A nation blinded by a mistaken sense of loyalty & obligation

“What are you doing to help your country in this hour of need?’ is the counter question that one receives by way of replies to any criticism of the Modi government’s handling of the covid crisis these days. The response is redolent with unintended irony, the question being an unwitting admission of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s failure to protect the citizens.

Undeniably, it is the common man who has been instrumental in supporting and promoting the BJP and its bigoted agenda. First by believing in the grandiose promises and statements; then by voting for the party; later by revelling in and promoting false narratives; and finally, by aiding and abetting the government’s desire to suppress criticism.

As someone pithily pointed out, these Indians appear to have been inspired by the blindness of the Kauravas to injustice in the epic Mahabharata. Dhritarashtra was born blind; his consort Gandhari opted to be blind; Bhishma Pitamaha, a man of great character, turned a blind eye to injustice because of his ‘false’ sense of loyalty and Karna, the great warrior, chose to be blind out of a sense of obligation.

Today as the common man desperately scours for a hospital bed, oxygen or a place in the cremation grounds, ministers extol the work done by the government to manage the crisis while their supporters applaud, defend and find and share the ‘positive’ points in the crisis.

How did the country reach this point? I am talking about the callousness of the government and the breakdown of institutions within a functioning democracy.

Modi stupefied India with his 56-inch chest; his promise to root out the ruling class in Lutyens Delhi and the Khan Market gang; re-establish India’s ancient global supremacy; return self-respect to Indians; and free India from the clutches of the Congress I. The so-called intelligentsia saw him as a breath of fresh air after the UPA years and claimed he may not be as bad as his history suggested.

People did not realise that for the newly minted Prime Minister re-establishing ‘India’s global supremacy’ meant holding large meetings with Indians in foreign lands, clumsily hugging international leaders and coining acronyms. While ‘regaining self-respect’ included creating the environment for Gau Rakshaks to lynch people without fear of the law or society penalising their actions, transforming venerated Hindu mythology into pseudo-science, targeting minorities, and creating a troll army of Modi supporters.

And ‘freeing India from the clutches of the Congress-I’ translated to mocking social welfare schemes like the MNREGA, which is now the principal scheme the government is falling back on for helping rural India, demolishing institutions which have years of cumulative experience on Indian socio-economic development – like the Planning Commission- and replacing them with institutions manned by those who were either opposed to welfare or socialistic policies or were Modi fans.

From the early days of Modi’s tenure there were some who warned of the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ and his grand obsession with himself. They warned of the ‘Marie Antoinette’ moment that threatened India. To manage the situation Modi got every democratic institution to work for him, he used laws to silence citizens, and targeted non-governmental organisations (NGOs) ranging from Amnesty to Lawyers Collective to those working on social development.

This work undertaken by the Modi led BJP government has been internationally recognised. India has been designated a ‘partially free democracy’, an ‘electoral autocracy’ and a ‘flawed democracy’ by international media like the Economist and organisations which rate democracy.

As a result, there was hardly anyone to criticise the rationale of linking national pride and international respect with the construction of the world’s tallest statue -Statue of Unity. In today’s national health and socio-economic crisis there isn’t any institution able to prevent the billions being spent on the Emperor’s vanity project -the Central Vista. As Modi and his supporters perform in an echo chamber, they do not view the raging covid pandemic as a crisis but just another opportunity for his critics to malign Modi.

It is no surprise then that Modi has abdicated his responsibility to deal with the crisis, handing it over to the states. Simultaneously, there are efforts directed at coming up with a communication strategy to handle his latest debacle. A writeup on the News18 website was revealing. It explained PM Modis silence with “Not only Modi’s opponents, but even his supporters will have to remember that Modi’s silence is not his weakness, it is in indication that he will reply at the right time and it is dangerous.”

The author may have inadvertently hit the nail on the head as he suggests Modi is concerned with his image of strength and not about the vulnerabilities faced by the country.

The fact that people are turning to each other for help in this hour of need is an indication of the extent of destruction Modi has wrought. Every system within our democratic ecosystem that is supposed to work for the benefit of the people has either been realigned to work for the glory of one man or has been crippled. As a corollary there are no checks and balances to guide the government.

What is worse is India’s modification includes abstinence from critical thinking, science, and logic. Is it any wonder then that the Health Minister stood with Baba Ramdev as he made the false claim of the World Health Organisation (WHO) certifying Patanjali’s Coronil? Or that approval was given for the Kumbh Mela to be held a year earlier? Or that gau mutra and other cow products are officially used as covid cures in some BJP ruled states? Or a hotline has been set up in UP to protect cows from Covid? Or that the Ministry of Science and Technology is funding a project to evaluate the role of Gayatri Mantra in treating Covid patients.

The government’s handling of the second wave of the Covid crisis is even more rudderless than the first. It is not just that the government has not paid heed to the warnings of the National Covid-19 Supermodel Committee. It has spent more energy on image management -- sending vaccines abroad to censoring criticism of our Dear Leader on social media. That people are dying not because of Covid but because of lack of infrastructure which is causing backlogs at cremation grounds suggests that the government is handling the crisis devoid of epidemiological advice and a moral compass.