It’s a crass management catastrophe. The handling of the devastating second wave of the Covid crisis by the Centre has evoked a sense of both fear and despair among the people across the country, to say the least. The shortage of beds and oxygen has reached an alarming situation, not to mention the scarcity of vaccine and testing centres. The Executive’s utter failure has had the judiciary step in some States. Worse, the blame game doesn’t seem to ebb with Chief Ministers of Opposition States accusing the other of taking or stopping their oxygen supply, as the surge in Covid cases reached three lakh for the second consecutive day.

Even Prime Minister Modi’s video conferencing on Friday morning with 10 State Chief Ministers, who have been sending SOS to the Centre, including that of Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh and Delhi ended up in bad taste. Will the Centre issuing orders under the DMA that no State can hold up supplies of oxygen to another State, help rather work, is the question for the demand oversteps the supply. People are dying gasping for breath. These past days have seen Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh accusing fingers at each other of  “looting” its oxygen tanker meant for their hospitals! Does it help in any way giving the citizens’ shattered confidence that the crisis would be overcome?

The Supreme Court has stepped in and taken suo moto cognisance of the pandemic and directed the Centre to put in place a national policy on issues relating to the supply of oxygen, essential drugs and method of vaccination. Too little, too late some may say. Six High Courts, which have been hearing-related petitions involving the crisis of oxygen, beds, and the anti-viral drug Remdesivir in hospitals, have clearly questioned the Centre’s handling of the situation. The Delhi High had this to say to it:  “beg, borrow or steal” to ensure adequate oxygen to the capital and that it seemed “human lives are not that important…for the state.” The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court took cognisance of the lack of availability of Remdesivir in the district and revived a PIL it had taken upon its own motion in 2020 on the government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis.

Likewise, the Allahabad HC had passed an order imposing a lockdown in five districts of UP, though it was overturned by the SC. Apart from these the Bombay High Court, Madras High Court and Karnataka HC are hearing cases related to the pandemic. Clearly, a sad reflection on the Executive. Surely, it can rather not scoff at it as judicial overreach. Instead, it would do well to get its act together, lest the State collapses and fails miserably.