COVID-19 in India | Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech instils hope, but challenges lie ahead

PM Narendra Modi

There’s no denying that the impact of the second wave of COVID-19 has been devastating — making matters worse was that the health crisis was also politicised. But the India story has yet again showed that perseverance pays off: from a peak of 400,000-plus cases in the first week of May, India on June 6 reported a little over 100,000 new cases.

This success has been achieved because the states have worked in tandem with the Centre. The lifting of lockdown restrictions in many cities across India on June 7 is a corollary to this. At the same time, the extension of lockdowns in a few states is a reminder that we are not yet out of the woods. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on June 7 evening should be seen in this light: it reassures, allays fears and apprehensions about India’s fight against COVID-19, and, above all, inspires hope.

Modi’s address has two main points: one, he announced that India would go back to its earlier policy where the Centre would procure and distribute vaccines to the states; and two, the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) till Diwali (November). The second announcement is aimed at helping up to 800 million poor in the country.

Modi started his speech by talking about the unprecedented crisis the nation was facing. This was an important gesture as it is an acknowledgement of the fact that the past two months have been tough for many across the country.

Unfortunately, a pandemic does not come with a playbook, and India, like many other nations (including richer developed countries), has been learning and framing the rules as we progress through this pandemic. Modi’s second point was pertaining to this — that India has stepped up to the challenge and invested heavily in healthcare over the past few months to meet the demand.

The change in vaccine policy is the highlight of his speech. The Centre has decided to take back the 25 percent of vaccine procurement that was handed over to the states since May 1, and from June 21, the Centre will be procuring and distributing vaccines. Since May 1, it became evident that individual states competing with each other for the limited supply of vaccines was not an economically prudent model. Another factor which might have influenced the Centre’s decision to go back to its initial policy was the Supreme Court’s observation that "…the rational method of proceeding in a manner consistent with the right to life (which includes the right to health) under Article 21 would be for the Central Government to procure all vaccines and to negotiate the price with vaccine manufacturers.”

The Centre has accounted for this expenditure by allocating Rs 35,000 crore in the Budget for FY21-22. So far, about Rs 5,000 crore has been utilised, and if required, additional amounts will be sought via supplementary demand for grants in Parliament.

Another relief in Modi’s speech was the decision to cap the service charges for vaccines administered from private hospitals at Rs 150. Earlier news reports had showed how prices varied from private hospital to private hospital — the June 7 announcement puts an end to this confusion. This is also a clear sign that the government responding to the flaws observed in the vaccination model and is correcting them as well. By allotting 25 percent of the vaccines under the paid model, the financial burden is mitigated to a small extent. It also helps in reducing the vaccination burden on the government.

Now, with the vaccine policy cleared, there are challenges for both the Centre and state governments. With vaccine production set to increase in the weeks to come, supply side bottlenecks are expected to clear up. But that is not enough. If this virus needs to be checked, the speed and spread of vaccinations must increase. More vaccines, other than Covishield and Covaxin, need to be introduced and aggressively promoted. With more vaccines being approved for inoculation, the vaccine coverage is likely to increase and this will also reduce the load on the ‘Made in India’ vaccines. More types of vaccines would mean different protocols for transfer and administration. Here seamless co-ordination between the Centre and states is essential. We have examples of how India achieved seemingly the impossible by eradicating many diseases in the past decades.

It will be a while before we eradicate COVID-19, if we ever can. This would mean that the Centre and states need to learn to work in a manner that upholds the federal principles of governance our Constitution upholds. It would mean that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which runs the government at the Centre and many states, and various political parties ruling in the other states must rise above politics and keep politicking aside, at least until we have put this dark chapter in human history behind us.