The nation's health minister -- an otorhinolaryngologist named Harsh Vardhan under whose supervision India has confronted the worst pandemic in over a century -- asserts that India is better prepared in 2021 physically and mentally to handle COVID-19.
Dominic Xavier is startled by the minister's claim which may seem delusional at a time when India is saddened and shocked by the scenes of COVID-19 patients dying in its cities and towns and when those struck by coronavirus struggle to find hospital beds, oxygen and medicines.