And India's Covid-19 numbers we thought had somewhat stabilized with some government officials going to the extent of letting it out that the war was almost won and two doses of vaccine to each Indian will lay cold the coronavirus, eradicate the cussed creature which they say is inanimate but somehow seems to have the ability to multiply and carry forward it's unholy, unmitigated agenda, infect in millions and millions and kill in the tens of thousands. And the rascal that it is, the wretch is mutating like its dead inanimate life depends on having as many variants as it can become.

Now, there's a race on to take into account all the variants, from the Brazil one to the United Kingdom variant to the South African kind, and lay them all out cold with one or more vaccines. But things aren't any more clearer or easier than they were. Cool, our scientists, i.e., humankind's scientists are trying their best and that's the only happy note to this lousy Covid-19 symphony that we have been forced to listen to ever since from when the creep escaped Wuhan in China to get ahold of the world, the first of the coronavirus variant, the mother of all the variants!

And, now, we hear deadlier versions of the variants will emerge and then there will be no end to the pandemic unless the Quad plan to beat Covid-19 succeeds. Yup, the Quad has decided to take on the progeny of the 'China Virus' though it will be only in the Indo-Pacific region, where the coronavirus will be taken head-on. This despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling President Joe Biden that, India was signatory, the sole signatory, to the ancient diplomatic pact that the whole world was one single 'Vasudevakutumbakam!'

President Biden, of course, could not have made head or tail of what Prime Minister Modi was talking about, all he must have heard must have sounded like gibberish from Hindustan. By the way, the day an American President refers to India as 'Hindustan', that day Indians should do a triple and a half somersault just for the fun and happiness of it. For now, let it sink that the US, Japan and Australia have decided that India should be two billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccines should be produced!

That must give China, which wanted to be the world's pharmacy for Covid-19 vaccines, more than a crick in the neck. China's mood-shifts ever since the coronavirus started on its world tour have been confounding to say the least. As it is, China launched vaccine diplomacy to take advantage of Wuhan, but came up against India's 'vaccine maitri' and since then India's friendship with China has taken a beating and plummeted way below the bottom of Pangong Tso Lake in Ladakh.

Not many countries it seems want to test Chinese vaccines on their citizens. The Chinese are mighty displeased. Even Pakistan, China's all-weather friend with sweeter than natural honey talk between them, wants to take no risks with Chinese vaccines and has reached out to India for a few million doses of Covishield or Covaxin. It's all over the Social Media and the other night Arnab Goswami on Republic TV laughed at a couple of Pakistanis, mocking them for being dirt poor and up the Dubai Creek without a billion dollar paddle!

It's not for nothing that some if not many people consider Arnab Goswami obnoxious-ner than the most virulent variant of the coronavirus. The only persons who never get the cross-eyes from Arnab is Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, and occasionally the smooth pate of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, who one day hopes to step into Modi's shoes, but realises that there could be a big fat alternative to him in the interregnum.

So. If Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just kicked off the 75th anniversary celebrations of India's Independence, which will fall in 2022, Yogi Adityanath has announced that the 100th anniversary will be celebrated with even more pomp and show than Modi's 75th extravaganza. Of course, by then, a whole bunch of the present living would have become anniversaries themselves! But the Yogi will likely be around, if he takes care to maintain social distancing and if the coronavirus variants have all been accounted for in the next 25 years.

By the way, isn't it nice to hear Modi take Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's name in appreciation. At least some media are going gaga at the latest Dandi March, version 2021, kicked off by Narendra Modi, during which Modi said Pandit Nehru was a swell guy, one of them who guided India to Independence. By the way, again, Modi does a lot of what looks and sounds like event management. Are they part of a Prime Minister's duties? Just asking, don't get ballistic, like the Chinese. Last heard the Chinese PLA had left Ladakh for warmer climes.

Remember we are living in a fearful state. People everywhere are a scared lot. Petrified of the invisible danger in and around them. And this begger has the knack to get airborne. We live in hard times folks. There's the pandemic. And there are the vaccines, which millions take but millions more don't trust. Yup. People in the lakhs are not taking the vaccine at face value. Hundreds of thousands from the ranks of the opposition parties have refused to because they say it's a BJP vaccine. So far, the BJP has not refuted the charge!

But don't forget unless a sizeable chunk of the population does not take the vaccine there will be no herd immunity to keep the coronavirus at arm's length. The wretched rascal will be around come the 75th, and even the 100th anniversary of India's Independence. Globally, more than 11.84 crore people have been infected by the coronavirus so far and 26.28 lakh have died. But only a fraction of the global population has been vaccinated. India's second phase of vaccination drive is currently on. Everyone above 60 years of age and those over 45 years with comorbidities are being vaccinated.

But is everyone actually being vaccinated? The answer to that is an emphatic NO! The Government has not given a diktat that everyone will be vaccinated, that it is a must to get vaccinated. Government officials are not going door to door to pull people out for vaccination. Request them or order them. The government is afraid, petrified, that tens of thousands in every locality would rise in opposition. So, it's leaving it to the people to decide for themselves. This kind of "left to the people operation" will work in a developed country, but not in a developing third world country where illiteracy is a byword and superstition an ingredient of the daily night grandmother's tale.

According to the Union Health Ministry, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in India had crossed 2.56 crore till March 12, 2021. That accounts for how many of the 1.35 billion or 135 crore Indians? The alarming fact is that millions upon millions of Indians are not taking the vaccine and don't intend to go for vaccination! The Modi Government's reluctance to compel Indians to get vaccinated will be the death of it. (IPA Service)