India’s COVID-19 Response: Modi’s masterstrokes are a form of fascist shock therapy – By Manasi Karthik

Modi’s latest ‘masterstroke’ has left many wondering what exactly he was thinking when he put India into the world’s largest lockdown overnight. … Is this a sign of Modi’s incompetence or foolhardiness, as some have argued? Anyone observing Modi’s policies would be able to tell that masterstrokes like this are not an aberration for the Modi regime, but a norm.

Modi’s politically expedient handouts have done nothing to create real safety nets that India’s poor can fall back on during this time of crisis. Instead, as if to turn tragedy into farce, Modi is now advertising a relief fund called PM CARES to solicit donations from the public even while it uses tax-payers money for beautification projects.

As the death toll increases, economists have argued that the economic collapse the country is about to see is unprecedented. If Naomi Klein’s decades of research tell us anything, it is that in India’s case this crisis will be used to further Modi’s agenda by clamping down on dissent and establishing an increasingly draconian police state.