‘A Nation to Protect’ maps India’s pandemic fight

THE 20 chapters of Priyam Gandhi-Mody’s ‘A Nation to Protect’ give an account of the Central government’s response to the first and second waves of Covid-19, the contagious virus which shook the world with its unpredictability.

Littered with conversations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including from his previous interviews, the book looks at how the government tried to manage the deadly pandemic in the second most populated country of the world. Based on references and statistical data, including important dates and events, the book has been divided into two sections. Section 1, which focuses on the first wave, begins with the National Security Adviser tracking the spread of the virus even before the WHO issues its alerts. Hereafter, it moves on to chapters like ‘First Response’, ‘Virus Strikes,’ ‘Junta Curfew,’ ‘Lockdown’, ‘Migrants’ Distress’, ‘Vaccine Development’.

Section 2 includes chapters on the ‘Second Wave,’ ‘Farmers Protest’, ‘Oxygen Crisis’ and ‘India’s Role in Securing the World’. The author concludes that it was the Prime Minister’s people-to-people connect and policy-making which helped the country fight the large-scale pandemic as well as made it possible to successfully undertake the world’s largest vaccination drive. —