No one knows the origins of the Corona virus. It came from China as the Plague virus infected rats had brought the plague to Europe in thirteenth century to wipe out half the European population. People did not know then what afflicted them and why. They did not even have cure as medical science was not then known. People ran to Church in their village to seek protection from the divine curse. In the modern era with fast developed and developing medical science, the Authorities panicked due to uninformed panic on social media. Governments or rather politicians in the power seat panicked even more easily to impose restrictions that they believed would confine the spread.

For India, this was the second major crisis in the last half century. The cause and impact of this one is controlled due to the admirable efficiency of Indian administration. First one in 1971 was the manmade crisis with ten million humans had poured in as refugees seeking to escape for shelter and survival from atrocities in East Pakistan after the March 1971 elections. The Indian administration kept them in shelters; provided them with food and health care. Not a single soul was allowed to suffer from hunger pangs or suffer due to health deteriorations. As the then Yugoslavian politician had said, history or modern times do not have a comparable feat that India achieved. Refugees were mostly from poverty ridden sections and prone to easy deterioration of health due not only uncertainties of life but also pervading fears for life.

Not a single human was deported till absolute defeat of the Pakistan forces as their surrender to the Indian forces indicated. In thirty days 10 million refugees were deported back to their homes. Though they had come from areas prone to acute diarrhea, not a single child died due to health care provided by the Indian administration. It was incomparable achievement. India dared the might of America and guiles of China, both close friends of Pakistan, to defeat Pakistan to end its adventure. That too without inviting the Russian guns as friend of India under the treaty of friendship signed only four months before challenging Pakistan.

The most developed nations were in comparison were not only slow in controlling death rate but were also lethargically fumbling to prevent its spread to cause panic. Indian system, regardless of the colours in the seat of power, responded to set up preventive and curative facilities far more quickly and set up facilities at her 33 airports and 44 seaports to check incoming humans. More than a million arrivals were subjected to virus checks, quarantine the suspects and provide them health care and preventive medicines. Most entrants were kept in quarantined quarters till their negative responses to possible effect of the virus. Only those who are assigned the management of quarantine facilities can tell the feats of their bravery to persuade unwilling humans who believe or suspect they are not suffering the virus impact or can cause no danger to others.

The Indian Air Force was pressed into service for evacuation of Indians from East and West regions that were under severe impact of infectious disease. Indian bureaucracy erected the testing facilities on all incoming routes with efficient management to get results within half a day compared to long time needed in other countries. Several small but developed nations in Asia immediately sought Indian assistance to have similar facilities and contingents of Indian hands for erecting their facilities. Iran was able to fortify its health system with Indians working for it. Iran needed the services as the Iranian authorities could not break resilience of their own officials to risk. Maldives also gained the services of 14 Indian doctors on request to the Indian government.

India also had to respond to close her borders, first to visitors from Italy after its tourists in India were found to be carrying the contagious infection. India was also first among all nations to set up quarantine facilities for visitors from more virus affected nation. More beneficial was the price control system in India to make availability of essential drugs at the lowest rates than any other nation.

China is home to spread of infectious viruses in the past also. Yet the American statesmen abuse India like Jim O’Neil who is likely to take over as the Attorney General of America thanked his god that the infection did not come from India. He had no words to say about the lethargic and slow response of his government and then going to adopt the extreme approach. The nation that claims to be super power was much lower in its response and arrangement to fight the curse even though this is not the era of 13th century when the Europeans were rushing to the church to seek relief from the dreaded disease. Jared Diamond, American intellectual wrote in his book Guns, Steels and Germs that European germs had virtually wiped out two civilizations in South America. The European guns also annihilated virtually the entire original population of America. Perhaps Jim O’Neil reads wrong history books.

Despite the massive programme for care undertaken to confine spread, many Indians believe the official statistics do not reflect reality. They do not rule out much wider impact of virus as far less numbers have been medically tested. They overlook human tendency to rush for medical assistance when such an intense pressure is generated with messages of affect and untested cures spreading out. There are 1100 million mobiles to carry alarming messages.