Apoorvanand: Government attempts to equate a belligerent state with a desperate citizenry / Ramachandra Guha: 'Modi's Leadership Main Reason for COVID Mishandling, He's a Megalomaniac'
Why did the government not call an all-party meeting or convene Parliament to seek advice and cooperation from the entire political class when the pandemic was knocking on our doors? How is the Opposition expected to contribute in this battle? All the resources are concentrated in the hands of the Centre in the name of disaster management. It controls data, which it constantly fudges and manipulates to keep the people confused.
As Modi Faces Covid Heat, Media's New Villains are Farmers, Babus
Its specialists and agencies, including the ICMR and NITI Aayog, have taken recourse to half-truths and outright lies. It lies in the courts, refuses to give people relief and wants them to manage the crisis on their own. Why should the Opposition be stopped from speaking on behalf of those who have no means to hold the government accountable? How fair is it to say that the Opposition spreads bitterness when it is just doing its duty?...
Ramachandra Guha: 'Modi's Leadership Main Reason for COVID Mishandling, He's a Megalomaniac'
In a hard-hitting and sharply critical interview, one of
India’s most highly regarded historians and widely read political commentators
has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership style is the principal
reason for the mishandling of the present COVID-19 crisis.
Although Ramachandra Guha also blames Modi’s “sycophantic
cabinet”, the country’s institutions, including the Supreme Court, which have let
down the country and the yes-men officials and bureaucrats who Modi has
surrounded himself with, he says the main blame and responsibility rests
squarely on the prime minister’s shoulders.
In his interview to The Wire, Guha
identified three of Narendra Modi’s traits which he says lie behind the
mishandling of COVID-19. The first is his “suspicion of experts and expertise”.
Guha said Modi has “explicit contempt for education”. His comment that he
“prefers hard work to Harvard” exemplifies this, he added.
Guha says Modi has himself said he does not want experts. Modi thinks he knows better than them. Guha says the only experts he consults are those who say what he wants to hear. “The fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic would have been far less serious had the PM based his policies on the advice of India’s top epidemiologists rather than his penchant for the spectacular and dramatic,” he said...
Geeta Pandey:
Coronavirus overwhelms India's most populous state
Bharat Bhushan: Burden of bigotry may break Indian democracy's back
