INDIA’S UPSIDE-DOWN GOVERNMENT: 500 COVID-19 Cases Found, Strict Lockdown Imposed; 2 Million Cases Prevailing, India Heading For An Epic 3.0 Unlock? | Is An Unlock Necessary Having People’s Lives At Stake!

Coronavirus– The word that has become so popular that it has marked its presence in every part of our life. The fear of the word COVID-19 is remembered more than the enchanting of prayers. Let me open your eyes for you. Lockdown was imposed on March end when COVID-19 case was just 500. Now, COVID 19 cases hit the landmark taking above 1 million infected but where did that strict lockdown go? you might agree with me on how the intensity of once present fear is not there in you,  me, or anyone else. The fear we had when our country’s COVID-19 count was 500 is not there when it’s above 1 million cases now. Why? We have started attending marriages, conducting meetings, traveling to our hometown amidst, laying the foundation for temple amidst the ongoing pandemic. People seem to be getting back to normal, the fear has come down. How did we arrive from a state of extreme panic to the mindset of not caring about its existence? Well, that’s the most interesting thing coronavirus has thought for us. The government is planning for an unlock 3.0. No coronavirus- we got strict lockdown imposed, surging cases each day – we are getting solacing unlock? Does this make any sense? Well, both people and the government have been played.

The answer seems to lie in a basic psychological concept called the Kubler Ross Model. Whenever faced with calamities, tragedy, disaster, accident, death, divorce, or any negative significant event in our life we all pass through five stages that help our brain to adapt to the new normal. The five stages include Denial, Anger, Bargain, Depression and Acceptance.

It sounds like five different words have been clasped together but these flow through a series of stages. Let us explain. Denial is the first stage, which means refusing to believe such a thing ever happened. Let’s connect it to our own COVID-19 experience. Have we not denied in the beginning? Didn’t we argue how this corona will never come to us? Then we began generating beautiful myths to cope with the surging reality suggesting even if it comes, it will not spread to our place, due to the hot weather? And we did believe in it. It’s an irony now to see what all justification our brain formed and how easy did it spread from one person to another. Even if China was right above us, we denied its existential threat with some silly trick of the brain. But that’s how the brain reacts to the sudden change of life which is completely normal. We tried denying it, but the reality is too much to handle. We begin to realize how the control of our life is beginning to slip off from us and how has drastically life changed in just such a short period. We feel a sense of protective instinct that is expressed in a form of anger which is our next stage. The lockdown has packed us all inside our home. The freedom we once had is no more. For some people, anger was over the loss of income, the loss of normal life, due to lockdown, etc. Anger is our survival instinct and it’s completely natural to feel angry.

After realizing that being protective have got us nothing, anger hasn’t changed over the situation outside and inside ourself, we begin to move towards the most complex yet one of the most fooling coping mechanism- the bargain. Why did this come? Why is it happening? Why me? Why so much misery around? Please reduce this pain. Please relax lockdown. We will maintain social distance; we will take precautions to save us. We just want to see the sky. Just want to talk to my sick grandmother, you can relate to you, right? That’s the bargaining offer we produce to the world as we are in the third stage. Then, when no method worked, when the pain prevailed and the miserable life did continue we were pushed to see the reality. The reality of how we are locked inside. Every thought from which we were fighting so much has overtaken us. It brings the reality of the current situation, the financial state, future employment state, work from home torture, low wage cutoff with the fact that we have lost so much time to realize all together brings us down. Then the eye-opener happened. We began to accept the fact that yes, some virus has come, it is dangerous but with precaution, it is not as fatal as running out of money would be. Once we accepted the truth, we realized what we have been doing. Sitting inside the home didn’t stop coronavirus from coming taking its place amongst us, if we stop us now, we might as well lose our living either to coronavirus or for coronavirus. The sooner we accept the truth the sooner we begin to see over the masked government’s failure.

After seeing this we can come to understand that the government has accepted the fact that there is no relief from this virus. It was indeed a lousy lockdown plan. They tried taking advantage of our fear to contain the virus and failed to realize what will be the serious consequences of such lockdown. If we had been working instead of sitting at home we might have been able to pay the hospital bills. Online classes have begun, fees are being collected. But parents are standing here with no money in the pocket. What should those children do? What will the millions of unemployed people do? Was trusting government our biggest mistake? Or did we fail to realize the failure of this strategy? America has cases rising at such a speed and their president still seems to be in the denial stage. Well, the consequences are at least justifiable. 

But here in India, Five months in lockdown, international export and import halted, international airlines cut off, domestic transport hindered, crops turned dry, every citizen’s pocket emptied yet we are the third worst-hit country. India was an amazing developing country that was working on building Abdul kalam’s India 2020. The Indian government did work towards that goal but instead of fulfilling it, they just pushed us back towards the pitfall. If farmers were led to selling their crops at their peak season they would at least have some money for living. We speak so much about agricultural development and whatnot, but the reality has only brought us a fatal blow. How much will the people Bare? India does have a fatality rate of 67%. Why didn’t we focus on finding or improving that medical research? Now when the real risk of increased spread prevails, the government plans the magnificent unlock! People have gone through the stages and have started to accept the truth but if we didn’t step up now than the government will surely push us on the brink of poverty. Let’s pull the veil government’s veil out and put forth the question. What did the government succeed in doing? Oh! Well, they successfully eradicated the surviving will from every citizen. As a citizen of India, we have the freedom of speech and it’s our sole right to question the government over its incompetence and make them realize the consequences they have done to us. Let’s raise our voice today! If not now, then when?