There were warnings—Covid-19 would come to our doors. 

When the whole nation, led by His Majesty The King is fighting the pandemic, we need to think beyond the borders.

Bhutan is among the few nations today that have tackled the pandemic commendably, even as it is small in all respects. But because we are a small society, we need to be more careful.

Bhutanese people at the borders are flouting the rules and protocols. Killing the local transmission of the dangerous Covid-19 pandemic is becoming .

The real problem is that there are stories but no one feels it is their responsibility  to authenticate the origin and the meaning of the myriad stories.

There is a missing link and this could be our greatest weakness.

This is the time when we can come together as one nation. We have so far, but now is the time to really look inward. The challenge before us is more than just the benefits of globalisation. 

Good things come with bad. We need to be able to decide our own course of action even as pressures will continue to come from abroad.

If a group of people from a small business town with a vested interest is threatening to stifle the relationship between the two countries built over many years, it speaks so much about diplomacy that has shaped the picture of the two nations that are bound together in a common journey that is world politics.

There are voices from Jaigaon that say the whole town is not against the Bhutanese way of dealing with Covid-19 the way country is doing. At the same time, we must know what could happen if local transmission of Covid-19 rages in Jaigaon.

Bhutan-India relation is more than mere associations from small-time towns. In the fight that the two nations are engaged in today, such small games can be counterproductive.

Bhutan will never go the way some merchants across the border want.

We have an advanced strategy in case there is a local transmission of Covid-19. Refine it while we have time; engage people from all sectors, private or public. 

Food is one. We can get it right. Technology and machines is another. We will have to think about it if even a small  border town can threaten us with such unreasonable demands.

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