Vaccine Discrimination Strategy

Every Govt./ Every Kingdom is procuring vaccines for its citizens/population on its own to be administered at the Govt.’s cost as it is pandemic. Like our PM says, once in a century pandemic. Why is it that Govt. of India is dragging its feet on vaccination? Our Govt. always plays hockey with data is known to everybody. But this time, they are playing ping pong with States as if the citizens represented by Centre and State are two different set of individuals. Especially when India is amongst the top 5 worst handlers of the virus in the world. May be it is about Modiji being loyal to his friend, Mr Doland Trump (Not Donald, as that is how our PM likes to call him).

 

On April 18, 2021, when Corona cases had jumped 2.75 Lakh for the day with 1600+ deaths and our PM was lauding the efforts of the public to attend his rally in West Bengal and expressing his pleasure to see the huge turnout of crowds. The States were making clamour for more vaccines as they had to reach out to its respective citizens with answers to problems and not an explanation for failure to deal with the problem. Perhaps some CMs were just posturing to care which the case may not be.

Barely 50 days with the modified rules of the new Vaccination Program, the policy stands scrapped and new policy has replaced with the old one. Will we witness further changes into the Vaccination Policy, especially because Centre plays dumb down with MoHFW focused on Congress rather than vaccines or perhaps that’s the case with the every Minister of Govt.

 

The arbitrary and irrational vaccination guidelines were framed after receiving the letter from former PM, Dr. Mute Singh. Apparently he is not mute in Opposition and while as PM, his work did the talk rather than tongue. Lets look at what Dr. Singh said and what our Govt. did in response.

First, the government should publicize what are the firm orders for doses placed on different vaccine producers and accepted for delivery over the next six months. If we want to vaccinate a target number in this period, we should place enough orders in advance so that producers can adhere to an agreed schedule of supply.

 

To counter, Data is not the strong forte of our Govt. under Modi. Though their party is empowered with data at every booth level during elections. Govt. has given some numbers of orders placed and we know it will keep revising over the next few months to create total confusion to the already chaos created by our Govt. Guidelines and circulars for gag orders to States on Vaccine stocks have been issued in second week of June.

 

Second, the government should indicate how this expected supply will be distributed across states based on a transparent formula. The central government could retain 10 percent for distribution based on emergency needs, but other than that, states should have a clear signal of likely availability so that they can plan their roll out.

 

On empowerment of States for vaccination, Govt. of India has over extended itself. To bring transparency, Central Govt. developed a quota system and made an effort to wash their hands from vaccine procurement process. The Govt. said, “Manufacturers would transparently make an advance declaration of the price for 50 per cent supply that would be available to State Governments and in open market, before May 1”.

 

Dr Manmohan Singh is talking about distribution process and our Govt. understood it as procurement process. In addition, they have further allayed the process on private hospitals. The quota system of supplies between the Government of India and “other than Government of India” channels would be applicable “uniformly across for all vaccines manufactured in the country”.

 

Third, states should be given some flexibility to define categories of frontline workers who can be vaccinated even if they are below 45 years of age. For example, states may want to designate school teachers, bus, three-wheeler and taxi drivers, municipal and panchayat staff, and possibly lawyers who have to attend Courts as frontline workers. They can then be vaccinated even if they are below 45.

 

On this point, our Govt. agreed fully; so Govt. responded with the change. States have been given the authority to take a call to open vaccination to any category of people above the age of 18 — a shift from the current policy in which the central government decides on age-specific priority groups for vaccination.

 

Fourth, over the past few decades, India has emerged as the largest vaccine producer in the world, thanks to policies adopted by the government and robust intellectual property protection. The capacity is largely in the private sector. At this moment of a public health emergency, the Government of India must proactively support vaccine producers to expand their manufacturing facilities quickly by providing funds and other concessions. In addition, I believe this is the time to invoke the compulsory licensing provisions in the law, so that a number of companies are able to produce the vaccines under a licence. This, I recall, had happened earlier in the case of medicines to deal with the HIV/AIDS disease. As far as Covid-19 is concerned, I have read that Israel has already invoked the compulsory licensing provision and there is an overwhelming case for India to do so as well quickly.

 

On this point, Govt. has extended advance payments to vaccine manufacturers, which they had to pay in any case, but there is no support from Govt.’s end. On compulsory licensing issue, the Govt. does not want to wrong signal to the investing community and they would continue to put all their eggs in two baskets of two domestic manufacturers. Let’s see for how long they drag their feet. Govt. gave affidavit in SC that it is not tenable but the PM is asking for TRIPS waiver in G7 summit for all Covid related medicines/vaccines.

