Shaken by the storm

After the admission, govt must change course on policy

Speaking in his regular radio address this Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “after successfully confronting the first wave of Corona, the country was full of enthusiasm, full of self-confidence, but this storm [the second wave] has shaken the country”. This is not an admission of past overconfidence, but in the current charged political environment is likely to be as close as the prime minister can come to such an admission. The question is whether the storm has shaken the government itself enough to cause it to question certain foundational aspects of its approach not just to the virus