Manohar Parrikar’s successor and BJP chief minister Pramod Sawant faces local dismay and national and global criticism over his state’s handling of the Covid second wave.
Goa made it to CNN’s global headlines after its positivity rate touched 50 per cent, which means half of all its Covid tests confirmed an infection.
Lack of medical oxygen and a spate of deaths led to more adverse publicity on national television.
Besides, around 60 deaths a day have been seen as unacceptably high in a state of 1.6 million. Covid deaths have been reported among activists, eminent lawyers, musicians, priests and politicians.
SOS messages have been going out almost every night from the Goa Medical College and Hospital, located in Bambolim on Panjim’s outskirts. The GMC is the state’s apex health institution and the successor to the Portuguese Escola Medica, one of the first Western-style medical schools in India and set up in the early 19th century.
The state’s BJP government has been castigated for its inefficiency, for shifting the blame when questioned in court, and for possible corruption in the allocation of oxygen supply contracts and the purchase of ventilators at inflated prices.
The collapse of the hospital infrastructure meant beds, oxygen and ventilators were unavailable and patients had to sleep on the floor or on stretchers.
Sawant has followed the Covid policy of Narendra Modi in desisting from enforcing a lockdown this year.
On April 21, the Goa government announced a night curfew but casinos, bars, and cinemas were allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity. Tourists were allowed in without Covid-free certificates even as Maharashtra and Karnataka reported severe outbreaks.
Late in the day, Goa implemented a 15-day “curfew” from May 9. By mid-May, Goa had crossed a total of 2,000 deaths, and nearly 2,500 cases and around 60 deaths a day.
Citizens sought to fill the acute gap in information, with volunteers. CovidCareGoa.in was set up by volunteers led by the Goa-based Shruti Chaturvedi of Chaipani.com.
Many recent settlers participated in the relief effort, as did religious volunteers, service clubs and restaurants that provided food free of cost at hospitals and other venues.
Many young doctors stepped in, producing Facebook and other videos to share information.
To complicate matters for Sawant, health minister Vishwajit Rane has been involved in a battle of one-upmanship with him since March last year in a possible bid to jostle for the chief minister’s chair.
Vishwajit is the son of long-term Congress minister Pratapsing Rane, who is still in his old party.
Rane Jr is one of the many Congress members who have jumped ship and joined the BJP in Goa. The BJP has ruled the state since 2012, sometimes by luring over MLAs from other parties.