Now, her name features among the small set of women in power who are lauded globally for their response to the crisis. The Indian edition of fashion and lifestyle magazine Vogue paid tribute to K K Shailaja, fondly called as ‘Teacher’, who made headlines for her work in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and featured her on the list of ‘Women of 2020’.

In a country where women rarely occupy high-profile public offices as much as the sea of men, this former high school chemistry teacher and first-time state health minister has won many hearts for being extremely approachable and caring.

Vogue lauded the steadfast efforts of the Shailaja Teacher for her swift action along with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and their co-ordinated efforts that brought down cases in Kerala to almost zero at a time. She was hailed as ‘The Coronavirus Slayer’ and it is not just for her perscient action in controlling the pandemic but for keeping Nipah at bay.

To honour Shailaja’s sturdy hand, which is “more than fear”and all about the “enthusiasm to get involved”, Vogue has even changed its Twitter display picture to Shailaja featuring on their cover page.

What the minister brought more to the table when things went awry is perhaps a little more empathy and transperancy and an uncanny ability to smile in the face of uncertainties.

Netizens were elated to find the corona warrior being honoured by Vogue’s Women of the Year for ‘cohesive leadership and systematic approach’towards the pandemic.

This is really special @VOGUEIndia . So cool. https://t.co/KglNrSeGsx

— Faye DSouza (@fayedsouza) November 9, 2020

Earlier this year in June, the United Nations had honoured Shailaja for Kerala’s efficient management of pandemic. Fast forward to November 2020, she is still considered one of the few world woman leaders, who had accurately responded to the outbreak of the global pandemic, reports Vogue.

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The Minister did not specify how he arrived at the above figures. He reiterated in Parliament that India has the lowest proportion of deaths in the world compared to other countries. It has already been pointed out that this comparison is not logical enough as the number of tests in India is very small.

India has the second lowest test rate in the world among the 10 most infected countries. Observers point out that in the northern states, only 30 percent of ordinary deaths are registered. Therefore, it is natural to wonder how close to reality the COVID-19 death toll in India is.

It has become amply clear that the government on the defensive was scared of facing questions regarding the pandemic and the question and answer session in Parliament had to be avoided because of this.

When protests erupted against this move the question time was cut in half. The first day’s session made it clear that the government did not even have accurate figures when questions arose. Replying to a question, Union Minister Santosh Gangwar said that the death toll during the lockdown was not known.

Even though the government has the date on the number of migrant workers who have returned home, it does not have any data regarding accidents and fatalities sustained during the exodus or how those who returned home safely are faring now.

Social activists like Yogendra Yadav have already pointed out the death toll from the lockdown. But it is strange that the government does not have any figures on this. The government does not account for job losses due to COVID either. It is clear from this lack of answers why the government was compelled to skip the question and answer session. How can a government that does not have statistics on the social and economic repercussions of the lockdown be able to formulate guidelines for overcoming the crisis we are faced with?

It was expected that the Prime Minister would be speaking about success in the fight against COVID in Parliament. The Prime Minister’s heroism in his speech about six months ago was that we would win the war against the Corona virus in 21 days, just as the Pandavas had subdued the Kauravas in 18 days in the Mahabharata war.

The Prime Minister, who dared to compare the defence against an epidemic with the Mahabharata war, can be expected to speak sometime during the Parliament session on the continuation of that war, the end to which there is no certainty. Our Prime Minister is the one who has passionately declared that if things do not go well within 50 days of the implementation of the note ban, he may be punished by the people according to their fancy.

He later seems to have forgotten about the statement itself. Similarly, before the end of this parliament session one can expect someone to ask whether the 21 days mentioned six months ago have disappeared from memory and the Prime Minister would hopefully give a reply.

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