India has set an unenviable new world record. More than 348,421 new infections were recorded on May 12, and another 4,205 deaths. The death toll now stands at more than 254,000 people. It is widely thought that these numbers may even be vastly underestimated.

Meanwhile, as the body count continued to rise exponentially, the Modi administration held a workshop on May 5 for hundreds of top officials on “effective communication”, where they were asked to “create a positive image of the government”. This included setting up a “positivity strategy” to deflect criticism of government-handling of the pandemic.

What is happening in India is as much a political crisis as a health crisis. It connects directly to Narendra Modi’s leadership and judgement, where he has privileged image over substance and accountability. The ongoing catastrophe is not in spite of, but because of, his leadership style. From the demonetisation in 2016 to the constitutional coup in Kashmir in 2019 to the current pandemic disaster, Modi’s callous and authoritarian style of leadership has cost millions of people their lives or livelihoods.

When people died trying to access their money in late 2016 because Modi’s sudden announcement made 86% of the country’s paper currency worthless overnight, he joked about his policy. When Kashmir was downgraded from being a state to a federally administered union territory and had a complete communications blackout imposed without seeking any consent or allowing any dissent in 2019, Modi made a speech about the potential of shooting Bollywood films there.

In 2021, so far Modi has not even acknowledged in a tweet the thousands of Indians dying needlessly every day.

Media management

Modi has not held a single press conference since coming to power in 2014. There has been no direct way to confront him about why he did not plan to prevent masses of migrant workers perishing from starvation and thirst on the way back to their villages in 2020. Or why he did not learn from other countries and ramp up medical capacity in the last year.


Read more here in the link below:


https://theconversation.com/covid-in-india-a-tragedy-with-its-roots-in-narendra-modis-leadership-style-160552