The maladroit handling of the second wave of the coronavirus has dented the image of Prime Minister Modi. Barring die-hard BJP supporters and the RSS cadres, most independent thinkers, intellectuals and even those that had supported Modi wholeheartedly through their writings have now had to step back and confess that Modi and this Government have failed to tackle the second pandemic wave. Vamsee Juluri, professor of media studies, University of San Francisco a former supporter of Modi said he used to call out the global media for being unduly critical of Modi. But over the years he is witnessing what he calls Modi’s appropriation of grassroots energy and turning it into a copycat American right wing propaganda model. Modi indeed has harnessed the raw energy of the deracinated urban middle class Indian and the large swathes of rural Indians that had fallen between the cracks. The fact that the ruling class in of India up until Modi came along represented a dynastic model with only short interludes of rule by grass-roots leaders like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Chandrashekhar, HD Deva Gowda and Vajpayee, was what made Modi- the chaiwala a popular urban legend.
But it is the current handling of the pandemic and the callousness of the Modi-Shah combine in abandoning all Covid protocols during the election campaign in March-April this year, which has frustrated even the most ardent Modi fans. The sight of dead bodies by the hundreds floating on the Ganga, the uncountable deaths and misery of not even managing a decent funeral for loved ones; people gasping for oxygen and not finding hospital beds is what angers people across the country today. All this was due to lack of preparedness. And the fact that the Modi Government relied on the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) instead of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Nagpur which has epidemiologists that are hands-on as far as understanding the behaviour of viruses is concerned, as the lead agency in tackling this pandemic, would appear to be another blunder.
Suddenly, the entire health system has collapsed and the government is itself gasping for breath. The carefully cultivated image of India as a vaccine exporter has now come to haunt the nation – what with vaccine shortage afflicting the country. Vaccine export has turned out to be another flawed decision. And now, Home Minister, Amit Shah is missing in action. There are too many missteps by the present government and this at a time when the need for an efficient and effective governance is uppermost. Leaders rise and fall by how they handle crises and Modi has mishandled this pandemic big time.