 

Fifth, since domestic supplies are limited, any vaccine that has been cleared for use by credible authorities such as the European Medical Agency or the USFDA, should be allowed to be imported without insisting on domestic bridging trials. We are facing an unprecedented emergency and, I understand, experts are of the view that this relaxation is justified in an emergency. The relaxation could be for a limited period during which the bridging trials could be completed in India. All consumers of such vaccines could be duly cautioned that these vaccines are being allowed for use based on the approval granted by the relevant authority abroad.

 

In response, the Centre has allowed imported, fully ready-to-use vaccines to be entirely utilised in the other-than-Government of India channel. This means that if and when pharma giants like Pfizer bring their vaccines to India, they can directly sell their entire supply in the open market at competitive prices.

To further complicate the India’s Vaccination Policy. Central Govt. is also working on a complex formula. We have 29 States with population size of 135 Crores of people. I really don’t understand who puts such out of the world ideas in our Govt.’s head. Or perhaps they are forced by politics.

 

In the next phase, the Centre will allocate its share of 50 per cent to states based on the extent of infection (number of active Covid cases) and vaccination performance (speed of administration). States are at present receiving vaccine doses based on demand (the number of registrations and walk-in vaccinations). “Wastage of vaccine will also be considered in this criteria and will affect the criteria negatively. Based on the above criteria, State-wise quota would be decided and communicated to the States adequately in advance,” the Centre said.

 

“India has been following a dynamic mapping model based on availability of vaccines & coverage of vulnerable priority groups to take decisions of when to open up vaccinations to other age-groups. A good amount of coverage of vulnerable groups is expected by April 30,” the Centre said.

 

Nobody knows if this policy was in discussion for a day or a week or a month. May be our Govt. was also thinking clearly on the lines of Dr. Manmohan Singh. In order to take credit, they jumbled up the whole issue, wherein our PM is yet to respond to his predecessor and MoHFW headed by Mr. Matru wrote about the politics naming the political parties in response. The reason he could not become part of the discussion process, while inventing the mumbo-jumbo, they are feeding the public amidst the pandemic, when people were dying due to lack of oxygen, hospital, medicines.

 

Central Govt. was heading for a shake down from Supreme Court and hence they changed the policy. Good sense prevailed in our Govt. to scrap the policy. Is it the impending elections in 5 States scheduled for early next year? Everybody knows, our PM’s and our Govt.’s heart and mind is always stuck in elections. They make decisions and formulate policies on how it would appear in elections.

 

Truth is stranger than fiction and an enemy of reality.

BCCI Grounds

Our political leaders are busy taking credit and expect their efforts to be lauded as they ferried a train from Mumbai to Latur, which is suffering from severe drought conditions with people searching even for drinking water. It is not an achievement on the part of the Govt. to provide water by train. I’d say it is rather the shoddy planning whether Congress or BJP that the State has to spend money for ferrying trains and it could not plan or act accordingly so that such condition may not happen.

Looking at the plight of the poor people of Maharashtra, an NGO filed a petition in Bombay HC to shift the IPL matches out from Maharashtra especially now since IPL has two teams from Maharashtra (teams have nothing to do with States but more so with their home ground).

Mukesh Ambani’s wife, Nita Ambani was traveling around Europe and witnessed how the club football created enthusiasm and united people across boundaries and she got her idea to float Indian Super League and now it has already run for three seasons. Perhaps Reliance knows and understand how to look at virgin markets and build them from ground up.

IPL Management has decided to look for an alternative venue for next season outside India. I mean there is one corporate who is trying to revive the culture of football in India. On the other hand, we are trying to deconstruct the culture of cricket in India. First time perhaps in sports that India took a giant leap and gave a new format, new version and style to play the game and more so, that the epicenter of cricket has moved from England to India.

The Court did make a vlid point. How can you (cricket associations and BCCI) waste water like this. People are more important or your IPL matches? How can you be so careless? Who wastes water like this? This is criminal wastage. You know what the condition is in Maharashtra,” a division bench headed by Justices V M Kanade and M S Karnik said, while hearing a PIL filed by the Loksatta Movement NGO. “Ideally, you should shift the IPL matches to some other state where water is in abundance,” the court observed.

BCCI submitted different plans and proposals for the Court to consider but Court wouldn't budge. BCCI gave an excellent idea to use sewerage treated water to water the grounds and the facility for the same has been established by the existing prestigious club in India to water its golf course. The Court questioned BCCI to compensate State for the water used during all the past IPL matches. Which should not be a hard thing for the BCCI to undertake given the fact that they are the richest body in India barring few temples?

