Everyone understood the pandemic is a difficult challenge. Most citizens were willing to go to inordinate lengths to support the effort. But we managed to convert the governance of the pandemic into free fall. At the root of this is the culture of perception management that insecure leaderships at the top create. So, rather than acknowledging the depth of the challenge, many states, from Gujarat to Delhi to Bengal, actively mimicked the Central government’s emphasis on managing their image rather than confronting reality. They suppressed testing so that their scorecard looks good. You would have thought that at this point testing would be freely available, and on demand, rather than doled out in rationed doses. Most state leaders, like Vijay Rupani, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal are to blame as much as the prime minister, but they mimicked his (Narendra Modi's) style.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, 'India is heading into uncharted waters with no leadership at the helm, just the simulacra of one', Indian Express
