Thiruvananthapuram: True leaders come out with guns blazing when confronted with grim situations. As during wars so do in times of global pandemics like Covid-19 this time-tested altruism remains valid. In both the situations, leadership trust is a vital factor that prepares people to take the hardships and bereavements in their stride and march forward. In Kerala’s case, Chief Minister and Marxist stalwart Pinarayi Vijayan has taken the challenge in true grit, equanimity and sagacity.
Given its global exposure, Kerala is one of the Indian states got jolted by Novel Corona virus outbreak quiet early. To start with, the state had to bring back, with the support from the Centre, several of its students who had gone to China for studies. The next task was to closely monitor and isolate expatriates who flew back home from the Gulf countries, Europe and the USA. Also, the authorities had to take care of tourists got stranded. The Government machinery had moved in a calibrated fashion in addressing these issues, winning accolades from national and global agencies for the way the state rose up and acted in double-quick time.
The state has a high number of 215 confirmed Covid-19 cases and two deaths as the all- India lock down entered its second week. A vast majority of these cases are infections through contacts with people who have come from abroad. However, an creeping feeling is palpable that the state in inching closer to the threshold of cluster or community transmission of the virus. The health authorities, however, have dismissed such fears as unfounded.
In the initial days, the situation was mostly handled by Health Minister K K Shailaja, who enjoys a reputation for ably steering the state through earlier health crises like Nippah virus incidence two years back. She did a splendid job in preparing the public healthcare system and the medical fraternity to cope with the unparalleled crisis shaping up. Shailaja, also from the CPI-M, laid the ground firm for the forces to line up and take on the fast spreading virus putting the available resources to the best use.
It did not take many days for the Chief Minister to take over the leadership of the battle as the commander-in-chief. By then, the panic about the virus has spread the world over, gripping European and spreading to the US. Scary tales of even scientifically advanced and socially-secured nations fumbling before Corona have had their psychological fallout, shaking the confidence of the people in remote corners of the globe. This was the moment that Vijayan directly stepped in.
His first move was to get the entire bureaucracy fall in line, shedding the lethargy and unknotting the tangles of red tape. Every department was geared up fully. Though functional autonomy is granted, a stern message was sent down to the lowest tier of the officialdom that every key decision has to be in tune with the overall policy of the government.
A known task master, the Chief Minister commandeered the entire cabinet, which included members from coalescing parties like CPI. The ministers were instructed to directly co-ordinate the tasks cut out for their respective departments and geographical areas, ensuring that they move in tandem with the state policies and procedures.
Unlike his Marxist predecessors, Vijayan is unshackled by the intervention of the party in government-running, for the simple fact that there is no leader in the organisation towering above him. So, he has the free hand to make decisions about the efficacy of which he is convinced, and getting them endorsed by the party later.
Instead of focusing merely on preventive and curative measures required to arrest and contain the spread of infection, the Government has taken care of the entire gamut of the unprecedented situation. Significantly, days before even the Centre unpacked its financial package and RBI rolled out liquidity measures, Kerala Government made an emergency allocation of Rs 20,000 crore to meet the expenses engendered by the pandemic.
The poor state of the exchequer did not come in the way of this emergency measure as saving the lives of people and meeting the immediate social costs imposed by the virus spread is far more important than complying with fiscal responsibilities. Besides meeting the medical emergency, a good chunk of this fund would go in feeding the hard hit, including migrant labourers benignly named as “guest workers” by the Chief Minister, and disbursing welfare pensions on which large sections of the poor and needy depend.
Keeping the communication channels open and dissemination of authentic information are vital in times of crisis. Since the pandemic has started turning into a full-blown crisis, the Chief Minister himself has been briefing media—read public—on a daily basis. He spends more than an hour at the end of the day to brief media on the latest position and measures being taken in the unfolding scenario. By this means, he has brought the households across the state to listen to him to get updated on the situation.
This has also proved to be an effective method of providing clear instructions to the entire state apparatus, including police, on how to go about in dealing with the situation. The Chief Minister’s thoroughgoing style and composure itself commands confidence as he goes about with clinical precision on each issue. This direct engagement with media and public has completely arrested speculations on such basic matters like the number of cases being reported each day.
Though the way the government deals with the crisis has been widely appreciated, some of its decisions have come in for sharp criticism as well. For instance, the Government came under attack for dragging its feet on closing down liquor outlets and bars. It was only after the Centre declared the nationwide lockdown that the state finally brought down the shutters on water holes. The ban on liquor sale has obviously caused physical and mental stress to habituated tipplers. Considering this, the government has offered to make arrangement for delivery of drinks for such persons on advice of doctors as a therapeutic measure. This concession has drawn severe flak from the medical fraternity as an unscientific and unethical act.
After wreaking unthinkable havoc, the virus may hopefully subside in a while. But it will take a long time, and call for bold and hard measures, to overcome the economic and social devastation it wreaks. That will be a grimmer challenge before the LDF Government to be addressed within the short span of a year before Kerala is bound to go for the assembly polls.
