Since 15 April, India has been grappling with an exponential rise in COVIDcases, deaths and shortage of basic facilities. In the wake of theunprecedented crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been facingblistering criticism for the government’s handling of the pandemic, both,internationally and within the country.
India’s former foreign minister and ex-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaderYashwant Sinha told Sputnik that despite warnings from variousinternational agencies, the Narendra Modi government has failed miserablyin handling the current COVID-19 situation. He also explained how the BJPused the Election Commission of India (ECI) as “its puppet” in the recentlyheld state assembly elections. Sinha left the BJP after he reachedideological dissent within his party in 2018 and recently joined MamataBanerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Sputnik: How do you assess the work of the Narendra Modi government inhandling the current COVID-19 situation?
Yashwant Sinha: The problem with the Narendra Modi government is that itstarts celebrating and taking credit too early. In January, whileaddressing the World Economic Forum, Narendra Modi declared that Indiasaved the world by controlling COVID in the country, and the party officebearers gathered on February 21 to congratulate PM Modi for the victoryover the deadly virus.
All this time, experts were warning that the second wave of COVID-19 isexpected to hit the nation soon. All the warnings fell on deaf ears of theBJP government. This is the major reason why we are grappling with theworst worldwide COVID-19 surge and today, we are breaking all the recordsof daily infections and deaths.
The entire health infrastructure has collapsed. A country like India cannotput together enough oxygen for the patients, and the whole situation is ina mess. Now, who will take the blame for this? The federal government andPrime Minister Narendra Modi, who failed to anticipate the danger despiteregular warnings and failed to manage the situation, is directlyresponsible for this.
Sputnik: How did the government handle the country’s economy during thepandemic?
Yashwant Sinha: I really don’t think that the economy of the country is ina good shape. The Narendra Modi-led government is extremely good atmanipulating the data; therefore, I don’t trust the statistics shown by thegovernment anymore. A lot of people, holding important portfolios, had toresign because they didn’t agree with the government or its reports.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced relief packages of $278billion (INR 20 lakh crore rupees) for the aftermath of the COVID crisis.Where is the money? Various reports said that the announcements by thegovernment were eyewash and it had hardly spent 1-2 percent of the saidamount.
This money was specially allocated for the Micro, Small & MediumEnterprises (MSME) sector and the MSME figures are released with threeyears lag — therefore, we don’t have a bigger picture. Despite theallocation of relief package for the MSME sector, it is in very bad shape.So, I don’t think that the economic situation has been handled in thedesired way.
Sputnik: How did the government tackle the crisis of migrant labourers andthe unorganized sector?
Yashwant Sinha: If things were managed in a better way, then migrants wouldhave never walked back to their respective states during the second wave ofthe COVID-19. The small business units are shutting down and unemploymenthas become one of the major issues. The government failed to serve theinterest of the country, particularly the unorganized sector and the worstpart is that still, it is not thinking about it.
Sputnik: Most of the states are complaining about non-availability ofvaccine doses. How do you see the entire vaccination process in the country?
Yashwant Sinha: Vaccination should be made free and compulsory, likeprimary education, as it is the only protection we have against the deadlyvirus. We have to vaccinate all our countrymen as soon as possible.
Secondly, online registration should not be the only way to get registeredfor the vaccination. On the spot, registrations should also be started.Currently, I’m in my village in Jharkhand (It is one of the tribal statesof India) and here people are not much aware about online registration. So,for such a populace, the government should mobilise the healthcare andfrontline workers, who can go village to village and vaccinate the peopleon the spot.
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Apart from this, we must not laud ourselves as a world leader in thepharmacy sector and export the vaccine to other countries. First, we shouldensure vaccination for our population and then we can look forward tosupporting other countries.
Also, it is important that the cost of the vaccination should be taken careof by the government. I think there won’t be much of a problem with it asthe Finance Minister had announced a $1.7 billion health package to fightagainst COVID-19 and a huge amount of money had been collected in thePM-CARES fund.
However, I will still say that the government, so far, has performedmiserably in managing this crisis.
Sputnik: How was your experience of the West Bengal elections as this wasthe first time that the BJP had a magnanimous campaign in the state?
Yashwant Sinha: I am really disappointed with the way the elections wereconducted in West Bengal. The Election Commission of India didn’t act as anindependent agency. It was working on the directions of the federalgovernment. Knowing about the pandemic spread, the poll body shouldn’t haveextended the polls in the state.
A supporter of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wearing a face cutout of IndianPrime Minister Narendra Modi attends a public rally being addressed by himduring the ongoing fourth phase of the West Bengal’s state legislativeassembly elections, at Kawakhali on the outskirts of Siliguri on April 10,2021.
Breaking all the COVID protocols, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and HomeMinister Amit Shah organized huge rallies where people from various partsof the country were brought adding to the COVID-19 surge.
Additionally, Narendra Modi behaved like a street urchin during the pollcampaigns. He taunted Mamta Banerjee as ‘Didi, O Didi’ (Sister, Hey Sister)or Do May, Didi Gayi (2 May, Banerjee gone). Such language is not expectedfrom the Prime Minister of a country.
Modi-Shah duo has always tried to sideline their rivals, whether within theparty or outside, similarly they realised that Mamata Banerjee would be athreat for them in 2024 so they only made plans for defeating her, thoughthey couldn’t succeed, and didn’t focus on Pinarayi Vijayan (of Kerala), MKStalin (of Tamil Nadu).
Sputnik: You’ve been reiterating that the West Bengal election will shapeup the 2024 Parliamentarian Election in India. How?
Mr Sinha: At present, there is no opposition against the federalgovernment, and nature doesn’t tolerate the vacuum for long. Similarly, thepolitical vacuum has to be filled. By 2024, more ably and small leaderswill emerge and challenge Narendra Modi.
I don’t know who will be these leaders, but Mamata Banerjee is undoubtedlyone of those faces.
