New Delhi: Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, tweeted Saturday that the range in pandemic outcomes shows that what matters is not the nature of the system but the quality of the leadership.
In the countries Haass listed, he cited China as a successful authoritarian government, but seemed doubtful (he marked it with a question mark), suggesting that nobody really knows the true Covid-19 figure there.
With most countries looking to open up their economies and mitigate the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a debate on whether democracies are the most effective political system to tackle such crises has emerged.
However, as Haass’ tweet notes, both successful and unsuccessful democracies and dictatorships have show varying degrees of success in handling the crisis, which suggests that it is not the political system but in fact the quality of leadership that matters.
Democratic leaders like US President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro come up short in this area. Similarly, strong dictators like Iran’s Ali Khamenei and Russian President Vladimir Putin have also not been able to successfully tackle the pandemic.
The range in pandemic outcomes shows what matters is NOT the nature of the system-there are successful (Germany, Australia, SK, Taiwan) & unsuccessful (US, Brazil) democracies & successful (Vietnam, China?) & failed (Iran, Russia) authoritarians-but the quality of the leadership.
— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) May 16, 2020
Also read: IAS officers, Nobel winners, filmmaker — states gather their best to battle Covid crisis
Where does India lie?
India is a democracy with the strongest leader it has ever seen, even stronger than when former prime minister, Indira Gandhi, was at her peak.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was quick with his decision-making and the lockdown imposed has done well and saved many lives. In this sense, it has done relatively better than most countries.
However, the current workers crisis is a major problem in India.
This is a failure of our political system. It is not just about Modi or BJP but a failure of the Indian political system, and cuts across party lines. For example, India has failed to tackle systemic issues that lead to poverty.
Modi, who used to make fun of interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s poverty schemes, has put another Rs 40,000 crore in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
India has failed in this issue because the Modi government likes taking everyone by surprise. Had they made their plans public, this would not have happened.
Even the plans about ‘Lockdown 4.0’ were not shared with the public in advance.
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