Modi’s leadership: a pogrom for the poor

Intro
Mis claims
Leadership style
Problems
Way ahead/conclusion

The onset of 2021, world hailed, PM Modi as the “vaccine guru”, the leadership were
exchanging congratulations on having avoided tsunami of COVID. Now India finds
themselves struggling against the mutated variant of novel coronavirus.

“The response to COVID-19 has been driven by political priorities rather than public health
experts”

PM Modi has not taken any responsibility for the toxic combination of incompetence and
autocratic rule which is the symbol of his governance. The situation is completely opposite of
what we were witnessing just few weeks back when the incongruity of the Indian covid
situation was being celebrated and lauded both at home and abroad. India managed to contain
the virus effectively, while simultaneously rolling out vaccination plans. We had hoped we
would be able to tame the Covid-19 pandemic with ample supplies of the vaccines and strict
adherence to the protocol set. In hindsight, the Indian miracle was too good to be true.

The virus is now running through our bodies, killing thousands, crushing our modest health
system, causing crippling shortage of doctors, nurses, medicines, and lately oxygen. Now it
threatens to grow at ever greater alarming rate, than before. The country has registered about
300,000 infections on 19th of April 2021. A recent study from the Lancet suggests India could
suffer approximately 2,300 deaths every day by the end of June.

Mis claims:

Public health experts are correct in pointing out that we let down our guard with having to
seemingly contain the virus. Still this outburst of Covid-19 cases is not the result of the lapses
cause in the recent months, it is a cocktail of paranoid autocratic governance practiced and
perfected by PM Modi’s government and we as the Indians with our sheer indifference to the
plight of others who manifest in the figure of PM Modi’s followers.

Just like the demonetization fiasco, PM Modi again subjected the lockdown, without any
consultation with health experts or even fellow Chief Ministers of states. The government
continues to not share information about these decisions.

This totalitarian style of governance has cause immeasurable amounts of damage, triggering
mass exodus of migrant labors in March, monumental financial hardships, and millions of
Indians out of the middle class into a position of greater insecurity.

Harrowing stories are emerging during the fatal second wave of Covid-19 in India people are
suffering because of the non-availability of oxygen, shortage of ventilators, shortage of beds
and medicines. Several states like Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra have declared oxygen
shortage, and have pleaded the central government to arrange supplies immediately. Social
media feed is full of the on-ground hardships the citizens are facing due to the incompetence
of the government to effectively control the virus.

COVID-19 has exposed our defiance in following rules, the neglect to proper implementation
of preventive measures and cure of the disease occurs because of the weakness inherent
within the system widely ranging from the non-availability of medical infrastructure, the
lacuna at various levels, to the unwillingness of the political leadership to respond effectively
to the challenges to the pandemic or to protect its citizens from the disastrous effects of
Covid-19. Although the question remains how India will overcome the pandemic?

In many governments around the world, the loss of life was avoidable- it is largely due to
boastful and incompetence of government. Leaders of other gauche far-right politicians like
Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, U.K.’s Boris Johnson, Hungary’s Viktor Urban, and Philippines’
Rodrigo Duterte, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to suffer a few
political consequences for his misadventures.

Like the other leaders, PM Modi has been diminishing the seriousness of the pandemic rather
than fighting it. In March, we were hailed by PM Modi as the “World’s Pharmacy”, exporting
our vaccines to other nations rather than focusing on our own population. Our Health minister
infamously commentated “the virus has reached its endgame”. His own party’s ministers
encouraging super speared events like the Kumbh Mela, West Bengal elections and cricket
stadium inaugurations without any strict adherence to covid-19 protocols.

The results are clear as daylight, 300,000 cases of covid-19 a day, India, now faces acute
shortage in vaccine manufacturing, it has stopped exporting and started importing vaccines
from the US and Russia. States are desperately fighting over oxygen and vaccine supplies. It
is a catastrophe of biblical proportions.

While the narrative of the government remains the same, this isn’t the time for blame-game
and calling upon unity. Although this is a democracy where politics never stops nor does the
analysis or questioning.

Narendra Modi just like his contemporaries like Bolsonaro and Erdogan, speak to the
majority, as long as the majority is happy, they keep winning. We categorize strong leader,
not by his ability to tackle challenges effectively but rather his ability to project an image as
the head of the government who is being talked about. PM Modi doesn’t seem to learn from
Donald Trump, the latest political casualty due to the pandemic. Trump also never seemed to
be varied about the pandemic and boasted his mightiness against the virus, today Modi seems
to be heading down the same path, refusing to give up campaigning during the direst
situations of the pandemic in India, boasting about his handling of the crisis and undermining
his opposition leaders. His political blame-game continues to take front row in the social
media thanks to his party’s all-powerful IT cell.

Ramchandra Guha has correctly categorized 3 of PM Modi’s traits which are the main causes
for his mishandling of the covid crisis.