Deploy strategies of war-fighting ingeniously to overcome the once-in-a-lifetime Covid-19 crisis

Reflecting on the unfolding pandemic, in a blog over a year ago, this writer had rued–‘Make no mistake, this is nothing short of a war’. At the time, one naively believed that this challenge could be overcome by leaders and elected representatives uniting as one and fanning out to be amidst the people who had elected them. As events have unfolded, not only has this hope been belied, but sharp political divisions resulting in claims and counter-claims have resulted in an already anxious people, both divided and confused.

Today when the second wave of the disease surpasses previous records almost on a daily basis, bringing in its wake endless suffering and tragedy, riding rough shod over herculean efforts by all those physically and mentally battling it, it is the social media comment by a veteran General that appears to have hit home. The Army Chief who led the nation’s successful war in Kargil, has sombrely reflected in a tweet, “Our nation is at war. Is the nation focused on this war? Election rallies, faith events, farmer agitation, in-fighting over resources going on …wake up India!”

Judging by editorial and electronic media response to this appeal, it appears that there is much sympathy with this sentiment. To heed this wake- up call perhaps it is time now to look for strategies not in books relating to our democratic system of governance, but ones relating to war-fighting and how these can ingeniously be applied to overcoming this once-in-alifetime crisis.

War manuals lay foremost emphasis on morale of the fighting force, because devoid of this and indeed morale of the population backing this force, the best of strategies and plans will come to nought. Morale is a positive state of mind derived from inspired leadership, a shared sense of purpose and values, well-being and team cohesion. The biggest attribute of any leader civil or military to lead in a crisis situation should be to lead by example and shore up the morale of all those being led. Morale is that rare attribute that perceptible military leaders can feel in their bones and should it begin to evaporate amongst their troops, even the finest of them will need godly qualities to revive it.

In a democracy, where of necessity, there are diverse shades of opinion and ideology, with different parties, interest groups and leaders espousing each, the challenge is how best to uplift the morale of a people as one. Looking at the landscape of how our democratic institutions are faring in this war against Covid, one thing is certain. There appears no visible effort on the part of diverse shades of opinion, political or otherwise, to set aside legitimate ideological and other differences and present a united face to confront this deadly common threat. Without this unity of leadership and purpose, society will remain fragmented with national morale being the first casualty. If there is one lesson of warfare that is worth emulating at this critical juncture, it is for our polity and diversity of opinion to shed differences and stand united such that national morale is strengthened.

Another principle of war allied to morale is one of the spirit of cooperation and team work. This entails sharing of threats, challenges, dangers, risks and burdens in every aspect of military life. How this can be applied to the democratic landscape where the very idea of a vibrant democracy is for diverse and opposing ideals to harmoniously co- exist, is the challenge that our mature democracy and its various constituents are expected to find answers to. Surely in this battle for survival, our democratic polity has the will and sagacity to shed political or personal self-interest at the altar of the larger common good — that of the people it professes to serve?

The third principle of war that is relevant in today’s context is that of unity of command where a single commander is designated with requisite authority to direct forces in pursuit of a unified purpose. One had hoped that in keeping with our federal democratic structure, where each state has its elected leader, the initiative for determining the best model to emulate this principle of unity of command would have voluntarily originated from this collective leadership. In practice, alas, what we have witnessed during the present crisis, is quite the opposite.

In fairness to democratic ideals, and in keeping with military norms, when the battle ends must come time for lessons to be learnt by revisiting the entire operation, the tactics adopted, successes or failures and the lessons learnt. This is what war histories are meant to do and indeed was the experience post the Kargil conflict although our record of not publicly sharing the report of 1962 conflict, is not a worthy example! In a similar spirit, one would expect defeat of Covid to be followed by an objective assessment of how Indian democracy responded to the challenge, to be shared with the people of India who in true traditions of democracy will then judge by the power of their ballot.

And finally, this is the first time that democratic India is faced with a peace-time threat that is more menacing than the wars the country has fought. The military played its part when so directed; it is now to the genius of Indian democracy to find the best way to respond and do so in haste. Let the veteran General’s ‘wake up India’ call be the catalyst.