Narendra Modi -- The Unifier-in-Chief

From the harmonious clanging of 'thaalis' and the magical sound of 'taalis' and conch shells, in a remarkable show of "sankalp" and "sanyam" on 22nd March 2020, to lighting millions of "diyas" and candles at 9 pm for 9 minutes on 5th April 2020, India and its 1.37 billion people came together as a united whole, on both these eventful days, will be remembered for a long time to come. Needless to mention that, the fight against the Chinese Wuhan virus, or COVID-19 as it is widely known, is being fought by world leaders on various fronts. However, more than human lives, physical well-being and financial conditions of an array of nations, what this global pandemic has hit the hardest, is the human spirit, in many places. 

The last time a global health contagion hit humanity this hard was the Spanish flu in 1918. Hence, the clarion call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to bring together a vastly diverse nation with all its contradictions, on 5th April 2020, was more than mere symbolism -- it re-ignited the resolve, energy, patience, resourcefulness, and positivity of more than a billion Indians. Clearly, Modi is showing the way to a whole host of world leaders who are looking at him to take charge of a situation that has foxed both the scientific community and politicians, who thought they always had a quick fix solution to every problem.

Narendra Modi is no ordinary politician and even his worst critics have been forced to acknowledge this. His extraordinary mass appeal transcends cultural, religious, racial, demographic and geographical divides. Be it the "Janta Curfew", starting a SAARC contingency fund, airlifting over 1444 stranded people from various nations, banging steel plates or lighting "mombattis", Modi's logic is simple--besides harnessing scientific temper and administrative empathy, it is important to lift the veil of helplessness and despair, which isolation and being cooped up within the four walls of one's home, 24/7, can sometimes, lead to.

Leftist media in India, which has no problems with goats being slaughtered during Bakri-Eid or namaaz being blared from loudspeakers five times a day, have been quick to criticise Modi's outstanding, "at 9 pm for 9 minutes" move, accusing people of bursting firecrackers and scaring stray animals away, during these 9 minutes. So much for media hypocrisy!

The same anti-Modi lot that was rumor-mongering outrageously about voltage fluctuations and anticipated grid failure, had no qualms about celebrating "Earth Hour", on 28th March 2020, between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm IST. Earth hour is a worldwide movement organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The event is held annually encouraging individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights, for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. on a specific day, the last Saturday of March, as a symbol of commitment to the planet. It was started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. Since then, it has grown to engage more than 7000 cities and towns across 187 countries and territories to raise awareness for energy consumption and effects on the environment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "lights out" event on 5th April 2020, akin to "Earth Hour", Indian style, was historic, as it showcased India's collaborative spirit of unity in diversity, in its truest sense. If India has taken a lead in the global war against Coronavirus, it is ultimately due to two things which Modi, urged Indians to focus upon, in an outstanding address to the nation on 19th March,2020--"resolve and restraint". 

Of course, apart from encouraging social distancing, sealing land borders with Myanmar, Pakistan and Bangladesh, quarantining incoming passengers from affected countries and screening people at airports via infrared thermometers from mid-January, despite the first Coronavirus case hitting India only on 30th January 2020, in the state of Kerala, it is the 21-day lockdown that has worked to India's advantage, more than anything else.

Singapore has decided to now go for a month-long lockdown, taking a leaf from the Indian experience. UK, Australia, New Zealand, Poland and large parts of the USA too, are following either an informal shutdown or a more rigorous formal lockdown, which Modi was the first to espouse and implement, much before any global leader even thought of doing so.

By 3rd March 2020, 5.89 lakh people had already been screened at Indian airports, over 1 million screened at borders with Nepal and around 27000 were put under community surveillance. These numbers show that the Modi government was way ahead of the curve, in taking the necessary measures to flatten the curve. The unprecedented 21-day nationwide lockdown, is a bona fide and bold move, which only a leader of Modi's towering stature has the ability to execute so seamlessly.

As of 5th April 2020, there are over 69,444 fatalities and over 1.27 million confirmed cases globally, with over 3,37,300 cases in the USA alone, over 47800 cases in the UK, over 81700 cases in China and over 12640 deaths in Spain. India, as on 6th April 2020, has been able to restrict the confirmed cases to just a little over 4000. And that, is certainly not a mean feat, for a nation of 1.37 billion people.

In New York, 3565 people have died as on 4th April 2020 and there is a Coronavirus related death, every 9.5 minutes, with over 7 million jobs lost in the US, in the month of March 2020. The overall US death tally rose to 9643 as of 5th April 2020. Between 3rd and 4th April 2020, NYC saw the single biggest rise of 23% in fatalities, in barely 24 hours! Just to put things in perspective, New York City (NYC), has a population of roughly 8.7 million people, whereas a single state in India, Uttar Pradesh, for instance, has a population in excess of 200 million.

