India is the model of what not to do during Covid: Joseph Stiglitz

India is the model of what not to do during Covid: Joseph Stiglitz

India is the poster child (the model) of what not to do during Covid, Joseph Stiglitz said in an online discussion organised by FICCI (the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) on October 5.

India did not handle the pandemic the right way. The lockdown, imposed suddenly without careful thought, had the opposite effect. Once the lockdown was announced, people, especially workers, were forced to migrate from their workplaces and places of residence to their home regions. This made the lockdown itself meaningless and helped the disease spread. Money must be spent properly to handle the pandemic; that pays off, and India is not doing it. There must be schemes to help those in distress. If the money cannot be found through the IMF's SDRs and so on, it must be found by collecting more tax from India's rich. India has many billionaires, and raising more money from them is good for the economy too, as it will help increase demand and trade in the market.

Joseph Stiglitz said countries ruled by leaders with authoritarian tendencies have failed to control the pandemic. The Trump administration in America, Bolsonaro in Brazil and the Modi government in India have all failed to handle it, while countries that work in a more democratic way, such as New Zealand and South Korea, handled Covid well.

In Stiglitz's view, leaders with authoritarian tendencies failed to handle Covid because they divide society and blame others instead of taking responsibility for their own failures. For example, Trump tried to escape by blaming China for the spread of the virus in America, and even stopped funding the WHO on this pretext. In the same way, Narendra Modi is trying to escape by turning one religion against another and creating divisions in society. India must completely abandon religious division. Covid-19 has proved that India must continue with a politics that upholds religious harmony. Tolerance is the very cornerstone of India's economic success, Joseph Stiglitz said.

Stiglitz made very noteworthy observations in the FICCI discussion.