Multiple levels of casual attitude led to second surge of COVID-19: Dr. Shastri

New Delhi, Apr 27: As India grapples with the second and a deadlier wave of COVID-19 cases, many questions have been raised about the preparedness as well as the reason behind the spread.

There is no doubt that there have been multiple levels of casual attitudes with regard to the pandemic in second round, leading political scientist, Dr. Sandeep Shastri tells OneIndia.

If one speaks about the elections, I would say that that in the first round there was awareness and precautions were taken. However in the second round, all the stake-holders took it lightly. This is because they felt that the vaccination drive had begun and the first phase of the pandemic had been handled well. This led to general laxity across and people took it too lightly, Dr Shastri says. If one went out of the urban areas, then there was very little observation of the pandemic protocols.

The other reason for the spread is the haste with which public places were opened. Be it education, religious institutions, entertainment spots, all were opened in haste. Schools and colleges got back large numbers students, malls and cinemas opened and marriages were taking place with hardly any protocols being followed. All this led to clusters and this second element of laxity increased the case load, said Dr.Shastri.

I would blame the authorities for not clamping down and the citizens for not taking the norms strongly. Reports about marriages, gatherings or programmes in hotels are all reflections of people taking the norms lightly, he also added. He further said that the lockdown did see people being constrained and when we opened up we did so without restrictions.

The other reason that escalated the crisis was the inability to take hard decisions. We needed to have the fine balancing line between returning to normal and caring for health. Balancing between prioritising of health of people and permitting economic activity requires a lot of planning, thinking through and strategising, he further said.

During the campaign, all political parties have given very little importance to health precautions. Road shows and rallies should have been avoided. This ought to have been the case for processions and big events. Every political party for short term gains of wanting to win has preferred to throw caution to the winds and showed scant regard to COVID-19 norms, he added.

Are we so desperate to continue an election process, when the requirement was to take caution. Parties should have set an exam by following those protocols. In our desperation to win, the long term interest of the country and the citizens has been lost sight of, Dr. Shastri said.

Today there is citizen cynicism. You cannot justify something on the basis of what others did. We have to define our priority. We could have been proactive, but today we are being reactive says Dr. Shastri.