In the New Year, we can hope India and the rest of the world will bounce back and show the resilience of mankind to adversity
As a child who grew up in the 1990s, like so many Indians we saw hope in our country after the economy was opened up. Things have not quite panned out according to plan over the past three decades, but it would be fallacious to argue that India has not progressed.
We had hoped that by 2020, India would be standing tall among other nations on earth, yet the natural fault lines of caste, religion, creed and sex still divide us. It is no point blaming one side over another, as every side is responsible. We are told that India is a young country and that youth brings us hope, but after a brutal year in which millions have lost their income and education has come to a standstill, India faces a challenge like no other nation on earth. It is a challenge that each and every one of us must stand up to and do our part and, in this regard, we can take some inspiration from India’s premier sports team, the men’s Test cricket team which, after being pummeled to the ground in Adelaide, saw each and every team member on the field and off the field stand up and do his part in achieving a victory a few days ago that no one — not one commentator or one fan — saw coming. It was a comprehensive victory, and when we are told that sports is but an imitation of life, this Test victory which might not eclipse the dramatic win at Eden Gardens of 2001, is one that should teach all of us the power of resilience and that together, we can overcome even the toughest situations.
But while many of us will want to write off 2020 as a lost cause, we should not do that. Yes, many of us lost loved ones during the year, many millions have died due to the accursed pandemic, and others lost jobs and opportunities. But new life has also come into the world, there were children born in trains taking migrants back home; it has also been a blessing that the pestilence that has overtaken our lives has by and large spared young ones.
Most of us were very careful in the early days of the lockdown in the months of March, April and May, deserted streets in major cities made them look like ghost towns as if an apocalypse has wiped out humanity, well, thankfully it had not. Of course, there has also been the indiscretion and stupidity of youth on display of late, crowding bars, beaches and, in Goa right now, the dance floor. Yet, most of humanity has stepped up to the plate, microbiologists and vaccine scientists have worked around the clock for the past nine months to ensure that a safe and successful vaccine can be developed. Others such as frontline medical staff, emergency workers, police and even municipal staff have put their own lives at risk to ensure that things do not collapse. Over here, one must thank the countless number of delivery men and women who ensured that the wheels of commerce stayed on and did not fall off altogether.
It is dismaying to many of us to see people gathering with little or no worry at large gatherings where social distancing norms go for a toss and mask compliance is non-existent. The development of vaccines is not the same as deployment and the eventual deployment of a vaccine in a country of 1.3 billion will be a logistical and administrative challenge like no other. It is also true that Central, State and municipal governments have made mistakes, several of them in fact, indeed early celebrations of “management” in some areas and States were premature.
But if one is to believe the numbers, while far too many have died, India has done a relatively good job and possibly some of the benefits of herd immunity have indeed kicked in, particularly in densely populated slum areas. That is no reason to celebrate, and antipathy towards political leadership should not be a reason to disobey public health missives because the challenges that lie ahead of us in 2021 are immense.
Despite some sectors showing promise, the manufacturing economy is in ruins. Millions of workers have headed home from the industrialised hubs of the country. Even some sectors like automobile, which have shown promise in the past few months, are being extremely cautious for 2021. In a country like India, where demographics are skewed towards the young, the lack of job creation over the past year, keeping in mind that things were already slowing down in 2019, has been devastating. An army of unemployed and frustrated youth is a challenge for any nation and urgent reforms coupled with demand creation, whether that is through tax reduction or incentives, are necessary for job creation. The Finance Ministry has been smart in not overplaying its hand too soon, despite what the Opposition has asked for. Narendra Modi maintains his immense personal popularity and political capital, despite 2020 being a year bookended by protests surrounding the Capital. The New Year will be a year for some hard political and economic decisions by the Government.
We can only hope that 2021 will be the year in which India and the rest of the world can successfully bounce back and show the resilience of mankind to adversity. We must remain cautious against enemies both small, like the virus, and large, like on our borders. And we should all do our bit to ensure that we can prevail. Here is wishing each and every one of our readers a very Happy New Year and hoping that 2021 will be a lot better.
