India and the global war against a pandemic
The COVID 19 is a reminder that there are life-threatening issues which transcend borders. The call of the day therefore is to usher in a new type of globalisation where human life stands above human prosperity.
By Achal Malhotra
The international community’s initial reaction to COVID-19 was arguably slow and when the realisation of the seriousness ultimately dawned, the response became in-ward looking, marked by super-nationalism. The emphasis of individual countries was on “Save One’s Own Soul”, while cursing the others for bringing the human disaster to their door-steps. The world is now finally coming out of that phase with a determination to act together and in a coordinated manner to combat the invisible enemy- Corona Virus- and address the enormous social and economic fallout of COVID-19. India can legitimately claim some credit for bringing about this change of attitude.
To recapitulate briefly, almost three months ago, on December 31 last year, China alerted World Health Organisation (WHO) to several cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan, a port city of 11 million people in the central Hubei province of China. The virus was initially unknown and therefore began to be popularly described as Wuhan virus, much to the disliking of China. Subsequently, the WHO identified it as a new virus and named it (7th January)as 2019-nCoV, and later (11th February) the infectious disease caused by the virus as COVID-19.
The first death in China due to COVID-19 was reported on 7th January, 2020. Between then and now, the COVID-19 has acquired global dimensions. More than half a million people in nearly 200 countries across all continents are infected with COVID-19 and the death toll has crossed 25000. Italy, Spain, France UK and USA are amongst the most effected, besides China and Iran. India has also been affected but the real magnitude of the problem would be known not earlier than at least one to two months from now.
Looking in retrospect, it appears that the global community wasn’t quick enough in realising the seriousness of the impending pandemic. Instead of addressing the key issues, the focus was more on blame-game. China was targeted for not being transparent and for delaying the announcement of the new virus. There are allegations that the local authorities in Wuhan and Hubei province downplayed and controlled the news about the virus and even threatened the medical whistle-blowers with arrest. Even conspiracy theories began to float, accusing China of waging a biological war (after it had allegedly developed a vaccine for curing the virus) to disrupt and weaken the world economy in pursuit of its aspirations to become world’s super power. China in retaliation came out with its own narrative, blaming the US military for introducing the virus in to Wuhan. The US President remains vocal in his criticism of China. He continues to describe COVID 19 as a Chinese virus. A group in America has filed a law suit against China claiming damages to the tune of $ 20bn-more than China’s GDP.
The conduct of the WHO has also came in for criticismfor its alleged show of favour towards China.The WHO’s repeated praise of China’s response to COVID-19 has led critics to question the relationship between the two entities. It is also being suggested that the WHO went slow in warning the world of impending human disaster. The WHO position till 23rd January was that the outbreak did not yet constitute a public emergency of international concern and that there was “no evidence” of the virus spreading between humans outside of China. A week later the WHO, however, revised its advisory and declared coronavirus as a global emergency and only in mid-March it categorised the COVID-19 as pandemic.
Meanwhile, India has realised the seriousness of the pandemic for a densely populated country of the size of 1.3 billion people. It has initiated several measures, including harsh measures such as nation-wide lock down till 14th April, 2020 to prevent the transition to third stage, which would be enormously difficult to handle. India has also announced welfare packages to mitigate the social and economic impact of COVID-19.
Equally importantly, India has adopted a sober approach; it has refrained from the on-going bickering over issues such as the origins of the virus. At the initiative of India, one regional (SAARC) and one multi-lateral (G-20) virtual conferences were held on 15th March and 26th March respectively. The outcomes are encouraging. The gathering have resulted in a global consensus on the need to do all that is required to be done to contain the pandemic in a concerted and coordinated and adopt mitigation measures to deal with the social and economic aspects of the COVID-19 fallout. The need to extend all possible medical and material assistance to countries less equipped to handle the crisis has been acknowledged.
On the specifics, all SAARC countries (with the exception of Pakistan) have already made contributions to the COVID-19 Emergency Fund created on the proposal of PM Modi, made at the SAARC Conference where he offered $ 10mn as India’s contribution.
Pakistan’s attitude is understandable. Pakistan is allergic to any and all initiatives which originate from India. Pakistan’s PM did not attend the 15th March virtual SAARC Summit, and instead asked a junior Minister to represent his country. Imran Khan’s act was in complete contrast with Nepal PM’s decision to attend the meet despite having undergone a kidney transplant surgery a couple of days ago. To make it worse, the Pak representative diverged from the core issue and made once again a futile attempt to internationalise Kashmir issue. Pakistan’s attitude has dampened the limited hopes for a possible rejuvenation of SAARC processes which have been hampered by stalled SAARC Summit since 2016.
Acknowledging that “Combatting this pandemic calls for a transparent, robust, coordinated, large-scale and science-based global response in the spirit of solidarity,”the G20 Leaders have “called for a coordinated global response to fight the pandemic, adopting measures to safeguard the global economy, minimising trade disruption and steps to enhance global cooperation”.
The G-20 countries have committed to inject over USD 5 trillion into the global economy to counter the social and economic impact of COVID-19. Leaders also agreed to contribute to the WHO led COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund on a voluntary basis.
Without being critical of the WHO Prime Minister Modi did underline the need for strengthening international organisations such as WHO which he said were built on models of the previous century. He also called for empowering WHO, be it in terms of its capacity of early warning or development of effective vaccines. The prime minister’s statement was in line with India’s persistent demand for reform of institutions of global governance to make them truly representative of contemporary geopolitical realities.
The crisis is far from over. It may take many more months for developing a vaccine for curing COVID-19. Meanwhile the international community must join hands to fight the common enemy. The information on medical research must be shared in a transparent manner. All efforts should be made to accelerate the manufacturing of essential medical equipment such as ventilators , beds, protective gear for doctors and para-medical staff. No tariff or non-tariff barriers be imposed on the supply of essential goods and services required in the battle against invisible but invincible virus.The interests of poor countries must be kept uppermost in mind. Economy must be saved from going down the drain. It should be ensured that the international trade remains uninterrupted and supply chains are not broken.
The COVID 19 is a reminder that there are life-threatening issues which transcend borders, do not distinguish between race, cast, religion, rich and poor. The call of the day therefore is to usher in a new type of globalisation where the human life stands above human prosperity.
(The author is a former Indian diplomat)
