When leaders fail

The way leaders guide people through this coronavirus crisis matters. At a time when those at the helm at the national and state levels are being challenged like never before, the curious case of the Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan comes into focus as he presides over large state in solitary splendour. He is a chief minister without a trace of a Cabinet. He was sworn in, almost furtively, on the night before the national lockdown when even the one man who made possible his fourth term — Congress rebel Jyotiraditya Scindia — was not able to be present.

Toppling elected governments may rank high on the BJP’s political playbook, but MP came at a critical time when the country and the world was just beginning to realise the enormity of the virus crisis. The timing of the swearing-in apart, it did not seem to have struck the national BJP leadership that either a caretaker rule by the Congress CM, Kamal Nath, or a spell of President’s Rule during the lockdown would have been the more politically correct course of action. Instead, what we had was the gloating triumphalism of the CM as seen in Chouhan’s smiles at the investiture.

Globally too the leadership is being stretched like never before and parts of the western world, which are now the epicentre of the virus, are showing cracks at the very top. A British Prime Minister who was disdainful of the emerging crisis himself caught the virus. That is no fault of his except that as a leader in isolation he is now a forlorn figure much like Chouhan presiding as CM in MP. Their dithering in the face of a crisis leads to governments failing to put together the coherent responses most needed in an emergency. Strong leadership may have helped contain the virus early with pro-active screening and testing but none in power in many parts of the free world could drive the bureaucracy to counter this public health catastrophe. Too many have failed when they should have been leading decisively.