FIRST WAVE

OF COVID-19
IN INDIA
AND
INDONESIA
Dr Vivek Neelakantan
Historian of Medicine
The Overview
• State responses to COVID 19 in India and Indonesia
• The differences between Indian and Indonesian response to COVID-19
• Necropolitics
 2 Concepts in Medical History
Biopolitics Necropolitics

Biopolitics: • Necropolitics
• Foucault • Cameroonian philosopher Achille
• Style of government that regulates population Mbembe
through biopower.
• Slow disposal of unproductive lives

• Population as a global mass that is affected by • For e.g. prioritizing vaccinations of

overall characteristics specific to life such as 15-59 years in Indonesia
birth, death, production, illness and so on.
• See for e.g. family planning, vaccinations
• See Foucault, Security, Territory, Population
Definitions

• Flattening the curve

Slow down the spread of SARS-COV2 such that it does not burden the
health system
• Herd Immunity
• 'Herd immunity', also known as 'population immunity', is the
indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when
a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity
developed through previous infection (WHO).
Flattening the Curve: An Illustration
New Ways of Thinking About Pandemics
• Medical Historian Charles Rosenberg
• Epidemics as Dramaturgical Events that follow:
• (a) progressive revelation
• (b) managing randomness
• (c) negotiation of public response
• (d) subsidence
Celebrating the
Premature End of
Disease
Tom Stiglitch’s Cartoon from the
Philadelphia Inquirer.
A Pandemic of
Power Grabs
The Indian Context of COVID-19
The Political Context
• Since 2014, the Modi government has promoted nationalist tropes that
has blended science, pseudoscience, Indian mythology with political
messages
• Scientized religion and religionized science
• Vision of India as archaic modernity (Subramaniam 2019)
• Promotion of dubious herbal remedies by the newly-constituted
Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, and Homoeopathy)
• Virality of Whatsapp
COVID-19 and Islamophobia in India
• In March 2020, the Delhi Headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat, an
Islamic Missionary Group emerged as a major source of COVID
infections
• More than 4000 cases of COVID traced to the Tablighi congregation
• Scapegoating of India’s sizable Muslim minority numbering 204
million by right-wing news anchors
• Rumors in central India that health authorities were taking away
Muslims only to inject them with coronavirus
• Attack on health workers
The Nationwide Lockdown in India
• March 24, 2020: Announcement of Lockdown
• Hastily implemented with three-and-a-half hour notice to the public
• Implementation of archaic Epidemic Disease Act
Police Officer
Dressed as Yama,
the Hindu God of
Death: May 2020,
New Delhi
Courtesy: NDTV
Exodus of Migrant
Laborers from
Delhi waiting at
Anand Vihar Bus
Terminal
Courtesy of Deccan Herald
Click icon to add picture
Migrant Workers
at the Uttar
Pradesh-Delhi
border sprayed
with disinfectants
Source: CNN
Shramik Specials: Repatriation of Migrant
Labor in May
Click icon to add picture
How despite a stringent lockdown India failed to
contain the First Wave?
• The loosening of lockdown restriction by June 2020 (Unlockdown)
• Devolution of lockdown to states. Different states have different
lockdown policies
• Excessive reliance on herd immunity and vaccine as a technical fix to
coronavirus
India’s Vaccination Drive: Hubris and Despair,
Part 1
• COVAXIN AND COVISHIELD, two vaccine candidates from India
• Controversy around COVAXIN that was missing the third phase of
clinical trials authorized for emergency medical use by Drugs
Controller General of India
• Opposition to vaccination from the Congress Party, led by Shashi
Tharoor and Jairam Ramesh
• Tweet by Akhilesh Yadav, former Chief Minister of Utter Pradesh that
he would not take the “ BJP Vaccine.”
How despite a stringent lockdown India failed to
contain the First Wave?
• The loosening of lockdown restriction by June 2020 (Unlockdown)
• Devolution of lockdown to states. Different states have different
lockdown policies
• Excessive reliance on herd immunity and vaccine as a technical fix to
coronavirus
• March 2021: Minister of Health Harshvardhan contends: India was in
the endgame of the epidemic
• Slow rollout of vaccination, super spreader events like the Kumbh
Mela festival, local bodies election and the beginnings of the Second
Wave
COVID-19 Indonesia: A Pandemic of Power
Grabs
Denialism
• Jokowi was an Economy First President
• Concerned that pandemic would upend people’s lives and resisted calls
for a lockdown
• Lack of coordination between central and provincial governments
A case of denialism
• Terawan Agus Putranto, then Minister of Health brushes aside COVID in
January and February
• Cites Indonesia’s tropical climate and the apparent immunity of Malay
race
• Rubbishes Harvard Epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch’s research
• Issues controversial statements :
• “We are not afraid of diphtheria; of course, we are not afraid of COVID-
19.”
• “ Masks are only for sick people.”
Controversial
Statements
regarding COVID
by Former
Minister of Health
Source: Detik.com
Jokowi vs Anies Baswedan: Political
Polarization
• Anies Baswedan’s aspirations for Indonesian presidency
• Criticises the complacency of the central government
• Declared a state of emergency in Jakarta (March 20, 2020)
• Jokowi rebukes Anies’ state of emergency
• March 31, Jokowi announces Large Scale Social Restrictions known as
PSBB
• Lack of coordination between central and local governments
Mudik Ban
• Mudik, exodus of Indonesians to their hometown to mark the Lebaran
festivities (Month of May for 2020)
• Indecisiveness of Jokowi government on banning mudik
• Ambiguous stance of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Muslim
organization
• Mudik in 2020 began two months before lebaran due to loss of jobs
• Mudik ban on April 21, 2020, after Jokowi waited for approval from Ulema
Council of Indonesia
• May 5, 2020, government reopens transportations. Jokowi issued a
controversial statement to the effect that what he banned was not public
transport but mudik.
Non-pharmaceutical interventions
PSBB Regulations
issued by
Tanggerang city
government
PSBB Restrictions in Makassar, South Sulawesi
Urging People to Stay at Home
New Normal:
Temperature
Checks before Eid
Al-Fitr Prayers,
Bandung (May
2020)
Courtesy: Shutterstock
The New Normal
• Indonesia’s New Normal strategy sought to maintain the PSBB
restrictions while gradually reopening public spaces (May 2020)
A Jakarta-Centric View of Pandemic
• Poor testing across Indonesia
• Test results more reliable for Jakarta than the regions
• Second PSBB imposed by Jakarta Governor, Anies Baswedan between
August and September 2020 due to escalation of cases
• Lack of coordination between Jakarta government and the
governments of West Java and Banten
• Weakness of a decentralized approach
Members of
Public penalized
for not wearing
masks
November 2020
Courtesy: Getty Images
Vaccine: A Silver Lining to the End of the
Pandemic
• By October 2020, Jokowi administration placed all bets on COVID-19
vaccine
• Supplies from China
• PSBB restrictions loosened once again
Inequity in Indonesia’s Vaccination Program
• January 2021: Prioritization of individuals from 15-59 (working age)
• Elderly at the back of line as no data on Sinovac vaccine safety and
efficacy
• Vaksinasi Mandiri (independent vaccination). Companies allowed to
purchase vaccines for their employees
• Fears that wealthy could jump vaccination queue
Conclusions
• Lacklustre performance by India and Indonesia
• Context of science denialism, political polarization and decentralized
government
• Modi’s populist authoritarianism vs Jokowi’s populist style that
embodied an Economy First approach