Dubai: When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joins the chief ministers of the state in a video conference call on Saturday, there are no prizes for guessing that the consensus will be on extending the national lockdown – in any given shape or form. This time, it will be the state’s leaders forcing Modi’s hand with Odisha and Punjab already confirming an extension after April 14 – as the lockdown still seems to be the primary tool to slow down the exponential rise in cases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
As the country heads into that crucial phase of it’s battle – desperate to stem the ‘community transmission’ - there seems to be a new federalism which has been gaining ground in the past month in India. Modi may still be the captain of the ship, but it’s the likes of Uddhav Thackeray, Pinarayi Vijayan, Amarinder Singh or Mamata Banerjee who are in the forefront of the battle.
There has been quite a dramatic transformation in the scenario from the third week of March when the Prime Minister – in one of his customary 8 pm addresses – announced his intentions with the ‘Janata Curfew.’ Sensing there is simply too much at stake and an immense amount of political goodwill to be garnered from it, the chief ministers have risen to the occasion – with a few of them standing out in their proactive stance and planning. Thanks to the Indian Constitution which stipulates health as a state subject, the states could go ahead with their plans – though the real battle begins now.
Gulf News takes a look at the performance of some of the Chief Ministers at the forefront of the battle so far:
Uddhav Thackeray: It has certainly been not an easy job for the Maharashtra Chief Minister from Shiv Sena, which has Mumbai – country’s most populous city and the finance club – to contend with the highest number of cases. The mild-mannered Thackeray got into action as well before the pan-India shutdown, he announced on March 20 that all workplaces will remain closed till March 31. His order was applicable to Mumbai, MMR Region, Pune, Pimpri Chinchwad and Nagpur.
Soon after the first conference call with the Prime Minister, Maharashtra took central government’s go-ahead to do rapid testing in densely populated areas and slums to detect suspect cases and isolate them before it becomes a wildfire. The job has not got any easier with sporadic cases now being reported from Dharavi – Asia’s biggest slum.
Soon after the nationwide lockdown announcemenat, Thackeray soothed the nerves by assuring that Maharashtra has enough supply of essentials. ‘’I appeal to employers not to cut wages of their workers or stop their services....don’t flock the markets. To purchase essential commodities, go to market alone and maintain distance (with one another),’’ he said.
Pinarayi Vijayan: The venerable Chief Minister of India’s only Left-ruled state at the moment, alongwith her health minister K.K.Shailaja, looked most well-prepared to combat the coronavirus menace. They were the first state to report a coronavirus infection in India and emerges as one of the states with highest infection rates from corona in the initial stages, thanks to the influx of the NRIs largely from Gulf countries.
However, having learnt their lessons from tackling the Nipah virus, they showed an extremely coordinated and clinical approach and have pegged back the number of cases to 345 (with only two deaths) as on Thursday.
Apart from building isolation facilities, Vijayan announced an economic package much before that of the Centre. He attempted to kickstart the badly hit economy with a ₹20,000-crore package, though there are enough skeptics who have questioned it’s viability.
Kerala were also among the states that declared a statewide lockdown ahead of the nationwide shutdown, while the Chief Minister regularly spoke to people via media or Twitter to skirt any panic.
Arvind Kejriwal: The Chief Minister of the Union territory of Delhi, the country’s capital, has a tough job on his hands as he is always under scrutiny from his political rivals in power at the centre. His administration of Aam Aadmi Party, which used public health and state-funded education as two of their main planks to return to power recently, deployed the mohallah clinics which came handy in enforcing greater tests and start the quarantine procedure even before the numbers were on the rise in New Delhi.
The setback for the Kejriwal government came with the news of the Nizamuddin Markaz, but the former buerucrat says around 2300 attendees were evacuated from there and were being tested. What is acting as a dampener is both Kejriwal and his Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sishodia had been accusing the Union Ministry of Health of not providing enough testing kits and protective equipment - with the former even refusing a grant from East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir from the BJP.
Amarinder Singh: The challenge before the Indian National Congress-run Punjab government was the huge number of NRIs who hurriedly returned to the state, unofficial figures putting the number at 90,000 in the third week of March. Bracing for an alarming rise in cases, Captain Amarinder Singh – a former Army personnel -
ordered a curfew to prevent the spread of the virus.
It seemed a practical decision in two senses - it curbed the massive spread to other states and contained the often unruly citizens of the state, many of whom gave sleepless nights to the administration, violating social distancing calls.
‘’I have directed the provision of free food, shelter and medicines for those in need and 20 crore has been sanctioned out of CM relief fund for same. Additionally, DCs and SDMs have been asked to extend all assistance to those in need,’’ Singh tweeted, and continues to use the social media to keep in touch with the people.
Ashok Gehlot: The ‘Bhilwara Model’ of Rajathan, the sprawling western India state under Ashok Gehlot – chief minister from Congress – has been much talked about as a template to fight the spread of coronavirus. The first case in Rajasthan was reported early as March 2, 2020 and strict measures were taken in the state soon.
“The Bhilwara border was sealed on March 19 after we found a doctor being corona positive and it is becoming a learning ground now. In Bhilwara, 3,000 teams were formed that reached 32 lakh people. We reached nearly six lakh homes and screening was done,” Gehlot said in a press conference through video conferencing earlier this week.
Much before the central government’s clampdown, Gehlot had announced a lockdown in Rajasthan till March 31. He has also demanded a Central relief package for the state’s tourism and hospitality industry, MSMEs and all the weaker sections of the society.
It is a heartening feature to note that most states have risen to the challenge, often cutting across party lines. Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress chief minister of West Bengal, had enforced a lockdown in the state before the centre’s official announcement and mobilised the state’s private hospitals to do rapid tests as well as not to refuse patients suspected of the virus. Her “Sufalbangla” scheme has also ensured that vegetable prices are kept in check.
In Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath (BJP) was one of the first to assure a guaranteed income to daily-wage labourers while in Odisha, Naveen Patnaik (Bjiu Janata Dal) has - in his own quite efficient way - set up three fully equipped Covid-19 hospitals. In Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel (Congress) has ensured extra rations for all to ensure there is no shortage of foodgrains.
