Modi government’s managerial manoeuvres

It seems that the Modi government is scoring well in all the problem areas: the disengagement of the Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh, the tackling of the rising Covid-19 numbers and doing what it can through welfare measures of providing free ration under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) and the providing of jobs in the villages through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The government hopes that the credit guarantees it had provided to the banks for lending to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) would soon work out. The overall impression is that the government is managing things, and everything is under control.

The confrontation with China is under control, the Covid-19 situation is under control, the condition of the poor is under control, and there is no further breakdown in the economy. In more ways than one, the government has been successful in managing the multiple crises. This is a creditable performance for a government in trying circumstances.

This is so as long as you accept things at face value and do not look beneath the surface. Not too many questions are being asked as to the efficacy and effectiveness of the government’s responses on various fronts. In a few months’ time, as the situation changes, no one is likely to remember that the governments have not been as good as they claim to be in managing things.

Take, for example, the issue of confrontation with China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. The death of 20 Indian soldiers in the violent faceoff in the Galwan Valley had receded into the background after Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Leh, gave a ‘fiery’ speech to the soldiers and talked of the end of the era of expansionism without naming China. It is assumed that India and its Prime Minister have won brownie points and that this was a legitimate victory.

This is, at best, the proverbial sleight of hand, a clever and, of course, legitimate ruse. The Prime Minister claimed that the Indian soldiers dealt a death blow to the Chinese even as they died because the Chinese death toll has not been disclosed. It can be claimed, and with enough justification, that the Indian soldiers had inflicted enough and more damage, including loss of lives, on the Chinese side. This gives room for the government to even claim ‘victory’, which is what the Modi government and the Prime Minister’s vociferous fans are claiming.

However, it is evident to anyone who cares to look at the situation in eastern Ladakh that the situation is complicated, the Chinese pushback has not happened, and it is not at all clear that India has been successful in dealing with the Chinese intrusion because intrusion there was despite the Prime Minister’s circumlocutions, taking advantage of the ambiguities that surround the LAC.

Turn to Covid-19. It is after the lockdown was eased on May 3, and the Prime Minister realised that the lockdown is not of much help in overcoming Covid-19, which seemed to be the case when it was initially imposed on March 24 and it was trumpeted in the first fortnight when the Prime Minister made his televised addresses to the nation, asking the people to beat plates and utensils as a tribute to the medical personnel who formed the heroic frontline against the pandemic, and again asked the people to light lamps and candles as a mark of national resolve and solidarity to fight the coronavirus. But the Prime Minister’s enthusiasm took a backseat when he came up against the stubborn resistance of the virus. And the Covid cases shot up in the past several weeks.

The Modi government then looked at the brighter side of the blight and pointed to the lower fatality rate and the higher recovery rate, which again were facts and the government could legitimately derive satisfaction from it. Though there was premature talk about corona vaccine, the government could comfort itself that it had managed the pandemic challenge rather successfully.

Add to this the ostensible intervention of Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi’s Covid-19 disaster as the Delhi government faltered because the three municipal corporations under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) control and the hospitals under the Central Government control were hell-bent on needling the Delhi government of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Shah brought order because Kejriwal fell in line.

The Prime Minister could now claim that the Delhi model for dealing with Covid-19 should be extended to the National Capital Region (NCR) areas of Gurugram, Faridabad and Ghaziabad.

We know, however, that the Delhi Covid-19 spread was weakening, and most of extra facilities in terms of beds, intensive care units with and without ventilators were lying idle. But Shah and the Modi government can claim that they have done a good job. And there is no point in quibbling about it because the situation in Delhi is improving.

The Covid-19 crisis persists in the country, whatever the claims of the Modi government. And there is not much indication that either the state governments or the Central Government are equipped to deal with it.

The Modi government, in a manner of speaking, is indeed holding fort without being in control of the situation. It is not a reassuring scenario either on the LAC, or the Covid-19 front, or that of the plight of the poor. The country is on the edge and the Modi government is claiming credit that surviving on the edge without keeling over is an achievement, which it is but which is not entirely due to what the government did to deal with the situation.