The big question remains, why and how the situation has come to such a pass? Not State Government’s, we know them, they engage in damage control and quick fix last minute measures. But the BCCI could have acted at an appropriate time. State could have opted to spend all the taxes and the money received from IPL in setting up and controlling the water situation in the State of Maharashtra. Why the Court asked the BCCI to compensate State for the water and suggested the State otherwise?

Not to mention, IPL shifting out of India will be India’s loss on the cricketing arena and not to mention the fans and revenues accrued from the same and taxes paid to the Govt. to host such events. 

There are close to 50 international cricket grounds/stadiums in the country. The eight stadiums which are made the home grounds of the teams along with their names are normally hosting the cricket matches during other tournaments as well with few sundry or other matches are scheduled at few other locations. Why the process to engage other cricket stadiums has still not been included in IPL? Wherein the home ground is divided amongst two grounds in the State so that the chance to develop the game of cricket and upgradation of infrastructure is spread across the country but what is happening is instead the more money is pumped into the iconic cricket stadiums of the country. 

The High Court order of shifting all matches out of Maharashtra is a blessing in disguise for the BCCI to work on an alternate plan and agenda to spread the virus of IPL across the country. Take the Chandigarh, it helped Dharamshala stadium and the town just by shifting two - three matches in past few IPL seasons. Amritsar can be developed as another alternative ground for Chandigarh, which gives considerable boost to the economy and the culture of the city. 

Mumbai already is in severe grip of cricket fever, why not host few in matches in Nagpur or Goa. Similar should be the case that the matches are spread which will benefit the franchises in increasing the fan base and building different entertainment and lifestyle on the basis of their team’s theme.

But just in case, BCCI decides to move IPL out of India, there should be another petition in the Supreme Court with the Court to keep the tournament in India. VIVO is the chief sponsor of IPL, the forex earnings of the country is going up. Plus the expenditure that the foreign players and visitors spend in India. BCCI perhaps can host few matches outside India in every season again to increase the fan base and the loyalty but logistically implementing the same will be a challenge. 

But in the meantime, IPL should stay in India and the idea of alternate grounds to home for every team should also be developed. The Govt. should work with BCCI to provide sewerage treated water to water grounds at every ground in the country.

Kalam ko Salaam

Going back to the last week of July, there were two events which rocked the nation back and forth, passing away of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and upstage drama leading upto Yakub Memon’s hanging. But before we begin, let’s take a peak into the dialogues of Akshay Kumar from the movie Namastey London.

• §  When we greet one another, we fold our hands in namaste because we believe that God resides in the heart of every human being.
• §  We come from a nation where we allow a lady of Catholic origin to step aside for a Sikh to be sworn in as Prime Minister by a Muslim President to govern a nation of over 80 percent Hindus.
• §  It may also interest you to know that many of the origins of your English words come from Sanskrit. For example, "maatra" becomes "mother", "bhratra" becomes "brother", "giamiti" becomes "geometry", and "trikonniti" becomes "trigonometry".
• §  We have 5,600 newspapers, 35,000 magazines in over 21 different languages with a combined readership of 120 million.
• §  We have reached the moon and back yet you people still feel that we have only reached as far as the Indian rope trick.
• §  We are the third largest nation in the world of doctors, engineers, and scientists. 
• §  Maybe your grandfather didn't tell you that we have the third largest army in the world. And even then, I fold my hands in humility before you because we don't believe that we are above or beneath any individual.

A lot of Indians are in awe of this speech, its does actually makes Englishmen think and take notice. India is more than land of KamaSutra and Yoga or the land of snake charmers as mentioned in the movie. But for me, the particular line of interest is the second bullet point. Such an event would have been possible without Dr. Kalam.

The press has been mentioned as “presstitute” after the last week of July as they gave more coverage to Yakub Memon’s hanging than the uneventful death of Dr. Kalam and eventful celebrations of the genius’ simple life. The greatest irony in the whole situation was the fact a Muslim, a scientist, a Gandhian missile, an OBC category national hero (who in India can possess such traits) died what he believed in most that is changing the mindset or influencing or motivating the future of the country, the students; and a Muslim, a terrorist (or may be not), a Chartered Accountant, a person who was the link (strong or weak, we can keep arguing) between the perpetrators of Bombay ’93 blasts (Mumbai was Bombay then) was hanged to death.

Yakub Memon should be hanged or not, his petitions, plea reached the highest offices of the country in 72 hours prior to his hanging. Nobody processes files in Indian Govt, Office of the President or the Supreme Court in such urgency, which admitted the petition at 9PM on Wednesday for hearing at 2AM Thursday morning, yet he had to meet the Allah and hence files moved with an unknown alacrity.

