By Jacob Peenikaparambil

Indore, March 31, 2020: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 29 apologized to the nation for taking some hard decisions to stop the spread of new coronavirus Covid 19.

He did it while addressing the people on his monthly radio program, Man Ki Baat. “I apologize to the nation for taking some hard decisions that have caused inconvenience to the common man. But I had to take these steps to ensure your protection,” he said.

The prime minister also added that the tough measures were needed to win the battle of Covid-19. While apologizing to the people for taking tough measures, the PM forgot to acknowledge certain failures of the government in dealing with the pandemic.

There has not been any serious criticism of the prime minster for the hard measures taken by the government, including the lockdown. In fact, many opposition leaders and the people in general supported the government measures. What was lacking was an effective plan to deal with the post lockdown situation and that was most important failure of the government.

When the prime minister declared nationwide lockdown he should have also announced a Minimum Survival Plan for the citizens. It took three more days for the government to announce a package of relief for the people. By this time uncertainty and panic had already gripped the migrant laborers living in the major cities of India. In the absence of any public or private transport thousands of migrant workers started walking to their hometowns and native villages.

Even when the government announced a bailout program it was not clear how the supply chain of essential items would be kept unhindered. It seems that the government did not think of the fate of the millions of migrant daily wage laborers in different cities of India in the absence of work for them. A huge number of them are unregistered.

The schemes announced by the government will not reach them in the absence of valid documents and bank account. The government did not have any plan for ensuring food, shelter and medicine for these migrant workers. While hearing on a Public Interest Litigation the Supreme Court told the Central government today to provide the stranded migrant workers food, medical aid and counselling.

Another failure of the government was the delay in planning the preparedness to face the pandemic. The first case of COVID 19 appeared in India on January 30. Opposition party leaders like Rahul Gandhi and P Chidambaram reminded the government many times to take immediate steps to tackle the menace of corona virus.

But the government did not take their warning seriously. Rahul had said on March 18:“Quick aggressive action is the answer to tackling the coronavirus. India is going to pay an extremely heavy price for our government’s inability to act decisively.”

India is a large country with multiple and complex issues. The Centre should not think of giving orders to the states without taking into account their views and constraints. Most of the measures to tackle the coronavirus menace are to be implemented at the State level and situation differs from one State to another.

The prime minister should have held discussion with the chief ministers and opposition parties at the beginning of March when COVID 19 began to spread to different areas. Some states have the experience of dealing with disasters and they could have given many practical suggestions to the Central government. Similarly better coordination and cooperation could have been evolved through consultation with the states.

The Modi government does not learn any lesson from the past mistakes. Demonetization and implementation of GST were huge disasters caused by the BJP government at the Centre. Note bandhi, GST and Desh bandhi have many similarities. All the three were announced without any plan for dealing with the fallout.

After the midnight declaration of note bandhi the goal posts were changed and also the rules practically every day, and those who suffered most were the poor people. Similarly, after the hasty announcement of GST implementation, many changes were made in the rules, causing great damage to the economy and troubles to the micro and small business.

When Modi announced the nationwide lockdown the government had no plan to ensure the seamless supply of essential items, to conduct check up and provide treatment to the corona virus infected people and to deal with the tragic situation of the migrant laborers. Only when the media reported the heart breaking stories of hunger and fatigue of thousands of migrant workers walking along the national highways, the Central government opened its eyes and started issuing advisories to the State governments.

Lack of sensitivity to the pain and sufferings of the ordinary people on the part of rulers was reflected in the major decisions taken by the Modi government whether it is demonetization or communication lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir or all India lockdown in the wake of COVID 19. This lack of sensitivity seems to have imbibed by the police and the bureaucracy.

That could be the reason for the cruelty shown by the police during anti-CAA protesters and on the first few days of all India lockdown. The scenes of police beating up the people supplying essential goods, and the health officials spraying chemicals on the returning migrant workers in the Bareilly town of Uttar Pradesh for sanitizing them are really horrendous and inhuman.

Even at this stage the prime minister should hold video conference with the state chief ministers and find solutions to the problems facing the nation due to the new coronavirus. The task of putting the economy on the track in the post COVID 19 period needs a lot of planning and concerted and collaborative efforts by the Central and state governments on the one hand and understanding with the opposition parties on the other hand.

The best brains of the nation, irrespective of their political ideology, are to be brought together to plan for the post COVID 19 scenario. Will the Modi government be ready to adopt a consultative and participatory approach? Is the government willing to give up its arrogance and insensitivity? Any apology from the PM without a change of mindset will be seen as shedding crocodile tears.

(The writer could be contacted @jacobpt48@gmail.com)