NEARLY 50 DAYS INTO THE INDIAN lockdown, the most severe in the world according to widespread consensus, as the COVID-19 count climbs steeply, the economy continues to nosedive. The Narendra Modi regime’s unwillingness to countenance a relief and support package to sustain those who have lost their livelihoods and to prevent erosion of productive capacity has been true to type. What explains the stubborn resolve to go against the global current in which governments across the world, with widely varying ideological predilections, have thrown the kitchen sink at the pandemic while saving their economies?
There is little doubt that India’s response to COVID-19 was lethargic and muddled, especially because the lockdown was not used to bring either the disease under control or evolve a coordinated strategy to manage the economic crisis. The experience with the lockdown indicates that the government simply hoped to ride out of the crisis after the lockdown. Effectively, hope remained the only strategy for a do-nothing government that has punctiliously avoided any kind of intervention to stop the spread of the disease, stabilise the economy or provide relief to millions of Indians on the brink of starvation.
What appeared to be puzzling is slowly falling into place. And what initially appeared to be large-scale bungling, ineptitude and incompetence now seems to have been a rather charitable explanation. Instead, it is now clear that the do-nothing course is a deliberate one, in tune with the Modi government’s right-wing ideological underpinnings. This can be demonstrated by recalling a series of steps taken or not taken since the lockdown commenced on March 25, or, more pertinently, since late January, when the first case was detected, in Kerala. But first the context.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der May 22, 2020-Ausgabe von FRONTLINE.
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Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
Job Offers Withdrawn, Internships Now Unpaid
Engineering and business school graduates stare at a bleak future as job offers are withdrawn or revised, while delays in joining dates add to the climate of uncertainty.
In search of a road map
It is now increasingly clear that the government did not think through and provide for the consequences of the lockdown.
Clueless captain
As the nation longs for relief from the pandemic and the economic misery caused by an ill-planned lockdown, the government prefers symbolism over substance, exposing its lack of meaningful leadership.
RISING TREND
There are no signs of any let-up in the COVID case numbers well into the third phase of the lockdown even as issues of violation of physical distancing norms, mistreatment of front-line health workers, inadequate public health infrastructure and increasing distress among the poor come to the fore in most States, besides of course the low testing numbers and haphazard screening and isolation of suspect cases.
Dystopian pipe dream
The reluctance of the Narendra Modi regime to extend fiscal support to those in real need of help during a prolonged lockdown suggests that it is promoting further concentration of capital. Dire consequences await the economy and the polity.
