed 4.05 lakh lives in India so far, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has trusted a relatively young Member of Parliament from his home state to lead the Health Ministry.

Mansukh Mandaviya’s appointment as Union health minister is perhaps the most important one in the mega-cabinet reshuffle, as the Centre aims to meet its ambitious target of vaccinating the entire adult population by late December, and limit the damage from an expected ‘third wave’ of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On July 8, Mandaviya attended his first cabinet briefing as health minister, and fended off questions on the trolling he has received on social media for some of his older tweets with a disarming smile.

The soft-spoken Mandaviya, a health-conscious Rajya Sabha member who cycles to Parliament, started his political career with the Akhil Bharati Vidyarthi Parishad before moving to the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He was first elected as Member of Gujarat’s Legislative Assembly in 2002 from Palitana, and that time was the youngest MLA to do so.

Having worked closely with Modi since then, Mandaviya was the chairman of Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation Ltd.

He has been a member of Rajya Sabha since 2012 and before his promotion to full cabinet minister rank, he has been the Minister of State for Fertilizers and Chemicals, Road Transport and Shipping.

Challenges

As the health minister, Mandaviya can be considered the custodian of allopathic medicine and research in India. As per his views on social media, he is also a believer in other forms of medicine such as Ayurveda and homoeopathy.

Even before his new tenure in the Health Ministry, Mandaviya is credited with setting up over 5,000 Jan Aushadhi stores to provide more than 850 kinds of medicines at affordable rates, an initiative which shows why Modi trusts him with a crucial portfolio.

In the medium term, the two biggest challenges he faces are to ensure that the pace of vaccination improves, with enough supply stock in reserve, and that the infrastructure and trained personnel are in place to deal with the ‘third wave’.

As of July 8, nearly 37 crore COVID shots have been given. More than 36.08 lakh vaccines have been administered in the last 24 hours. This is much short of the record 88 lakh vaccinations administered on June 21, and to even reach close to the steep target of fully vaccinating 94 crore adults with two doses, the centre will have to ramp up daily coverage to more than 70 lakh doses at least. Only about 4 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.

Officials say that the Centre is serious about meeting the target of 1 crore daily doses, by sometime in early August. But for that, the supply side issues have to be sorted out.

This will be an immediate priority of Mandaviya. He will have to work with the private sector to ensure that there is a steady supply of vaccines like Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Serum Institute’s Covishield, the Russian Sputnik vaccine, as well as expected supplies from Moderna and Pfizer once those clearances are given.

Experts are already warning of a third wave, and the efforts in the government will be to ensure that the shortage of critical supplies like hospital beds, oxygen, and life savings drugs, which was witnessed in the second wave, is not repeated. At the cabinet briefing on July 8, Mandaviya touched upon his plans to increase the number of COVID facilities around the country.

In his new job, Mandaviya has metaphorically been thrown into the deep end. How he navigates the COVID-19 pandemic over the next six months could determine a lot of things, from lives of citizens to the ruling party’s political fortunes.