Spotlight
New Delhi, 19 June
2021
BJP Covid Strategy
TIME TO
PROFESS EMPATHY
By Sagarneel
Sinha
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s popularity has taken a hit due to the devastating second Covid-19
wave. The timing not too good as the BJP government completed seven years in
power. Although the wave has been declining, the sufferings of those families,
who lost their dear ones to the pandemic, won’t fade away soon. It will take
time to heal. And the ruling party would need to do damage control.
Amid all this, if one
looks at the narrative of the ruling party, it appears that the Modi government
has done no wrong in tackling the virus. True that such a pandemic happens once
in a century and it’s not possible for any government to completely stop the
spread of the virus, but how can the BJP escape the fact that the Centre was
complacent about tackling the fight against the virus in the country?
If this question is
asked, the usual response from the BJP leaders and spokespersons is that the Opposition-ruled
States were complacent too and health is a State subject. Agree that health is
a State subject and the Opposition-ruled States like Kerala, Maharashtra,
Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Delhi, etc failed to curb the spread of the virus, but what
about BJP-ruled States? From Karnataka to Gujarat and from Madhya Pradesh to
Uttar Pradesh, the deadly second wave of the virus was visible there too. The
saffron party leaders can’t run away from these facts by just pointing to the
failures of the rivals.
Since the BJP came to
power in 2014, the problem of the party is that it still behaves like an Opposition
party where the party spokesperson on a routine basis only criticises the Opposition
parties, particularly the Congress. It’s absolutely fine for the BJP to do so
as it’s a part of politics but the problem lies when the party fails to admit
its own mistakes. BJP leaders spent more time condemning Congress party’s
unofficial President Rahul Gandhi’s ‘silly’ tweets, which lack proper
consistency on crucial issues and are aimed more at ridiculing Modi day and
night.
Here’s the main
problem. BJP is the ruling party and citizens look towards Modi to solve their
issues, particularly during such a crisis. Undeniably, these hopes took a hit
during this second wave but the BJP, as the ruling party, has more
responsibility to address these and should have acted. Unfortunately, the
leaders and even some Cabinet ministers were more interested in denouncing
Rahul, wherein the effort was not necessary given that his credibility within
his own party is low.
Recently, Modi in his
address to the nation course corrected the vaccination policy by announcing its
centralisation drive. The PM blamed some of the Opposition-ruled State
governments without naming them for repeatedly asking for decentralisation of
the programme. He was correct that these States without even checking their own
ability asked for decentralisation. It is when they realised it wasn’t possible
for them, they started blaming the Centre together for creating a mess, reversed
their stand and wanted Centre to take control.
There is no denying
the fact that it was inappropriate of Modi not to admit even once for the mess-up
of the vaccination programme. That the Centre had to give in to the State gov
government’s demands does reveal that it was lacking a proper vision at the
national front. Modi’s address, which otherwise was a fine, dealt with the
vaccine issue hesitatingly. It would have been better for him to openly
acceptthe errors committed by his own government and show confidence of making
amends.
Unfortunately, the
present dispensation thinks that admitting own flaws will affect the image of
the government. Mistakes do happen. Why does the government believe that it
can’t commit mistakes? Last year, Modi himself apologised to the nation during
the time of migrant crisis. Apology for a blunder doesn’t diminish the image.
It only shows the commitment towards honesty. But, this government believes
more in strength, and the BJP IT cell too loves to create the narrative that
the Modi government is a very strong one.
Agree that power is
necessary for running a government but every issue can’t be solved through
showcasing strength. Empathy is required too. If one looks at the languages of
BJP leaders, particularly spokespersons appearing daily on noisy TV debates,
one realises that sensitivity is missing from their statements. That these
party spokespersons, despite seeing pyres of thousands of dead bodies in the
crowded crematoriums, still debate and try to compare the low death rates of
the country with other countries of the world. At this time, such comparisons
sound hollow and cruel too for those who lost their dear ones.
This lack of empathy
is seen in BJP’s approach with its allies — and this has reduced the NDA to
just a merely existing body. In the present Modi government, there are no Cabinet
ministers from the NDA constituents. The only non-BJP minister is RPI(A)’s
chief Ramdas Athawale, who is a Minister of State. There is a buzz of a Cabinet
reshuffle, where, if the reports are to be believed, the Modi government is
expected to include some NDA constituents in his Cabinet. If the rumour turns
true then it is a right step by the BJP towards accommodating its allies, who
have been ignored long and feel disappointed.
Nitish Kumar has been
miffed with the BJP leadership for not accommodating his party in the Union Cabinet.
To be fair, before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP did accommodate JD(U) by
ceding its own five seats. But, Nitish's discontent is reasonable too.
Similarly, Uttar Pradesh- based Apna Dal (S) leader Anupriya Patel, who was
earlier a minister in the first Modi government, is unhappy for not giving her
party respect at both State and Centre level. She recently met with Home Minister
Amit Shah, who also happens to be the NDA chairman and so did Sanjay Nishad
from Nishad party, another small ally in UP, to urge them to look beyond their
own members and leaders.
Clearly, mere lip
service of practising coalition dharma isn’t enough. That’s the reason BJP,
which once championed practicing coalition politics, is today facing
allegations in the Modi-Shah era for sidelining its allies. The situation of
NDA has changed with the gigantic rise of BJP and some allies make unreasonable
demands too, but the saffron party must listen to the grievances of its allies
and pay more attention towards the feelings of citizens. It has to look beyond
its approach of only winning elections and forming governments. It must put
sharp focus on a political approach based on empathy. ---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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