History will record that on 19 March, in his first national address in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advised Indians to imitate Italian lockdown singing—to thank the doctors, nurses and emergency responders combating the public-health crisis—for five minutes on one Sunday, from their balconies. He also compared the pandemic to the world wars, and spoke about the explosion of COVID cases around the world. The one topic conspicuously absent from Modi’s speech, and probably the most pressing need from the nation’s leader in this time of crisis, was the government’s mitigation strategy.
His government has not offered a financial package or extra infrastructural support to the medical staff on the ground, though they are fast running out of personal protection equipment, such as masks, face shields, and gowns, et cetera. “The speech was largely an emotional one, asking for voluntarism from the people, rather than provide specific information about the mitigation strategy,” Dr Yogesh Jain, a public-health doctor and a founding member of Jan Swasthya Sahyog—or People’s Health Movement, an NGO that provides healthcare in rural Chhattisgarh—said. “I don’t think it will, in any way assuage the concerns of citizens or the medical staff, as cases surge. He just compared it to world wars and then went on to ask us to clap from balconies, show restraint and resolve without telling us anything about what the government is doing in this war-like situation.”
The dramatic centrepiece of Modi’s speech was a call for a “janata curfew”—or people’s curfew—on 22 March, a one-day lockdown. The scientific merit of a one-day lockdown is unclear within public-health circles, but it is possibly being seen as a trial run for longer lockdowns that may follow. He did not address the snowballing controversy about India being among the countries with the lowest testing rates in the world for COVID-19. He did not respond to concerns about the number of testing kits available in the country. He also did not address how, and at what costs, the COVID-19 treatment would be made available to citizens. All this while experts have warned that India is staring at a tsunami of cases in the coming weeks.
COMMENT