A lay observer of the political situation in India would conclude that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government ought to be relatively confident about where it stands. After all, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has now posted two successive electoral landslides and has the benefit of a dysfunctional Opposition as well as a mainstream news media that is more than willing to parrot its talking points daily.
Yet the report of a Group of Ministers who met six times over June and July 2020 – when the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant migrant crisis was still raging – reveals an insecure, paranoid government that seems more concerned with headlines and narrative than the underlying reality. It also shows a government with no concept of a wall between state and party, which fails to understand that journalists are not meant to be unthinking cheerleaders for politicians or their ideologies.
Details of the report of the Group of Ministers on government communication were…