Leadership needed in face of corona crisis
Leadership in the face of the coronavirus pandemic that has wreaked havoc on financial markets and the global economy has been seen to dither even in nations with authoritarian heads of government. The avowed leader of the free world, Donald Trump’s approach to the coronavirus crisis threatening health as well as economic prosperity was a defiant denial of what was projected, in medical opinion, as the gravest threat to the world in the new millennium in the form of a runaway pathogen spreading with ease among communities.
Long after the horses bolted, Mr Trump came up with a belated and questionable slamming of the barn door in terms of travel to Europe. It was clear that his early predilection was to stave off an image hit in an election year. Not until a personal threat to his health was feared after a minister in the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s delegation, who had dinner with Mr Trump, tested positive, did the US President spring into action. The US bailout package hammered out after bipartisan consultation recognises the need to mitigate the suffering of people who have either to keep off public places, work from home or isolate themselves if they are showing symptoms.
Mr Trump may have had a populist mate in the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson whose initial scepticism led to his pooh-poohing the threat before he put up his hands saying the outbreak could no longer be contained. It is a dire reflection on the populist leaders of the free world that the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, is trumpeting now that his country has managed to get over the worst of it after undertaking extreme measures of containment, which might yet be unthinkable in democracies. But that is the point about the sacrifices of containment being far more beneficial than to attempt mitigation.
How the Italian health system has been overrun by the crisis is sufficient to make the point about how thorough the first response had to be in the battle against this cross-species organism. That brings us to how India has acted in the face of the crisis with the first Covid-19 death signalling the seriousness of the situation that could spiral out of control. The fact that the muggy Singapore weather has been host to the virus with as much facility as cold Europe is warning enough not to be fooled by theories about the virus not surviving the heat.
It is important then that the Indian leadership provide a clear roadmap in the war against Covid-19 and take larger, even if unpopular, measures of containment. For instance, how long would it have taken for the Centre to call the home minister’s son, who is a powerful official in the BCCI, to give up the foolish plans of trying to go ahead with the IPL from endMarch, to be played to closed stadiums? When global politics is being turned on its head by the virus, should India be vacillating? Act now when people need to see leadership, clear policy and reassurances.
The fact that the muggy Singapore weather has been host to the virus with as much facility as cold Europe is warning enough not to be fooled by theories about the virus not surviving the heat