After Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress leader Milind Deora praises Modi govt for coronavirus management

Steering a 1.3 billion population through a global deadly pandemic is not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination, but the country under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been more than up to the task. With timely cancellation of international flights to Junta curfew to a lockdown that has been in force for more than a month now—PM Modi and his cabinet have all the hands-on the deck. The excellent crisis management skills exhibited by PM Modi has started drawing praise from various quarters. Even the staunch opposition members are admiring the working of the Union government. After Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, the latest to join the bandwagon is former Congress MP Milind Deora.

Milind Deora wrote a guest article for Economic Times where he venerated the hard-work being put by the Union government to mitigate the spread of the Wuhan virus. The former Union minister referred that India’s fundamentals were intact and that India has the capability to rise above and become a beacon of hope for the rest of the world. “The credit is certainly due, in part, to India’s stable federal government, which has four years to go before the next general election,” he wrote, praising the Modi government.

“Along with focusing on short- to mid-term strategies to minimize economic damage, we need to keep one eye on what comes after — how India can be positioned, in the immediate future, to become a driving force in the rebuilding of world economies.” said the former Mumbai Congress chief.

He also lauded PM Modi’s Make in India initiative whilst noting how India had climbed up the rankings in the “ease of doing business” index. “India has made remarkable strides in creating an ecosystem for businesses to flourish. In the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index, India jumped 79 points in six years — from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019 among 190 countries.” 

It’s not the first time that Milind Deora has rose above Congress’s perpetual squabbling about anything that is pro-nationalistic. When the ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event was organized in Houston, which was attended by thousands of raging and vociferous Indian-Americans, he had tweeted in support of the Prime Minister.

Milind Deora heaped praise on PM Narendra Modi for the latter’s Houston event, where US President Donald Trump was present saying it was a “momentous first for India’s soft power diplomacy”. Our soft diplomacy efforts must focus on reassuring the world of an India that’s resilient, united, and capable of forging mutually beneficial partnerships with any part of the world.

Before the Lok Sabha elections, when PM Modi stressed upon the need to conduct one election for the entire nation, he was mocked at by several opposition leaders, led by the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

However, to the shock of one and all, not only Milind Deora backed it, but also asked his fellow members to conduct a healthy debate over the same.

He even openly backed the abrogation of Article 370 by the central government, much to the chagrin of his senior leaders. He said it was “very unfortunate” that Article 370 was being converted into a “liberal vs conservative debate”.

“Parties should put aside ideological fixations & debate what’s best for India’s sovereignty and federalism, peace in J&K, jobs for Kashmiri youth and justice for Kashmiri Pandits,” Milind Deora had tweeted.

A few days back, Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, Congress Lok Sabha leader speaking to ANI had applauded India’s leadership for effective handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It is worthy to be pointed out that India, which has a population of 130 crore people, has done a very good job against the pandemic due to the efforts of the Central and state governments, and also because of the doctors and medical fraternity.” the leader had said.

Known for his loose comments and often some undignified trash talk, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s change in pitch was attributed to him trying to change the flanks of his political allegiances.

It is heartening to see that even the staunchest leaders of the opposition are appreciative of the central government’s untiring efforts. In the wake of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, other Congress and opposition leaders should also learn from Milind Deora and stop indulging in their self-motivated hate-campaigns. Of all the other times, this isn’t the time and space for politics.