The Covid-19 wave that is sweeping through China has left its hospitals overcrowded with patients, put a serious strain on its healthcare system as a whole and caused what is very widely believed to be grossly underreported deaths. The people there are naturally disillusioned, if not utterly furious, with the ruling Communist Party for what they are facing now after putting up with around three years of draconian lockdowns and shutdowns as part of President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy. President Xi has not only lost face internationally with the failure of his ill-conceived policy, but he has also lost credibility among the Chinese people.
His stubborn refusal to ease the policy over the past couple of years took a huge toll on the nation’s economy as comprehensive Covid containment measures led to a plunge in national exports and domestic retail sales, not to mention people’s standard of living and quality of life. And his abrupt climbdown last month – following a wave of public protests against the policy and followed by a public health emergency with a nationwide surge in cases – has turned out to be worse than just a case of too little, too late. No wonder public trust in his leadership seems to be at an all-time low.
In sharp contrast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity is at an all-time high in India and far beyond after he led the world’s largest vaccination drive in record time and oversaw the implementation of finely balanced containment policies during that period to help the nation beat the dreaded virus. Still in effect, that balanced approach was once again evident in the prompt measures that the Indian government began imposing on incoming international passengers and a three-fold increase in tests it started conducting to identify new cases in view of the Covid surge in neighbouring China last month.
When the pandemic was still on the rise in India and the Covid vaccines had just arrived, many critics had lampooned the Modi government’s ambitious immunisation drive as being an audacious plan that was destined to fail – while Beijing was highlighting its low case count to brag about the success of its zero-Covid policy. Look how the tables turned.
While Prime Minister Modi is no doubt a blessing for India, there can be no denying one fact: For a nation to be truly and sustainably successful, it needs to have smart leadership at all levels.
The sinking fate of Uttarakhand’s Joshimath town is a burning example of the failure of successive governments in taking corrective measures for the region – in view of natural as well as human factors affecting it – despite enough studies warning about the consequences of not doing so. The rapidly widening cracks in the houses, roads and temples in the town are symbolic of the gaping holes in governance that have led to their happening.
Similarly, as many have pointed out, the Kanjhawala case may not have turned out to be the heart-breaking horror story that it has become had there been enough police vigilance on the roads of the national capital in the early hours of New Year’s Day. It is heartening to see that the pace of investigation into the matter has been satisfactory so far, but it will be interesting to see how and when justice is served in the matter.
Can the Modi government be as successful in solving the Joshimath problem and Kanjhawala case as it has been in tackling Covid-19? The answer will lie in its ability to put in place smart leadership at all levels of governance – just the way it did throughout the vaccination drive.
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