Time for people to walk the talk

Even as the second wave has predictably unleashed a tsunami of despondency and crashed our hopes of an early recovery, we are committed to exhibit our capabilities on the three 'R's - Relief, Rehabilitation and Resilience, almost simultaneously

Early April, when the Amravati cases in Maharashtra were raising alarm bells for the whole State and other parts of the country were watching with concern at the sudden resurgence of Covid-19, a senior friend from Delhi told me,“It's clearly because of local trains in Mumbai and you folks in Pune spending too much time in work, at bars and restaurants. But do not worry we know how to handle this in the country, and all will be well.” At my concern that this second wave with new virus strains could see daily new case levels soar from less than a lakh to three lakh levels by end of the month, he scoffed “Let’s not get pessimistic now, it will never happen.”

Sadly, that early bravado quickly disappeared as the situation across Maharashtra worsened with four cities – Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur and Nasik competing for record case numbers and Delhi suddenly scaling new peaks. The rest of the country concerned that the tens of lakhs of Kumbh river dippers and the large turnouts in election rallies across the country could add to the crisis started seeing cases rising in many states and before one could say Covid-19, the dreaded three lakh daily numbers were breached, and India became the worst hit in the world. There are many allegations of Governments sleeping at the wheel and blind to the huge iceberg looming to create a health wreckage of titanic proportions; of individuals indulging in black marketing and hoarding and continuing disregard of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour in many parts of the country but the bottom line is this… a time comes when our leaders look out of their depth in an unprecedented crisis and that calls for citizens to come to the fore, with all capable women and men putting their cynicism aside and exploring pathways to do something-for their city and their country.

As a case study of Public Private Partnerships and collaborative success, there is no need to look further than Pune. In the first phase of Covid-19, the Pune Platform was set up to provide monetary and other forms of support to the hospitals of the city and helped the medical and administrative fraternity to cope with the crisis. Our leader Sudhir Mehta demonstrated extraordinary sagacity and rallied an entire city’s corporate and individual philanthropists to the cause.

When the second wave hit, it has not taken Sudhir long to keep the hospital group as well as a new support group going and citizens as well as industry leaders like Mukesh Malhotra, Ritu Chhabria and the Government represented by Additional Commissioner Rubal Agarwal leading from the front, keeping both information and assistance flowing to avoid unnecessary panic.

When the Oxygen crisis hit the country, Mission Vayu, mounted to import hundreds of ventilators and thousands of oxygen concentrators from Singapore was set up to avoid the unnecessary loss of thousands of lives. At the time of writing this, the results of these initiatives are yet to be declared but anecdotally, the generous offer of a couple of crores by industrialist Abhay Firodia and the enthusiastic response of many proud Pune citizens have given us the confidence that this city will again demonstrate why it is part of the global “Resilient Cites” network.

What stops us as human beings from collaborating everywhere like this? As a keen student of human nature, I offer you three reasons-first, we believe that we have elected a government, at the city, state and central level and we pay taxes so why on earth can’t they all get on with their job and deliver citizen service? Second, our concern is first ourselves and our families and barring a few socially minded folks, we will scurry to get our own vaccine jabs but make no effort to even persuade ten people to do so themselves, far less help people in underprivileged communities. And third, in a crisis, our first concerns are for the stock market and the performance of our mutual funds and we get extremely tight-fisted with our money, not realising that a donation at this stage can truly make a difference to so many. Philanthropy in Western countries starts when people are in their twenties; in India, can we follow a honourable “Living my Promise” idea that many of us have signed up to and commit to giving away fifty per cent of what we have to people who need it so badly?

A year ago, I wrote in this column that we will go through three phases of city transformation during and after Covid-19-Relief, Rehabilitation and Resilience. Even as the second wave has predictably unleashed a tsunami of despondency and crashed our hopes of an early recovery, we are being called upon to exhibit our capabilities on the three 'R's almost simultaneously. If we do this with all sincerity and avoid the rhetoric that calls for heads to roll and looks for people to blame, let us continue to work in a spirit of One City One India and we will still prevail and move on with our lives!