Narendra Modi is widely accepted as a great communicator. In the first week of the national lockdown to contain a Covid-19 outbreak, he has...
Narendra Modi is widely accepted as a great communicator. In the first week of the national lockdown to contain a Covid-19 outbreak, he has communicated a great deal. He told us that he had a meeting with radio jockeys to talk about his Covid-19 communications strategy. He told us what he does to stay fit during the lockdown and shared his yoga video as proof. He did a whole radio show to talk about the Covid-19 virus, the importance of the lockdown and gave us tips on how to protect ourselves from the virus through social distancing.
In a seemingly different universe, men, women and children, were leaving towns and cities in their thousands, on foot, to make their way to their villages hundreds of kilometres away in the poorer northern states of India. Newspapers, Modi’s favourite medium – social media – and even television were full of reports of people with no money who have not eaten for days. Women with small children walking through the night. A mass of humans jammed up against each other, waiting for buses or food at night shelters. And police beating up and brutalising them, because by walking they were violating the lockdown.
Modi told us that...
