To,
Hon’ble President of  India  
Rashrapati Bhavan, New Delhi   
         
Respected Sir,

Sub:  Urgent Need For A National Government and Request To Call For National Mourning

We are writing to request you to take urgent steps to initiate talks for the formation of a National Government when we, as a nation, are facing the worst health, socio-economic and governance crisis, since independence. In the midst of the mounting challenges of COVID-19 tsunami, the present Central Government remains ill-prepared and clueless to handle the situation and even worse, at India’s gravest hour, it  has increasingly become part of the problem and not the solution.

As a result, we are witnessing very tragic and heart-rending  scenes of suffering and death all  across the nation. While we see some people crying for oxygen and other medicines like Remdesivir and dying in large numbers both in the hospital and outside (those who could not get a bed), we are also seeing black marketing, profiteering from the same oxygen cylinders, medicines and exorbitant price for ambulances for taking patients to hospital especially those from rural areas.

What we need in this extraordinary situation is a National Government, with a broad vision, that can enlist the cooperation of all sections of society, can deal with this unprecedented crisis effectively and also take steps to strengthen our democratic institutions and restore ethical values in public life. Hence, this appeal to you to urge the Central  Government  to convene a virtual special session of the Parliament to discuss the national crisis and build consensus towards the formation of a National Government to (i) overcome this grave national crisis,(ii) to better prepare the nation for the third wave (iii) for providing sustenance to the vulnerable sections of society like the migrant workers and other deprived people and (iv) for observing national mourning to give condolences to the innocent lives lost due to the incompetence of our Prime Minister and his government.

There are very good and effective precedents  of National Governments, one in India in under the Prime Ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru and the other in Britain in 1940 when Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister, in spite of having comfortable majority and paved the way for a National Government under the Prime Ministership of Winston Churchill, as cited by Anil Nauriya, Advocate, Supreme Court.

We strongly feel that there are compelling and historic reasons for having a National Government, at this critical juncture in our history:
The present Central government, which abandoned on May 01, 2021, time-tested and decades-long policy of free universal vaccination and formulated a questionable "The Liberalized Vaccination Policy" which the Hon'ble Supreme Court appropriately called as "Arbitrary and Irrational" and many precious lives were lost due to the lack of concern by the Union Government of India for the common people of this country. However, the recent announcement by the PM in his address to the nation makes some definite course correction of its new policy, thanks to the decisive and timely intervention of the Supreme Court including its excellent order dt.31.05.2021, the pressure of CMs from non-BJP state governments and the civil society groups like the Citizens For Democracy (CFD). At the same time, it still shows his questionable concern for private sector in health and we need to continue our efforts for complete reversal of his questionable new policy, which even now,  seriously undermines the health of younger age group of 18-44 years.
The present Central Government, instead of learning from the experiences of last year and heeding the warnings, well in advance, of experts about the second wave and acting responsibly by preparing a systematic and comprehensive plan for dealing effectively impact of the second wave, it allowed and advocated gatherings like the Kumbh Mela and the huge political rallies for Assembly elections in several States, particularly in West Bengal, where both Prime Minister and Home Minister participated actively, thereby contributing significantly to the second covid wave becoming a tsunami, with all its serious implications.

All this miserable failure of the present central government is affecting, most adversely, vast sections of the people of this country, particularly the marginalized communities like the migrant laborers, farmers, dalits, workers  and women. There is an urgent need to enhance the number of days in MGNREGA from 100 to 200 days per family and provide the same to both urban and rural poor, as their livelihoods have been devastated by the covid crisis including lockdowns. It is necessary to think seriously about meeting the resource crunch by levying 2% wealth tax on the richest persons and entities (corporations) to deal with the challenge of providing sustenance to the vulnerable sections of society for their very survival. The political leadership in power at the Centre is arrogant, totally insensitive and incompetent.

Again, we request you to urge the present central government to call a special session of the Parliament for: (i) Discussion of the Covid Catastrophe (ii) observing national mourning to offer condolences to the deceased and (iii) urgent need for formation of a National Government with a broad political vision that can bring all sections of India together to effectively deal with the crisis. This will help the States to emulate the same at State level.

We look forward to your positive response.

With Best regards,
We, The People of India