How willful ignorance and distortion of facts is endangering millions in rural Uttar Pradesh
Babloo Yadav’s brother-in-law died a few days ago. When the author inquired about the cause, the pained reply was, “Pata nahin bhaiya, bukhar tha”. Doctor kuch bata nahin paye,” roughly translates to, “We don’t know, he had a fever, the doctors could not diagnose.” This is a pattern that is repeating in millions of homes across rural Uttar Pradesh where people are supposedly dying of fever, typhoid, pneumonia, or whatever else they choose to assume in the absence of testing and clear diagnosis.
A state of dystopia is characterized by unimaginable suffering, totalitarianism, willful ignorance of the rulers towards the misery of their subjects, and distortion of facts to hide reality. Now let us examine whether Uttar Pradesh meets these dystopian parameters.
Unimaginable Suffering
The images of bodies floating in rivers in Uttar Pradesh across multiple districts, cremation grounds running out of firewood and poor villagers burying their near and dear ones in the sand for lack of resources, speaks volumes of the untold misery that has been inflicted on the people of Uttar Pradesh at the hands of an uncaring and callous government. Uttar Pradesh on the 16th of May recorded 10,505 fresh Covid-19 cases that took the infection count to 16,19,645 while 308 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 17,546; making it the fourth most affected state by infections and third in terms of deaths (source: JHU CSSE COVID-19 Data ). The numbers do not fully capture the plight of the people and in all likelihood, fall well short of the actual numbers. Reports in NDTV, Newslaundry, and article14 from Lucknow, Meerut, and Kanpur indicate that the most populous cities of Uttar Pradesh may be reporting seven times fewer COVID deaths as revealed when the official data is corroborated against the number of bodies being cremated. International data also indicates that given India’s population and the extent of disease spread we should expect many more deaths. The situation is even worse in rural Uttar Pradesh where there is no tracking of the dead being disposed of by family members.
Totalitarianism
Unable to change the narrative on the Corona debacle in the state, recently the Yogi Adityanath government issued an utterly despotic threat to its citizens, that those “spreading misinformation” or “rumor” would be detained under the National Security Act (NSA) and their property seized. The State Police took a cue from the government and launched a campaign against its own citizens wherein the ADG, Law, and Order, Prashant Kumar, said some unscrupulous elements were indulging in rumor-mongering on social media and were posting similar messages repeatedly.
“It appears like there is an attempt to tarnish the image of the government,” Mr. Kumar said in a video statement.
In response, the Supreme Court of India had to issue a warning to the state against any attempt to clamp down on the dissemination of information about the serious health crisis besetting the country or calls for help through social media from citizens affected by COVID-19.
Willful Ignorance
The people of Uttar Pradesh are enduring the double whammy of a rampaging virus as well as a government in denial. An example of willful ignorance is the claims that there is no shortage of any critical supplies in Uttar Pradesh which is contradicted by an investigative article in India.com on the prevalent oxygen shortage. This preposterous claim of the government is belied also by the lived experience of the citizens with social media and WhatsApp groups full of requests for oxygen, hospital beds, and medicines of various hues.
With the virus running rampant across the vast hinterlands of rural Uttar Pradesh with its ramshackle health infrastructure, the tall claims of the government of aggressive contact tracing and door to door testing in rural areas are also exposed by a hard-hitting India Today investigative article which highlights government apathy and potential falsehoods in rural areas adjacent to the state capital. With the vaccination drive in villages not picking up because of the digital divide and the Primary Health Care Centers as well as the Community Health Care Centers overwhelmed with shortages of everything from medical staff to oxygen to medicines, the fate of the rural poor is clearly in the hands of fate and fate alone. The state of affairs was aptly summarized by the Allahabad High Court on Monday i.e. 17th May, using a famous Hindi saying - "Ram Bharose" (at God's mercy)- as the health infrastructure in villages and small cities was discussed.
Distortion of Facts
The extent of the denial does not stop there and there seems to be a deliberate effort to tamper with data with officials curbing the numbers by leaving out deceased patients with co-morbidities – conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 – from the toll. This practice appears to be very widespread, despite being in clear violation of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines.
In fact, when the virus is still rapidly spreading across rural Uttar Pradesh, the government will have you believe that Uttar Pradesh is past its peak, however, the Allahabad High Court recently rapped the Yogi Adityanath government for hiding key facts about COVID treatment facilities and the number of deaths, and failing to comply with earlier orders on furnishing hospitals with life-saving equipment and drugs. The court tellingly noted in its observations, uploaded on the court website, that even the statistics given in the affidavit qua testing in (the) state surprisingly disclose that (the) number of testing has been reduced gradually over the weeks.
An article in DTE investigated the testing claims of the government and highlighted the fact that the government figures conveniently forgot to exclude the huge pendency figures across the labs in Uttar Pradesh which if included would bring down the already low testing figures by nearly 26%. The reduced testing is likely the reason why numbers of infections show a downward trend in Uttar Pradesh and not because there has been an actual decrease.
A telling example of the cruel joke that the Uttar Pradesh government's policy of twisting facts and figures to suit its warped narrative was on full display when it brazenly claimed that only 3 teachers had died on election duty in the recently concluded panchayat polls across Uttar Pradesh. This claim was strongly refuted by the various teacher unions. Uttar Pradeshiya Prathmik Shikshak Sangh chief Dinesh Chandra Sharma refuted the government’s claim. “It is unfortunate to see such an indifferent attitude of the basic education department towards government school staff,” he said.
As per various estimates, the actual number of mortalities for teachers and Shiksha Mitras is likely to be upwards of 1600!
Conclusion
With just about 1.5 crore doses administered versus the approximate 50 crore doses (including wastage) required for its estimated 24 crore population since January, Uttar Pradesh ranks among the lowest in terms of vaccine coverage among all states in India. One can only hope that CM Yogi Adityanath has it within himself to confront reality as the only hope that millions of citizens of Uttar Pradesh is that its government confronts the problem in order to solve it as the cost of continued dystopia for them is death.
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