Politics of Good

Hailing from a rural village Annadanam in the Nalgonda district of Telangana, Uma (28) was very passionate to be a part of Politics. Though she is well educated and worked extensively in the social sector for a decade, she couldn't find a way to the active politics as she hardly had any support and guidance.  Meenakshi (24) from Delhi is running an NGO for education and social development, wants to be a politician and to become a minister, again clueless having experienced the dearth of platforms handholding her dream. However, there was a paradigm shift in the pathways of people like Uma and Menakshi after "She Represents'' - a seven day immersive programme hosted by a Delhi based political leadership development organization Indian School of Democracy (ISD).

Politics is good but we have less politics of good, so we feel politics is dirty. The feeling of politics is dirty, makes it more dirty and keeps good people at bay. In a February 2020 judgement the supreme court asked the political parties  to  specify why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates. In 2019 as many as 43% of MPs had criminal cases pending against them. A very recent report by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) finds that 24% of Rajya sabha members face criminal cases. The analysis also found that 203 of the 229 MPs or 89% of those analysed had declared assets over ₹1crore. The nexus of corruption and politics is also a pressing concern. Does it mean that politics is only for corrupted, criminals and affluent people ? Would it be a hindrance to attract people with integrity and commitment to be a part of the political process in this country ?. Answers to this question remains elusive.

Nevertheless, we have sprouts of hope.  Indian School of Democracy (ISD) a budding organization founded by two young visionaries is one in such direction. Aiming high to build a community of principled public leaders, working to make India a global inspiration for inclusive democracy; Hemakshi Meghani graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School in public policy and Prakahr Bhartiya completed his masters in public administration from Columbia University are in a daring pursuit.  After successfully organizing Democracy Express and She Represents- a week long programme introducing youth to different pathways to politics and building a community of future principled leaders, Indian School of Democracy is venturing into an year long programme. After seven decades of independence, we are not at a stage to say that our democracy is working for all. As we reflect, one of the many reasons is the dearth of principled leadership in public service. Today, India needs its best hearts and heads to serve, and nurture them as a cadre of enterprising and moral public servants. Says Prakhar Bhartiya, one of the founders.  Hemakshi, co-founder of ISD believes that every generation needs its own leaders and our generation is struggling to find principled leaders in the public and political landscape. Today, a lot of motivated and talented young leaders often do not choose the path of public service. We need to bring a change.

The recently concluded She Represents exudes confidence among the young team at ISD. “I have learnt that age doesn't define wisdom, I have got the reaffirmation that "naive optimism" is the way to go forward, I have learnt that the present policy work I do is only as effective as the results on ground lest it will only be a badge on my CV”; Spurti, one of the participants of She Represents shares her experiences. Uma says it's her life changing journey with ISD, Meenakshi undoubtedly decided to choose his tryst with politics, and Reeta wants to contribute more to his native community. Many more young people resolved to pursue their passion for national development through politics.

The notion of politics is dirty anyhow to be changed and the need of this hour is to create principal leaders who can color the tapestry of democracy with vision, commitment and values

The Delhi Covid Story

"When antigen test is supposed to use only in containment zones and to be repeated with RTPCR test, Delhi governments strategy of heavily resorting to antigen tests without conducting subsequent RTPCR tests may undermine the containment strategy. The serological survey result estimated around 50 lakhs are infected when only 1.3 lakhs are confirmed positive using the RTPCR tests, is making lives of 77% of Delhites vulnerable to covid. It calls for revisiting the method of testing to contain the pandemic effective."

The fatality rate is the lowest in the world and the news of sudden flattening of the curve is offering lots of space for complacency to Delhiites. Undoubtedly the Delhi-Delhi duo is behind this magic and Delhi is best in the country with respect to the covid containment strategy. Imagine, we are admitted in a hospital and an avaricious or naive doctor says that an immediate surgery is required to save our life. Very likely, we will give a green signal to save our life as we are unaware about our condition and presuming that we are in threat. Later, we realized that nothing was serious. This is an unresolved dilemma in the health sector.

Testing Strategy 

Data is the oil of the era and a single data point can make a huge impact among millions, as many decisions are hovering around this which is applicable to covid strategy of test, treat and track as well. 

There are two types of covid test, RT-PCR/Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (Viral) and Rapid Antigen Detection Tests (RADT) or antigen test. Antigen tests are very fast but RT-PCR test is longer and complex. The antigen test hints the possibility of infection by finding the presence of viral proteins , but its absence does not mean the person is not infected, hence ICMR and other agencies cautioned to limit this antigen test only in containment zones or high spread regions and to do RT-PCR followed by antigen test, whereas the RT-PCR test looks for the RNA of the virus and its results are mostly accurate and reliable. Despite these facts, Delhi Government hugely resort to antigen tests (75%) and conduct tests at random places which may derail the containment strategy. 

Delhi was at the peak during the end of June which sharply dwindled after. As per the report by the Hindu, Delhi formally began using antigen testing kits on June 18 and has accelerated their use since July. From June 18- July 16, Delhi has conducted 305,820 antigen tests, Of these, 285,225 tests came ‘negative’. Of them, 1,670 (1/200 or about 0.5%) were chosen for re-test by RT-PCR and 262 of these were confirmed positive. However, of those re-tested with RT-PCR, around 15% test positive, which is higher than the antigen test positivity of 6%;report says. It's alarming as the testing strategy is more relied on less unreliable antigen tests ( Affidavit by Delhi Government says 2-3 antigen test for one RT-PCR ) when antigen tests are limited to high risk zones only as  it may miss as many as half of those who are actually positive. That is, if antigen tests account for most of Delhi's increased testing rates, they may be missing a lot of cases, driving the case numbers down. 

In fact, India's current testing guidelines require that anyone who tests negative for the virus must be retested with an RT-PCR kit. So the question is how many tests of each kind is Delhi doing, and is everyone being retested? Asks K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India and member of the national Covid-19 taskforce. This is very misleading in the context of nearly 90% covid cases are asymptomatic. 

50 Lakhs infected ? 

The serological survey conducted in Delhi assumed that around 23 per cent (around 50 lakhs) which means as many as one in every four Delhi citizens have already been exposed to the virus. This result is surpassing the possibility of infection (15%) as per the random antigen tests. When the total number of confirmed positive cases in Delhi so far is around 1.3 lakhs and the probability of infected as per the serological survey is around fifty lakhs, this is a healthy emergency as 77% are vulnerable to the virus. It also revealed that a PCR test caught only about 1 in 50 who are infected by the virus. This undermines claims by the Delhi government of its ability to contain infection spread. The Hindu reported.