The sampradayak political shenanigans started buzzing, Yakub Menon is hanged because he is a Muslim or other such notorious stuff which has no relevance to the facts of the case or the fact of the situation. Crime or the law does not see the religion of the person. Maybe, of course they did see a political opportunity to make themselves felt or needed for the community and the result, they may be projected as bigger and better leader.

Probably he belonged to upper/middle class, otherwise dalit sambandhi group would have also raised their flag, that atrocities are taking place against the backward/poor Dalits in the land of Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who created an equal Constitution of India for everybody and yet we are discriminated, that too when we are nearing 70 years of Independence (Modiji refers to 60 years of Congress rule but actually we are nearing 70 and BJP also ruled for 6 years).

If there is a controversy or something new, then only its news, otherwise press is just disseminating the information. Yakub Menon offered more to chat and discuss then Dr. Kalam.

But here comes my moot point, Why is Dr. Kalam not mentioned as a Muslim first? Why didn’t no big/giant Muslim leader offer a passionate speech for Dr. Kalam to inspire people of their own religion (because they believe they exist to protect and harness their minority religion only for their own political leverage)?

Instead he was the only person in the country, who had no religion for people to judge? He was an OBC category scientist but no Dalit came forward and said, I am proud to belong to the Dr. Kalam’s caste and we will achieve more than what he had achieved and we will not use our Caste Card for it.

Dr. Kalam was made President by accident as well. BJP led NDA Govt. was in power, Mr Vajpayee literally fought a no-confidence motion every year during his six years of tenure. BJP wanted to nominate a President of their choice and they were facing issues from every angle, every nook and corner. A party which is often referred to as soft terrorists or hard Hindutva (I don’t understand those terms much) nominated Dr. Kalam.

Every party person lined up behind Dr. Kalam. Every two words that come to describe the magnanimous personality of Dr. Kalam are exact opposites of each other like a Gandhian missile man. We will find few Muslims in this country who will admit that they believe in Gandhian philosophy. Dr. Kalam has designed and delivered the Agni Missile Programme for the nation and yet he is Gandhian (who believed in non-violence).

No Hindu or other leader of this country has been respected as Dr. Kalam and loved, so much so that all the parties irrespective of their ideology or issues, attended his funeral done with full state honour. More so, his quotes and life philosophy continues to aspire the students of a nation like India.

My moot point remains, why is it important to highlight the religion of a terrorist? Why doesn’t the national hero’s religion is of no importance for the people of his religion?

Live-in CHILD

Supreme Court will change the Indian social landscape. Steven and Stephen illustrated in their book Freakonomics, Michigan (or some other state) has less number of crimes because of the legalization of abortion for teenagers in 1970s (due to which there were less number of orphans). Our politicians will keep mud slinging on each other, over women reservations, dalits, temples, mosques, elephants, parks, names to be dedicated, without trying to look at the social fabric and taking the nation away from its old parochial systems.

Picture: (Maybe John and Bipasha are the icons of live-in relationship)

Supreme Court was loud and clear in the case of actress Khushboo. Article 21 of Constitution gives Right to Life, Fundamental Right. Two adults can stay together under one roof without any (registered) relationship, as they wish to. The Court’s lambasted the system for taking complaints against the actress, for her remarks on pre-marital relationship. We are not talking about morality or principles. It’s an individual’s choice, whether to marry or live-in. “Lord Krishna and Radha lived together”, the Court stated.

The Law needs to incorporate these changes and perhaps move a step forward towards registration of live-in relationships. Long live-in relationships as good as marriage was ruled in another ruling. Of course, this path was taken when the relationship lead to reproduction. But now, the case of reproduction has taken us to the next level. Why is it that a man and a woman require a stamp to prove their relationship? Perhaps for the following.

A man is denying his alleged relationship with his live-in partner with whom after living for years together and a baby, he denies any role in reproduction of the baby. What is the fault of the little angel for the choices, two individuals make in their life? Or perhaps realizes he was born by mistake. The female wants compensation from her man for the upkeep of the child. I hope Supreme Court will more likely rule in the lady’s favour.

Shouldn’t such men be ostracized from the society?

Women have choices under such circumstances. Whether to dump the man or accept him?

What Priety Zinta portrayed in movie, Kya Kehna in early 2000 is seeking society’s acceptance and demands not be banished but to be appreciated.

In my teens, after watching movie, I repeated the movie promotions to everybody, “kya app sochte hai, priya (Priety’s protagonist in the movie) ne jo kiya, woh theek kiya” (You believe what Priyadid was right). Most of the people wore an astonished expression. And then would smile/laugh at the stupid question of the youngster. But the question is there and we should have an answer for the question, whether we get or do not get into such kind of situation?

