In a hard-hitting and sharply critical interview, one of India’s most
highly regarded historians, Ram Guha, has said Modi’s leadership style
is the principal reason for the mishandling of the present COVID-19
crisis.
Although Ram Guha also blames Modi’s “sycophantic cabinet”, the
country’s institutions, including the Supreme Court, which have let down
the country and the yes-men officials and bureaucrats surrounding Modi,
he says the main blame and responsibility rests squarely on the prime
minister’s shoulders.
In his interview to The Wire, Guha identified three of Narendra Modi’s
traits which he says lie behind the mishandling of COVID-19. The first
is his “suspicion of experts and expertise”. Guha said ignorant Modi has
“explicit contempt for education”. He “prefers hard work to
Harvard”.Guha says Modi thinks he knows better than the experts. Guha
only consults experts who say what he wants to hear.
“The fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic would have been far less serious
had the PM based his policies on the advice of India’s top
epidemiologists rather than his penchant for the spectacular and
dramatic,” he said.
Guha calls the banging of thalis, lighting of candles and switching-off
of lights for nine minutes on April 5, 2020, at 9 pm “pure juju and
superstition”.
The second character trait Guha identified is Modi’s “cult of
personality”. He says Modi has a desire to take credit for everything.
He simply dismisses the good work done by previous governments. As far
as his own government’s performance is concerned, Modi ensures all blame
accrues to state governments and the opposition. His cabinet ministers
are made to answer for what has gone wrong. Modi claims the credit only
for what has gone right.Guha told The Wire that Modi has surrounded
himself with yes-men and loyalists. Several outstanding IAS officers
have been shunned because their intelligence and efficiency might have
outshone the PM. Guha said Modi is consumed by his own “vanity ” and
“megalomania… He is in love with himself.”
Read more:
https://thewire.in/government/watch-karan-thapar-ramachandra-guha-narendra-modi-covid-19-megalomaniac
Eddie D'Sa
