5 Reasons that show the Modi Regime is losing control of the COVID-19 crisis

While the Modi Government appears to be enjoying high support amongst voters for their handling of the COVID, this support is eroding. On Google for example, search for the PM which was averaging at double the levels before COVID-19 is now back to just 50% higher. On CrowdWisdom360 where the crowd had rated the PM’s performance on COVID-19 at 84 is now down to 78. Here are 5 top reasons why the Modi Government appears to be losing control of the COVID-19 crisis.

1. There is no end to the COVID-19 crisis, numbers keep increasing across the country and across States ruled by all parties. The Lockdowns keep getting extended in some form or the other. Even if the restrictions have ended, it is not business as usual.
2. The Migrant transport plan looks solid in theory but in practice has been shoddily executed with a massive expansion of COVID-19 cases across numerous States. The Govt took a long time to respond in the first place.
3. It took nearly two months for testing to touch 1 lakh levels with numerous BJP ruled states trailing non-BJP ruled States even today
4. The Centre has been playing politics on Testing. At one end aggressively targeting Mamata on testing while keeping quiet on low testing in Telangana, Bihar, MP, UP etc. Gujarat has been playing the slow testing game for days now.
5. The Modi economy recovery plan was fully rejected by the stock market and as more details of the plan are revealed (Like only 15% of SMEs will be eligible for SME Loan scheme), it is turning out to be a damp squib

That said, all data points confirm one thing for sure, PM Modi continues to be more popular than before the COVID-19 crisis. There are reasons for that

• Firstly, even when there are failures, voters tend to blame the State Governments for it. So if anything bad happens to the COVID-19 crisis, most of the State CMs will lose a lot.
• The low number of cases and deaths indicate that health-wise most Indians are unaffected
• While the migrant crisis is genuine, the responsibility lies with both the States and the Centre and the Centre is seen as doing its best
• While the economy appears to be in crisis and the Govt’s handling criticised, voters have been understanding until now given that economies all over the world have been affected. Further, the reforms announced by the Government are seen as a huge plus over the next few years.
• On the China border crisis, the strong Indian response by India so far is a HUGE positive when it comes to the Prime Minister

In sum, PM Modi appears to be losing some traction on COVID-19 but he is quite far from any sort of trouble.