The Covid pandemic era is marked by sorrow, disease, disaster and death. It is a time of mourning and weeping for the humanity. Many people have lost their lives, several children have become orphans and many families are left with no member existing. Till today people have not yet recovered from the trauma of losing the dear and near ones, friends and colleagues. 

The nature and the environment have turned against the humanity and become cruel and merciless.  The Covid period is a struggle for survival. It is time for the humanity to be united with one heart and soul to fight against the nature. But it is heart-breaking to know that even in this period of pandemic, human beings exploit themselves. Man is still blind to the agony and sufferings of others and tries to gratify one’s greed for money. 

Even at the pinnacle of the spread of Covid 19, some were not thinking of helping others, but they were never reluctant to do business at the cost of the lives of the other. There was black market of oxygen, Remdesivir and other life-saving medicines. There were incidents of adulteration in costly medicines. 

It was a herculean task for the common man to get admitted in a hospital and get an oxygen cylinder after one was being diagnosed Covid positive. Even if the patient was too serious, political influence and recommendations became a must to get admitted in a hospital.

The common men’s right to get a proper treatment was observed more in violation. Their right was denied by private as well as government hospitals.

The governments are doing injustice to the public in this pandemic. In the democratic form of government, it is the duty of the administration and media, and the right of the citizens to be informed about the facts that take place in the society around, without being fabricated. But during the pandemic, common people were not given proper information about many things. One of the examples is the medical bulletin of the states. The bulletin released the list of covid deaths, newly diagnosed positive cases and the number of patients got cured.  But the actual number of deaths and positive cases were much higher than what the medical bulletins stated. The medical bulletin of the states continuously lied to the public and the media also became an ambassador of the governments.

Most of the state governments are hiding the real number of covid deaths from the public. In a democratic country like India, the government is answerable to the public for each and every thing. The citizens have the right to be informed of the real number of deaths that happened due to Covid 19 and all other facts related to Covid. Most of the state governments are trying to run away from their responsibility towards the citizens and pretend as if they have done a wonderful job in this period of the pandemic.

Today’s media is good for nothing to the public and it is just like the pet dogs of the governments.  Media is not ready to make an investigation on their own to bring out the misdeeds of the governments. Today most of the media is biased and aligned to the ruling party.

Hence it does not stand for the rights of the public. It is futile to believe that the media would challenge the government for the benefit of the public.

There should be transparency in democracy. An elected government should be transparent to the public. Why does the government want to hide something from the public? It is the duty of the media, the fourth pillar of democracy, to expose what the other pillars of democracy try to hide.

It is clear that there is undue intervention of the administration to change the Covid positive deaths into negative deaths. Many of the states have not released the real number of deaths.  States have failed to control Covid deaths. The governments decide who is to be declared covid positive and who is covid negative. Though patients are Covid positive at the time of death, reports are reportedly made to show them as negative and thus not numbered in the medical bulletin as covid deaths. Post-Covid deaths are also out of the list of Covid deaths.

Even if the patient dies after being Covid negative and the reason of death is related to post- Covid sickness, but they are not entered in the medical bulletin as Covid deaths. They must be listed in the Covid deaths. If not, they would not be eligible to get the compensation declared by the Central as well as the state governments for the legal heirs of the Covid victims.

It is the duty of the government to grant the facilities equally to all citizens. But the governments are trying to deny the right to citizens. The governments are trying to cover up the real number of deaths for not giving the compensation to eligible persons. 

The Supreme Court and the High Courts, being the guardian and custodian of fundamental and other rights of the citizens, may act at this moment. It is time for judiciary to break the silence and act.  The silence of the judiciary towards the atrocities of the administration to the citizens would destroy the justice system and people would lose faith in the judiciary. We have reached a situation that only the judiciary can control the administrative body.

The governments will be more cautious if it is aware that the judiciary is watching over their acts and policies. Citizens are waiting to see an active and powerful judiciary, not a dormant one.