When our economy is growing, our society should also grow, to result in overall Development of the Nation.

The answer, do watch the movie?

As for the case, asking and taking the compensation is the most important aspect. Whether or not to use the money is the woman’s choice.

Legalization

Legalise prostitution if you can't curb it, SC tells Govt.

The Supreme Court Wednesday asked the Centre whether it can legalise prostitution if it is not possible to curb it with punitive measures.

"When you say it is the world's oldest profession and when you are not able to curb it by laws, why don't you legalise it? You can then monitor the trade, rehabilitate and provide of medical aid to those involved in the trade," a bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice A K Patnaik told Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam.

Prostitution is the oldest profession of this world, even SC has reiterated it. Why is it called a profession? One of my friends had said, “If Ved Vatsyayna is referred to as Ved then prostitution can be called as a profession”. It’s difficult to parallel the two. Traditionally it maybe a profession, but within the confines of the law and the society, it is an illegal business. Slavery was first criticized and then abolished as they said you cannot trade human beings. Prostitution is illegal and punishable under IPC (Indian Penal Code) for the one who pays and the one who receives money.

It is not that the Law is not capable to curb this activity. Exploitation of human being is one of the gravest crimes on earth and that too, because of their SEX, demands our urgent attention to the issue. The Law Enforcers are not willing to curb this activity. There is no woman on this Earth who would like to enter this profession by choice. Perhaps there may be few who have no option or may be a convenient way for survival. Add to that the extreme poverty conditions of India. In certain tribal/rural areas, parents are forced to sell one of their daughters to ensure the other children do not die due to hunger. Of course, we cannot justify/argue destroying a person’s life, it is simply unacceptable. Govt. needs to attack the hunger of the poor or maybe the parents. The list of poverty and its consequences are dire in this country.

(A prostitute lifts her skirt)

But then it is an equally popular trade in developed nations, where Govt. even takes the responsibility of the unemployed. Various developed countries have tried to curb this activity by different means, wherein they have worked on the premise that women are victims and we need to show compassion towards their plight. In one of the European country, the legislation says anybody found paying for receiving any favours in sexual activity shall be held punishable, on the same hand it does not talks about wrong doing in the hands of the receiver. It is one of the positive aspects of this Law. But then does this help us in finding the solution? Not really, it may have exacerbated the problems of the sex workers in some other manner.

For every woman engaged/forced into profession, she is supporting more than two human beings on her earnings. Two (human beings) is a conservative figure, it may be her family or the pimp who represents her or police officer who demand bribes from them. Scan through the classifieds of any Mumbai local newspaper, one will know how easy it is to run this business. It is this casualness, which is harming the society. My cab driver took me through the Kamatipura area, the red-light district conditions of Mumbai. Not to mention, the whole area of Grant Road running till Kamatipura is such poverty stricken and it runs a chill in your spine, when you contrast it to Colaba, Nariman Point which are just stone throw away (by Bombay standards) from this area. A child walks upto my window in a moving cab albeit at snail pace and asks, “saab maal chahiye”. I wanted to tell him, you are talking about a human being. Show some respect to your existence, if not them. Within seconds, he markets all types of girls, by their origin, colour, age. I was shouting to my cabdriver, move fast and we are stuck in traffic. Politely I tell him NO, coz there was no point preaching. I was clutching fast to the window handle and rotating it with both hands to push the glass up. Imagine what that child will become when he grows up? I don’t know, if he was pushing for his mother or on behalf of his father (who may be a pimp) or born like that, that even his mother had absolutely no idea what his father might look like.

Supreme Court gave their comments on the PIL filed by an NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan and the intervention application moved by Childline complaining about large scale child trafficking in the country. We need to save these children and give them their childhood back. SC questions, Why don’t you legalize it?

One of our law faculty had said, “Society exists because of Law”.
Legalizing prostitution will help the society. It is difficult to say, when we should be trying to help the sex workers and flee away from this menace and try to make our society a better place to live, where everybody is respected and not sleeps for few pieces of green paper. Legalizing means we have presumed and submitted that prostitution cannot be eradicated from our society.

But then legalization does have its benefits for the sex workers. They can call themselves as sex workers and not always abused at. It will stop the exploitation. They will be given few rights in their hands which they are now deprived of.

(A street of Kamathipura)

Perhaps the present legal structure needs to be restructured to give them equal rights of a human being or as a citizen of India. The structure at the same time, should probably throw an idea or a path to help the victims who have been forced into this activity to leave this profession and lead a life where sex is not an object or means to earn livelihood. It remains just as an expression of love.