• Dr. Abhishek M. Singhvi

A. The unprecedented and uncontrolled COVID crisis in India

• The media, everywhere in the world, is terming it as “World’s Worst Outbreak”! • Patients are dying while their families search in vain for hospital beds. Supplies of oxygen and medicines are running low, leading to robberies of drugs from hospitals. Crematoriums and burial grounds cannot cope with the sheer number of corpses. • The devastation has sparked outrage; at the lack of preparation from the officials’ side who believed that the worst of the pandemic was over. Only two months ago, India was reveling in its success of reining in the spread of the virus. Now it is reporting almost 3.5 lakhs infections and 2,500 deaths a day.
• India currently stands at the first position in the World and is taking 9 days to double the cases. It also stands at possibly number one and certainly number two in terms of daily Corona deaths and now occupies the second position in total number of infections, but, is moving fast to outstrip all others. • Both the number of new cases and the percentage of positive tests are climbing at the fastest rate in the world, with the latter jumping from 3 per cent last month to 16 per cent.
• Delhi is reporting 25,000-30,000 cases everyday and the number of cases is doubling every five days. • The rate of ICU patients in Nagpur at 353 per million is higher than it was anywhere in Europe during the pandemic. Mumbai, the financial capital, has more than 194 ICU patients per million.
• Analyses by International Media have pointed towards under-reporting of deaths. Local news reports for seven districts across the states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar show that while at least 1,833 people are known to have died of Covid-19 in recent days, based mainly on cremations, only 228 have been officially reported. • India’s vaccine preparedness was also worse than it seemed. For months, the Government boasted of a major stockpile of vaccines. The government even launched a “Vaccine Diplomacy” campaign that sent doses to other countries. • On 7 April, Delhi officials said that even a solo car driver would be punished for not wearing a mask properly. The same day, India’s Home Minister drove through a campaign crowd in the state of West Bengal, waving without a mask and throwing rose petals. • There is hardly any research on the new variant and the ICMR and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has hardly ensured that the research on vaccines/ boosters for new viruses is initiated. • Instead of managing our own crisis, the government has been exporting crucial elements. In the past few months, it has exported 6.5 crore doses of vaccines; 11 lakh Remdesivir injections; 9300 MT of Oxygen; 2 crore COVID testing kits exported every month. • The heart-rending cry of anguish from hospitals, doctors, patients and others comes from every nook and cranny of the country, especially from those literally gasping for breath from an oxygen-starved system.

B. Amidst this crisis, the Hon’ble SC’s intervention on April 22, 2021, is totally uncalled for. Unfortunately, it is wrong, wrong and wrong.

• It is wrong because it is not suomotu ameliorative but a reaction to palliative High Court orders. • It is wrong because decentralization not over centralization - judicial, administrative and societal—is the need of the hour. • It is wrong because the SC has not done, and perhaps because of its apex nature could not have done, what diverse HCs have done, especially what the Delhi HC did at 9 pm to give some relief to the oxygen-starved ‘AamAadmi’ of Delhi. • It is wrong because the SC should not at the 11th hour, with one day’s notice, and on the very last day of the incumbent CJIs term of office, have virtually paralyzed on-going action in the country, giving a healing touch to local problems at the local level. • It is wrong because the SC is ill-equipped to deal with such local issues, local logistics and should not supplant that local touch on the erroneous and fallacious touchstone of uniformity. • It is wrong because such orders have a demoralizing, chilling, paralyzing and negative effect on the excellent work being done by other non-governmental institutions of governance, including HCs. • It is wrong because it may have the unintended effect of legitimation of the utter failure of the central government on all fronts in its anti-Covid policies and actions. • It is wrong because the order is narrow based in terms of persons. It does not involve any other of the diverse stakeholders—NGOs, genuine bona fide public-spirited individuals, members of the Bar with a proven track record in such matters, experts, unbiased, objective and non-affiliated persons of eminence and not even the Attorney General. • It is wrong because it in fact enhances the closed and incestuous circle of the Central government or connected/affiliated persona and seeks to find a solution from amongst those responsible for the crisis in the first place. • It is wrong because the SC, having been unable or unwilling to take hard, concrete steps for solution and significant mitigation of Covid related hardships over the last 15 months has in fact intervened at the peak of the crisis in a manner which may well retard and impede effective ongoing solution-oriented measures.

C. The sterling work by diverse High Courts and the all-round criticism of the SCs intervention from diverse quarters is mentioned in detail in the Annexure.

D. Questions by the Congress party

• The High Courts were efficiently upholding the citizens’ right to life and holding the government accountable in a more nuanced way on a case-to-case basis. Then, what is the need to prevent them from discharging their duties? • The SC has also decided to appoint a Non-resident Indian as Amicus Curiae while appearing and arguing in a case to reopen a plant that was shut down ( and not allowed to be opened by earlier SC orders) for green violations, albeit for the stated reason of production of oxygen cylinders? • It is unfortunate and concerning to see the crucial office of the Attorney General being undermined. Why was he, as the number one constitutionally designated officer of the court, not even called upon? • A vaccine is certainly a public good at the time of such emergency. Under a declared disaster of the pandemic, why is there a differential pricing brought in place? • Why has the government failed to bring proper infrastructure of Covid management despite wasting almost one and a half year? Wasn’t the time adequate? • Why was the government clueless, in terms of preventive, research and curative measures, and not ready with an action plan, especially for mutants known from at least September 2020 and acknowledged as the established trajectory of most pandemics? • Why is the government under reporting cases of infections and deaths?
• Why have the number of tests gone down in places like Delhi, which is hardly conducting 1 lakh tests per day? • Why is it taking 3-5 days to get the report of a Covid test? Why is it taking as long as 6-8 hours for people to stand in the queue to get tested for Covid? • Why did the top two office-bearers of the BJP government - the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, relocate themselves to West Bengal, despite the Home Ministry being the nodal agency for managing Covid? • Why did the PM’s address to the nation fail on tangible and concrete assurances, facts and figures, including flawless Oxygen supply, increasing of beds, ICUs, and ventilators, increasing the number of tests, steps to reduce infections, etc.? • Why is there a shortage of everything? What are the plans of the government to tackle the issue of the shortage of beds in the state Government hospitals, private hospitals, shortage of vaccine dosage, shortage of oxygen, etc.? • Why has the PM not yet opened up on the PM CARES fund? When will he hold himself accountable for the money contributed by the citizens? When will he begin to really CARE?

Based on the Press Briefing by Dr. Abhishek M. Singhvi on April 23, 2021