The novel coronavirus is causing havoc worldwide.  For a country like India,  on top of the creaky public healthcare system and scanty health care data, lies a widespread social media campaign recommending yoga, inhaling cannabis and consuming cow urine and dung as measures to prevent infection has made the battle against COVID-19 even more challenging.

The need of the hour is strong leadership, decisiveness, and multiple approaches to managing the unfolding crisis. The nation of 1.3 billion requires an agile and evidence-based graded response, adapting to the changing epidemiology of the disease. Efforts to prevent contagion will have to be well thought out, fast-paced, decentralised and well coordinated in which the role of the citizen both as victims as well as perpetrators will play itself out in various ways.

At a time of such an unprecedented crisis, the nation is looking up to its Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to fight the pandemic, to counter the numerous challenges that are emerging and others that are still in their embryonic form and will become evident only in the future. As citizens, we need to be alert, responsible, scientifically informed alongside being able to meet our daily needs for food, medicine, milk, and numerous other mundane requirements. The crisis requires that we feel safe, wherever we are, not threatened, not only by the fear of the virus but also by hunger, fear, and insecurity. The uncertainty and unfamiliarity compounded with the sheer speed at which the virus spreads requires strategies, methods and plans to ensure that citizens are neither careless nor do they overreact to the crisis. The sermons and expectations of the prime minister to the people, however, seem to be suggesting otherwise.

Modi in his nationwide addresses has zeroed on various strategies involving the citizens to contain the pandemic. The formula to combat the virus, the only methods known so far being ‘social distancing’ and ‘quarantining’, was launched nationwide with the observation of the ‘Janata curfew’ on 22 March albeit with a ‘desi’ twist.

The Prime Minister appealed people to observe ‘Janata curfew’ asking them to clap and bang thalis (utensils) at 5 p.m. on the same day to applaud the ‘rashtra rakshaks’ (nation’s saviors) for their selfless service to the nation. Some felt that the vibrations caused by the sound would weaken the virus since the moon was passing through the ‘revathi nakshatra’. The call received a thunderous response with people banging utensils blowing conch shells with the more courageous determined to send a very strong message to the enemy virus taking out processions violating social distancing norms in a bid to communicate to the virus that ‘we are out to weaken you’.

In his second address,  Modi imposed a 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country from March 25 onwards till April 14. The PM's announcement came in the backdrop of a rising number of COVID-19 patients in the country and the PM appealed to the people to stay at home. There would be a complete ban on people coming out of their homes and that the people should draw a “Lakshman Rekha” on their doors to prevent themselves from venturing out. The lockdown was much needed as it is the only way of containing the infection. 

While countries in the West remained indecisive, India acted swiftly and clamped a nationwide lockdown rightfully aware of the looming threat of the virus. Needless to say that since the first infection that was recorded in India till the time the lockdown was announced, India had a period of over one and a half months to calibrate its response. One would not be mistaken to expect that networking in government circles regarding policy strategies and implementation must have already been underway. The decision must have been a well-thought one and not a knee-jerk one.

The advice of experts from various fields must have been solicited to deal with the pandemic particularly in the context of a country where a large segment of the population lives below the poverty line, survives under hand-to-mouth conditions has low access to basic sanitation facilities such as water, soap and washbasins leave alone information about the surging pandemic.  The tense environment required not only an evolving problem-solving approach but also a transparent and democratic environment where people can openly question, debate, discuss and criticize without fear of repercussions. 

The Indian experience tells us a different story. The measures that went into effect post the announcement were devoid of any pro-poor stance, leave alone any unease regarding the crippling conditions that were soon to befall the lives of the daily wage laborers, workers, maids, rickshaw drivers and other informal workers who form the backbone of the Indian economy and who buy food with the money they earn every day and have no savings to fall back upon.  The speech viewed live by 197 million people communicated clearly that the state had no responsibility for the food, milk, medicines and other groceries that poor citizens would require on a day-to-day basis. Within a matter of four hours the lockdown came into effect. The poor who are not sure of whether they can expect the next meal were told to enclose themselves within their homes with the message quite clearly stated: ‘Step out and perish, even if you stay home and starve’.

Unaware of the catastrophe the pandemic has unleashed worldwide, uninformed of the safety measures to be undertaken, oblivious of what a lockdown entails untold numbers were thrown out of work with families struggling to eat. ‘My first concern is food and not the virus’ was a common response from the poor. As NGOs, social welfare organizations, individual networks and philanthropic citizens came forward to supplement the attempts made by various state governments thousands of migrant workers poured out on the roads - men, women and children in a desperate bid to reach home in spite of no transport services, aggravating the spectacle of community transmission. 

Images of police using force subjecting the people to a chemical wash gave us glimpses of the methods the government had in mind to contain the virus. In his Mann ki Baat address on 29 March,  Modi expressed happiness at how Indians were spending quality time with their families, playing the veena, preparing scrumptious dishes and he himself doing yoga at home. He also humbly sought forgiveness from the poor for the hardships they were facing without any specific policy decision to overcome the difficulties caused by the unplanned lockdown that had driven fear into the hearts of Indians, but had provided no solution to problems – barring a medical roadmap in the event of citizens unfortunately contracting the virus.  The PM departed from our screens without any response to the struggles the poor were facing and corrective measure that the government would be instituting.

On 3th April, Modi addressed the nation once again congratulating them for their collective strength this time proposing a new act of social solidarity asking people to ‘turn off all the lights in their homes; stand at their doors or balconies lighting candles or 'diyas' (earthen lamps), torches or mobile flashlights for nine minutes’. There was nothing on food and supplies to the poor, the difficulties of migrant laborers or more vigorous testing policy or safety of medical practitioners. Rather than stating in a transparent manner what is at stake, how does the government seek to tackle the crisis as it will continue to throw up newer challenges in the future, how far the needs and concerns of people have been addressed the PM suggested a ‘diya jalao’ (light a lamp) campaign which like its earlier counterpart spilled over to cracker-bursting gaiety akin to Diwali in April, not to mention the tensions faced by electrical engineers regarding the possible dangers to the collapse of the power grids. 

In such a crisis-ridden situation one would expect a more realistic outlook from the leader of the nation and one can be optimistic that the symbolic darkness that the PM wanted the citizens to sink into is not suggestive that the government has nothing to offer to its people. If you find yourself in dire circumstances, despite warnings from the government,  the state is not at your rescue. 

We will have to wait and watch to see what we are tasked with next by the government in this crisis while we wait for our turn to ask a few questions. 

(The writer is an Assistant Professor, St. Xavier's College (Autonomous) Kolkata)