Shekhar Gupta: Flailing state in Covid storm

Modi government didn't strengthen the foundations of basic governance in the last 7 years. Now, the PM has retreated, ministers failing and the government is in denial

Is India a failed state? Certainly news magazine India Today thinks so. I would humbly disagree. We aren’t a failed state yet. For, if we were, the publication wouldn’t have said so on its cover, and I wouldn’t be writing this article.

If India was a failed state already, we might not have known how badly we were failing. As long as a nation’s own media, civil society, even individual citizens are free to bring the bad news to all, hold the mirror to the most powerful ruler in at least four decades, we are not a failed state yet.