When common people are make donkeys after elections...

Many questions criticizing the central government were raised by the Supreme Court in a case related to vaccine distribution. The most important of these is the rationale for setting two prices for the same vaccine, central and state. The court asked a question that comes to the mind of any Indian citizen. The court also directed the Center to take over the vaccine and distribute it to the states. That's right. Will there be a decision on price then? Or that it would be more right if vaccine companies were willing to vaccinate states at a lower price than they pay the center. But that is not happening here. The center is taking over a bit. What states need more is what they want to buy directly from companies. There is nothing wrong with states buying directly. But its price had to be fixed by the Center. Such flaws in policy making often hurt federal systems. Vaccination is free for those over 45 years of age and does not fall into this category. The center says 50 percent of 18-45 year olds can afford the vaccine. That is why such a policy was formulated. But the Center also admits that 50 per cent of the people are still incompetent. If so, what is the policy of making the vaccine available to the remaining 50 per cent of the marginalized? The Center should be prepared to rectify any mistakes made during the formulation of the policy. Such problems would not have arisen if the Center had earlier decided to provide the vaccine free of cost to all. With an outlay of `34,250 crore, India can achieve the goal of universal and free vaccination. The Rs 35,000 crore budgeted for vaccination alone can be used for this. Or it could draw money from the Reserve Bank's dividend of Rs 54,000 crore. Then it can be seen that the problem is not the money but the error in the policy making. Policies need to be able to read the minds of ordinary people. Such errors can occur if policy formulation is carried out only by non-bureaucrats and experts.

There is only one question. If general elections were to be held in India in the next two months, would not all of them be given free vaccines? Rulers know exactly what the people want. But the experience is that after the polls, the public becomes a donkey not only at the Center but also in the states.