Andhra Pradesh is currently in the midst of corona virus pandemic which is slowly but dangerously spreading. The pandemic brought out the striking contrast between two leaders – Opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy. The corona crisis in a way has separated the leaderlike wheat from the chaff.
As the state grapples with the Covid-19 pandemic, Naidu repeatedly said Andhra Pradesh – a state with more than five crore people – likely has many more cases than the conservative numbers currently being reported. Naidu proposed ramping up testing, including usage of TrueNat testing kits, utilization of his brainchild MedTech Zone in Vizag to manufacture rapid testing kits and ventilators. Naidu made clear testing was a top priority, something the government needs to address immediately. The goal of Naidu was not merely to outline good public health measures, but also to convey to the public that there was urgency of the testing crisis and the government should have a plan for handling it.
Naidu said the government was not testing enough, that identifying every infected case was crucial to prevent the virus spread, that the Jagan administration should report each day, how many tests were conducted and how many have tested positive. “It was necessary to obtain the test results in real-time. The lesser number of tests and delay in obtaining the results was due to lack of enough laboratories in the State. The spread appears to be continuing unhindered in the State. It is important to identify the number of positive cases by increasing the number of tests and obtaining the results at the earliest,” he advised. He believed there must be many more cases, but they have just not been identified. “I’m deeply worried that there are a lot of cases and we are just not aware of it because there is not widespread testing,” Naidu said while expecting there will be a large uptick in cases over the next two weeks as testing capabilities improve.
As AP reported double digit jump in corona cases with its current tally at 1,332, fisheries minister Mopidevi Venkataramana and special principal secretary (health) Jawahar Reddy in respective press meets admitted that the spike in numbers is because the government has increased testing. So Naidu was right then, that the government was not testing enough all these days; and therefore the spike in corona cases.
Right from day one, Jagan and his core team only tried to defend the administration’s approach and convince people that the crisis shouldn’t worry them so much. The daily press briefings were public relations exercise, propaganda sessions to cover up the government’s failures on several fronts.
While Naidu was consistently expressing concern over the public health risk the pandemic was causing across the world, Jagan was consistently downplaying the severity of covid-19. The Chief Minister and his core team often contradicted their own statements. While the Chief Minister often said do not spread misinformation about coronavirus, the CM himself seemed to be propagating misinformation. At one press briefing, Jagan believes ‘Corona is not as bad as the seasonal flu. It is like fever. It comes and goes.” At another press briefing, he believes it comes but does not go, “We cannot completely eliminate the virus. In fact, we should now accept it as part of our lives. The time has come for us to realize that corona has now become a partner in our life and will continue to be so. Till the time someone finds a vaccine, people have to live with corona virus. But one should not treat as deadly or infectious.”
On March 15, Jagan at a press meet said, “A scare is being created, when there is no panic situation. Covid-19 can be harmful in cases of above 60 years people, with diabetes, blood pressure, asthma like conditions. This is a kind of virus that comes and goes. It may be cured by medication and that medication is paracetamol”
The same day, Naidu warned the state government and cautioned Jagan not to take the virus casusally. In a tweet on March 15, Naidu tweeted “Coronavirus claims lives and it spreads VERY VERY fast. It cannot be taken lightly, especially by a man sitting on the CM’s chair. Shocked to see @ysjagan say that it can be treated with a Paracetamol.”
And indeed, the comparison between Jagan take on coronavirus and Naidu’s tweet could not be more revealing.
On the issue of shortage of Personal Protection Equipment (PPEs), N95 masks and gloves to frontline warriors, Naidu wrote, “Desperate times call for desperate measures. Do you send soldiers on the warfront without weapons?” Jagan and his core team was in a denial mode, argued that there was enough stockpile of kits. However, doctors and even municipal chiefs’ version was not in line with the government’s “there is enough” stock talk. Of the 1332 cases in AP, 34 of them are doctors and nurses a telling commentary on how the government treated the frontline warriors.
In times of national crisis, people look to their politicians for leadership and direction. The health of the people in his state depends on the competence of the chief minister and his team to confront this deadly global threat. The Jagan administration had failed to prepare for the probability that AP would face a major global health challenge. Rather than heed the warnings of leaders like Naidu and chalk out effective planning, the chief minister had ignored the risk of a pandemic. Having combated the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, HudHud, Titli cyclones and other such threats, the Naidu administration not only foresaw such risks but prepared for them.
Trump has proved that corona cannot be won with an inflated ego of a leader