So it took me two years, 3 doses of vaccine, and multiple corona tests before I made my way back home to India. I thought after 2 years of the pandemic and the disastrous handling during the second wave, I thought the Indian central and the state governments would be wiser. But was I wrong?
I traveled from Frankfurt, Germany to New Delhi and then onwards to Kolkata. So according to the rules, I had to carry a PCR report, which needed to be checked at Kolkata and I had to self-isolate and get tested after that. When I landed in Delhi, I had to undergo a PCR test after which I was allowed to pass through immigration and exit the airport. After I took the connecting flight and there was no check. I landed at Kolkata airport and again there was no checking. I went to my final destination and again there was no contact from the local authorities. After 7 days, I went to the local health center to get tested and they were surprised that I wanted to be tested despite having no symptoms. Apparently, they were unaware of the rules for foreign travelers. THe person who took my sample, well had no protective gear, even the mask was missing. This was around Christmas when omicron was just about starting to rear its ugly head all over India.
So, it made me realize that no matter which party is in power, there are a bunch of incompetent civil servants who are running the show with no accountability. The political masters are happy to just be in power and milk taxpayers’ money and have no wish to bring any meaningful changes. This happened in West Bengal, a state ruled by the Trinamool Congress and whose leader aspires to become the Prime Minister of India one day. If she is incompetent at the state level, what can we expect her to do at the national level is a question to ponder. Also while I was in Bengal, the number of cases rose dramatically and one of the measures that the state govt. took was to ban flights from New Delhi and Mumbai as they were going through the omicron peaks but, trains were allowed. And our airline also found an innovative way for us to get back to Delhi, They just rerouted us via Hyderabad. So that’s that of the travel ban.
I am writing this blog to highlight the lack of credible political leadership in India. The situation is so dire in India that people are slowly but surely getting fed up with the Central govt and Narendra Modi but when they look elsewhere there is no one credible face to replace him. Hence the people are happy with the status quo something which happened in the first 50 years of our independence when Congress was in power for the majority of the period as all opposition parties were deemed to lack the national presence and the required administrative skills to govern the country. I just hope that the educated people of our country do rise up someday and allow us to make the change for us to really go out on the path to development.
Arindam's musings 