Yet again Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being targeted by the same set of people, be it nationally or internationally. Something is narrated in an international magazine and vested elements start quoting it even before it hits the stand. An impression is created that there is no tomorrow for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Is this all new for the Prime Minister?
Looking at his track record, he has had experienced many such instances like the Godhra riots, demonetisation, implementation of GST, banking reforms, agriculture reforms, Citizenship Amendment Act, Rafael, abrogation of Article 370, phase 1 of Covid-19 pandemic, and so on. In every such situation, PM Modi didn’t deter, didn’t react, he simply concentrated on his work and came out even stronger. He is class apart from other leaders as he has a unique ability to ignore the noise of such people and instead creates his noise through the act of performance.
The secret of his success is very open that he does politics of performance, reaching out to the last person, appeasement of none, and most importantly politics of creating wealth for none of his relatives, successors, and survivors. Which other leader of the present era can compete with a person having such rare qualities? To err is human and thus Narendra Modi too can’t be an exception. He too might have committed errors may be due to error of judgement or advises he relied upon. Despite this being the case, why Narendra Modi is still the most sought-after leader, the answer is lying beneath this fact. In Indian political history it happened for the first time that under the leadership of the same person, one party secured an average of 300 Lok Sabha seats in a row.
Similarly, there is another challenging situation posed before the Prime Minister as a result of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. This second wave indeed turned out to be deadly. This wave is differently affecting different places. No one anticipated the characteristics of this dynamic mutant, the Covid-19 cases may cross a figure of four lakhs that was four times the all-time high of the cases in the first wave or the requirement of medical oxygen would be five times more than the normal and almost 150% of the total aggregate available oxygen in the country. Suddenly the demand for oxygen beds, ventilator beds, oxygen concentrators, remdesivir, and steroids have gone up beyond imagination. There was mayhem for some time, people were right in expressing their anguish, the situation was out of control in some of the hospitals, and people died of non-availability of oxygen.
It was very obvious that the same set of people would not let this opportunity go; they started blaming PM Modi alone for election rallies, Kumbh Mela, no beds, no oxygen, no ventilators, and no vaccines, etc. They would blame him alleging that he doesn’t believe in democracy and the constitution at the same time when it comes to responsibility and accountability, Narendra Modi alone is responsible for all, be it the Election Commission, courts, or states though part of the federal structure. In such a situation, which is not new for him, the Prime Minister maintains his calm and cool and works harder on such challenges.
Leadership is all about steering through such turbulent times. Leaders do not function in a copybook way, they take all such decisions that are in the interest of the public and not what they wish for. In such times opposition raises the same point why Narendra Modi is not speaking? But leaders speak at an appropriate time and an appropriate forum. He will respond to all allegations in the parliament. He would certainly remind the opposition that he had a meeting with all the Chief Ministers on 17 March 2021 when cases in India per day was only 30,000, how he advised all Chief Ministers to take all measures immediately failing which it would be too late as the new variant is very dynamic and different from the first variant, how Mamata Banerjee and Bhupesh Baghel gave a miss to that important meeting, how the farmers agitation became the epicentre of Covid-19 situation in Punjab, and so on.
Much is being debated on the vaccination front in India. So far India is nearing 18 crore vaccination to the citizens. Even WHO appreciated the scientific approach of the Central government in prioritising the vaccination first to frontline workers followed by 60 years plus and 45 years plus with comorbidity followed by 45 years plus and then all above 18 years to 44 years. The vaccination was free for the citizens, however, various states including Maharashtra and West Bengal urged the Central government to allow states to have their policies to vaccinate their citizens. Accordingly, the Centre allowed all states to go for vaccination of 18 to 44 years population. Around 18 states announced that they would provide free vaccination. It’s almost one month now allowing the states to have their vaccination programmes. What is the status particularly in Maharashtra and West Bengal? They are still engaged in the blame game and holding the Centre responsible for their failure.
One can always grant 30 marks out of 100 marks for his satisfaction to the Prime Minister but in that case, one has to evaluate how many marks would he give to the best performing leader in the world. Assuming that the US has managed the Covid-19 pandemic well so far then one has to look at the population of the US which is one-fifth of India, the US faced one lakh cases per day that is like five lakh cases per day for India, the US has around six lakh deaths whereas India has three lakh deaths that is much less. The US has ten times better medical infrastructure than India. Also, what is the per capita income of India vis-à-vis the US? Thus what would be the marks granted to the US? Is this fair to show the dead bodies waiting in queues at crematories in India alone? Why six lakh burials in the US were not shown by any international media? Why these double standards?
Vishwas Pathak is the media head of BJP Maharashtra. The views expressed are personal.