A political and policy blow to the Centre

The management of Covid-19 has generated questions about the PM’s governance. The Bengal defeat has weakened the home minister’s image as an election winner

For the last seven years, they have been projected as India’s political jodi number one. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, as the larger-than-life strongman leader, and home minister Amit Shah, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s chief election strategist, have carried an aura of near invincibility. If Modi and his governance model are identified with catchy buzzwords such as “acche din” and “new” India, Shah is branded as a modern day Chanakya.

Representational Image. (HT archive)

However, the past month has dented this well-cultivated imagery. If the handling of the second Covid-19 wave has raised serious questions over the PM’s governance style, the BJP’s West Bengal debacle has undermined Shah’s image of being a master at winning elections.

Take Covid 2.0. A terrifying pandemic offers no easy solutions but can it be denied that an all-powerful political executive at the Centre has been behind the curve in the Covid fight? Be it green signalling potential super-spreader events such as the Kumbh Mela or the utterly confused vaccine policy or the botch-up over oxygen supplies, the Modi government stands accused of bumbling at every turn.

That it has taken repeated court interventions to goad the Centre into acting swiftly reveals the failings of a highly centralised and bureaucratic style of functioning that appears trapped in its own echo chamber of complacency and hubris.

That Rahul Gandhi, often lampooned as “pappu” by the BJP’s hyper-active IT cells, has been pressing most of the right buttons on Covid should be a cause for further embarrassment. Even the much-vaunted Gujarat model stands exposed by the long queues of ambulances outside state hospitals, a grim reminder of the darker side of a development paradigm that didn’t invest enough in public health.

Hype has been confused with reality in West Bengal too. The BJP marched into the Bengal elections like an all-conquering army, backed by massive resources, institutional support and a media blitzkrieg that suggested a landslide victory. For Shah, in particular, the conquest of Bengal was a personal mission, one where his crucial role as Union home minister in a national crisis appeared to lose out to his persona as an aggressive party campaigner. When he should have been focusing on coordinating with all states on Covid protocols, he was distracted with an overwhelming ambition to win another Opposition-ruled state.

Here again, there was an unmistakable arrogance in approach, a failure to recognise that a Vidhan Sabha polls is fought on a different template than a Lok Sabha battle. The divisive “Jai Shri Ram” war-cry, which proved so effective in 2019, appeared out of sync in a more localised election. Without a strong, credible Bengal face, the BJP lured key lieutenants of the chief minister to switch sides, exposing their own limitations of symbolising an “Asol Poribortan” (real change) on the ground. As it turned out, a lone Mamata Banerjee in a wheelchair versus the BJP’s muscular men on a chariot only mirrored a compelling narrative of Bengali sub-nationalism — a rooted popular Bengali- speaking mass leader taking on the might of the Hindi-speaking “outsiders”.

So is India’s primary political pair on the retreat? Yes and no. Despite the criticism of the failings of the Modi government in handling the pandemic, the PM remains a highly popular leader whose mass connect isn’t going to evaporate overnight. Likewise, as a consummate 24x7 politician, Shah will doubtlessly gear up to fight the next big electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh. Reports of their imminent political demise are exaggerated. Bengal 2021 is hardly India 2024.

And yet, underplaying mounting citizen anger at the monumental collapse in basic health services would be politically foolhardy. When a national health emergency puts tens of thousands of people on ventilators, the central government cannot, to quote the Delhi High Court, “be living in ivory towers”. When people are desperately struggling for oxygen and ICU beds, there needs to be genuine outreach to address their grievances, with empathy and common sense and not through typical bureaucratic apathy or crafty perception management.

An authoritarian mindset that views any criticism as “anti-national” is dangerous when the country is gasping for oxygen — what stops the PM, for example, from bringing together the finest minds in the country across key sectors to identify mistakes and course correct? Is this not an ideal moment to decentralise decision-making and build bridges with those who might have useful, even if contrarian, views?

Unfortunately, the strongman model of political leadership is often unwilling to accept blunders and take responsibility. Rather than pass the buck, the top leadership needs to do a mea culpa, fix accountability and ring in changes. Can, for example, the Union health minister get away by claiming only last month that the country had sufficient stock of vaccines when alarm bells were already ringing across state capitals that vaccine supplies were running out? The “achche din” bubble has been well and truly pricked by the smoke and ash that bursts out of funeral pyres across the country. The nation wants to know who will bear the cross for an unimaginable tragedy.

Post-script: Covid 2.0 calls for an urgent redrawing of priorities. Earlier this week, the Indian Premier League was suspended after a few players tested positive. A high-profile sport event in Covid-19 times was going to be a high-risk venture. So here is another suggestion: Why not also halt the construction of the Central Vista in the Capital, a grandiose vanity project, when the health risks facing the construction workers should be prioritised?

Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author

The views expressed are personal