It took 56 days for India to reach the first 1000 cases. The next 1000 cases, however, came about in only four days, due to the "Tablighi Jamaat", a radicalized, fanatic, Islamic missionary movement, whose members acted as a "super spreaders", by freely mingling and violating government diktat on the lockdown. 22000 Tablighis across 17 states in India, have been quarantined. Had it not been for the "Tablighis", India's confirmed cases would have been well below 2000. The Tablighis, as on 4th April 2020, accounted for 28% of the total cases and 56% of the incremental cases between 1st and 3rd April 2020.

The commendable point to be noted here is that, despite being a multi-racial and multilingual country with daunting challenges from within, like the horrific Tablighi violation for instance and, despite sharing a 3488-kilometre long border with China, the fact that India has managed to limit its death toll to 109, as on 6th April 2020, is a befitting testimony to Modi's political will. Controlling a pandemic is not simply about great medical infrastructure. Italy, as on 5th April 2020, suffered over 15800 deaths, despite excellent healthcare system, because it underestimated the nature of this virus and the political will in the initial period, was lacking too. 

In sharp contrast, the Indian experience under Modi has been a very firm and calibrated one. The central government, wherever necessary, has urged state governments to invoke Section 144 of the CrPC, to discourage public gatherings. Section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, which makes health advisories enforceable and Section 3 of the Act which makes flouting these advisories or hiding symptoms of the Coronavirus, or fleeing hospitals, punishable, with up to 6 months in prison, has been put into action.

That 182 fully dedicated testing labs, including over 130 government labs that are working 24/7, with over 89000 tests conducted already as of 5th April 2020, are a glowing reflection of how India's fight against the Wuhan virus pandemic, is gaining momentum. 

BJP, India's ruling party, is not the largest party in the world for nothing---in the war against Coronavirus, under the aegis of its able and super-efficient national president, J.P.Nadda, the party has been feeding five crore people daily during the lockdown via authenticated community kitchens, that are linked to booths and "Shakti Kendras".A "Shakti Kendra"  is a cluster of four to six booths.

Speaking of healthcare, US Medicare has released prices of COVID-19 tests, which is $35.92 (Rs 2,729) for tests developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) and, $51.33 (Rs 3,900) for all other commercial tests. Sri Lanka has allowed private hospitals to conduct COVID-19 tests for a maximum cost of Rs 6,000, while in China, this test which is not free, costs 370 yuan, which is roughly Rs 4000.

India's Pune-based Mylab recently got commercial approval by the Indian FDA/Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), for an affordable coronavirus testing kit, to be roughly priced at Rs 1200, once again confirming how the Modi government is way ahead of western nations, in combating the Wuhan virus.

In fact, in the last six years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a personal interest in ensuring that hygiene becomes a way of life, in India. From building over 110 million toilets in the last six years under the Swachh Bharat mission to the emphasis on banning single-use plastic, recycling waste and reducing India's carbon footprint---sustainable development has been the hallmark of Modinomics.

Rahul Gandhi, the failed dynast, who has been taking digs at Modi, needs to be reminded that despite the Congress ruling India for over six decades, access to basic sanitation was barely 37% in 2013. That number stands at over 90% today, with over 77% of the rural households having access to toilets and basic sanitation.93.4% use these toilets regularly.

Again, unlike China, which has only built physical infrastructure, Modi's "Make in India" model has paid equal weightage to both, financial and social capital. Be it the commitment to source 40% of India's energy needs from non-fossil fuels or the decision to generate 175 GW of power from renewable energy sources by 2022, Modi's development model is both sustainable and environment-friendly.

That apart, India's "Ayushman Bharat--Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana", the largest healthcare scheme in the world, aims to provide an insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per annum to 500 million vulnerable Indians. Touted as one of Modi's most ambitious initiatives, having treated over 7.5 million people, with more than 100 million e-cards issued and over 20000 hospitals under its aegis, this scheme has played a critical role in making India healthier and fitter, preparing it for contingencies like COVID-19.

The Modi government's Rs 1.76  trillion package including free rice and wheat to over 800 million needy people, direct cash transfers via "Jan Dhan" bank accounts to over 200 million women and almost 90 million farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme, insurance cover of Rs 5 million each to over 2 million health workers and incentives for 630 million women-centric self-help groups (SHGs), underline the war footing on which the Modi government has mounted its fight against Coronavirus. India's central bank, the RBI, stepped in too, with a Rs 3.74 trillion monetary stimulus package that included cuts in the benchmark REPO rate, a moratorium for three months on all term loans, cut in the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for banks and bond buybacks of Rs 1 trillion via targetted long term repo operations (TLTROs).

To cut to the chase, India's outstanding handling of the exigencies arising from the Coronavirus pandemic will be remembered as an exemplary test case of how Prime Minister Narendra Modi achieved what no other global leader could---he not only contained fatalities in the vastly spread out Indian subcontinent but more importantly, he resolutely did that without blinking or flinching for even a minute---nation first has always been his calling card. Balance sheets can be repaired and GDP growth will come back too, as long as human lives are not risked. Modi's "India lockdown", indeed, bears testimony to that underlying humanitarian belief.

Ms. Sanju Verma is an Economist, Chief Spokesperson for BJP Mumbai and, Author of the Bestseller, "Truth &Dare--The Modi Dynamic".