Evaluation of any sort needs to be objective. Without objectivity, assessments lack clarity and teeth and can fall prey to partisanship. This kind of impartiality is especially critical when it comes to evaluating the performance of the government in combating a pandemic and the associated challenges to healthcare. It is thus shocking to note that a task force put together at the behest of the highest court of the land has lavished fulsome praise on the Centre for its handling of the medical oxygen crisis during the second wave of the coronavirus. In its report, the National Task Force, comprising experts and bureaucrats, mentioned the Centre’s “hard work and efforts” towards combating the crisis even though the ground realities tell a starkly different story. India reported at least 512 oxygen-related deaths earlier this year; given the lack of accurate data, it would not be unreasonable to infer that the actual number of deaths on account of the paucity of oxygen is likely to be much higher. It is not just the loss of lives that points to the unequivocal failure of the Central government. In spite of signs of rising infections, the Centre pushed ahead with densely-packed political rallies in poll-bound states — Bengal is one example — as well as with religious functions like the Kumbh Mela. Further proof of administrative culpability lay in the way in which the State cracked down on citizens — and hospitals — for raising concerns about the oxygen shortage: the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, ordered the seizure of properties of citizens who chose to blow the whistle on oxygen shortage or deaths. It can be argued that this kind of intimidation, coupled with the Centre’s lapses, dented India’s standing in the international fraternity. The prime minister’s rhetoric of Atmanirbhar Bharat is bound to ring hollow when his government is found wanting in terms of fulfilling even the most rudimentary needs of public healthcare.

That is not all. The NTF has ended up making a series of recommendations for the future. Among them are the proposals to equip all 18 metro cities to be self-sufficient in terms of oxygen supply and the setting up of a war room to monitor the movement of oxygen and its distribution in a transparent and timely manner. What is the need for such guidelines if the Centre has indeed performed credibly in its ‘oxygen test’? The NTF, much like the Centre, seems to have tied itself up in knots.