Dear PM, history will judge you harshly

Siromani Dhungana

  • Read Time 4 min.

You had the whole year at your hand, and all the resources at your disposal to ensure preparedness for managing the crisis unfolding now. 

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing this letter to you at a time when thousands of people across the country are suffering from the deadly second wave of COVID-19. Many are struggling to get ventilators and are losing hopes of their lives. Family members of Covid patients are running pillar to post to get ICU beds in hospitals. Patients in dire need of medical care and essentials like oxygen treatment are choking because hospitals have none of these essentials or have run out of stock. All the hospitals and medical personnel are overwhelmed. As the number of Covid cases is stubbornly rising each passing day, hundreds of people are losing their lives due to lack of essential care.

Dear Prime Minister, if you remember, you led a chorus of naysayers in downplaying the risks of this pandemic in our society by joking about the severity of the deadly virus. Until recently, you were spreading misinformation about the deadly disease. You were deliberately disregarding the Covid protocol that was supposed to be enforced by your government. You clearly looked obsessed with crowds and gatherings, with your own larger-than-life portrait in the background.

On top of that, you were the one who denied science by prescribing unproven cures for Covid-19. Instead of encouraging people to follow safety protocols and take the disease seriously, you asked people to gargle with guava-leaf water. Your prescription last year: Take turmeric water and Gurjo, sneeze and corona will go away.

While you were making a joke of the disease, you yourself seemed to fear Covid-19 more than all else in the country. Your Manch, the stage, would be at a reasonable distance from the crowd, whom you would address from meters away. Anybody who came to meet you at your office had to wear masks and foot covers.

Now none of your drivel remedies are going to save the lives of people. People are dying.

You conducted most meetings in your official residence because of the risk to your health from Covid-19. You know the dangers. You know safety protocols have to be followed. You have spared no effort to ensure your own safety. But did you go beyond that and paid attention to the elderly people of your age, or around your age, who stood in front of you to listen to whatever you had to say, without masks?  

It is shameful that you recommend scientifically unproven remedies to the general public, putting their lives at risk, while you ensure all resources and the best health services for yourself, following scientifically proven cures and protocols.

The saddest part is the existence of propaganda machines around you, which must have raked huge benefits by taking your side, who always defended every lie you spoke and every baseless ‘prescription’ you gave. You must know, better than us, that there are Bhaktas, devotees, of power. Your Bhaktas supported and spread misinformation that Gurjo, turmeric powder and guava leaves are effective cures of Covid-19. Those Bhaktas, when they caught Covid, however, went to Kathmandu’s posh hospitals.

Now none of your drivel remedies are going to save the lives of people. People are dying.

It may be too late to do anything about it, the damage has already been done, but I still would like to request you to take back your scientifically unproven Covid cure claims. Those false prescriptions were disseminated by many media outlets. People have been fooled. You lead the party with the strongest base, with cadres who applaud you even when you lie, and spread the slander as truths.

I know the people who trust in your ‘prescription’ of turmeric powder, Gurjo and guava leaves given your own health conditions. They think that a person who survived two kidney transplants and regained his health must have spoken out of his own experience. Dear Prime Minister, apologize to the people for spreading the misinformation which was completely unscientific and unproven, and start acting like the Prime Minister, not a propagandist leader.

People are not against the development. But development must be aligned and prioritized accordingly, signifying peoples’ needs. That’s what a good leader does.

People pay taxes for their safety and security, not to ensure your and other leaders’ luxury. Is accountability too much to ask for? People have hundreds of questions for you at this moment: Where is the commitment of your government to construct isolation centers and quarantine facilities? Where is the commitment to enhance facilities at hospitals? Where is the commitment of your government to add ventilators and other equipment?

Why did you feel it was necessary to assemble huge crowds in various inauguration events, while there was a clear indication of the second wave? You talk so excitedly about building Ram Mandir in Madi, why could not you instruct the authorities to build hospitals and isolation centers at provincial and local levels?

Effective and strong health system is the need of the hour. Please stop delivering populist and unscientific statements!

People are not against the development. But development must be aligned and prioritized accordingly, signifying peoples’ needs. That’s what a good leader does.

Dear Prime Minister, you have to answer all these questions.

People have a lot of questions for you but they hesitate to ask because they know the cost of questioning the man in power, telling the truth to authority. Those who have benefitted from you, directly or indirectly, will come forward to defend you. But the rising death tolls, the panic, lack of oxygen supplies and ICU beds in hospitals, this is the evidence of your inefficiency and incapability. Please make it known to your team that lies cannot hide failure and incompetency.

People have a lot of questions for you but they hesitate to ask because they know the cost of questioning the man in power, telling the truth to
authority.

Dear Prime Minister, it is no time to continue joking about the disease. It is no time to be surrounded by the people who praise you even when you’re evidently on the wrong track. Wake up! Look outside! You will see the frail faces of thousands of sick people waiting in queues at hospitals. Patients are gasping for breath but the hospitals have no ICU beds and ventilators. Feel their pain. Give a message that you care as much about the poor and underprivileged as about the rich and affluent. Rich or poor, life is dear to all.

It is great that the PM cares about his health. But you have no right to spread rumours and put peoples’ health and life at risk. If nothing else, you should fear how the future will judge you, if thousands of people die under your watch. The second wave was predicted immediately after the first wave of infection abated. You had the whole year at your hand, and all the resources at your disposal to ensure preparedness for managing the crisis unfolding at present. History will judge you harshly if you fail to save the lives of people now.