Although the government’s handling of the pandemic has obviously seen better days, they stick adamantly to their belief that, as the president himself put it, he and his men are doing it the best.

Thus, they have been as contemptuous of Kerala’s record as they have of Arden’s. Supporters of the present government have of course been disdainful of socialist and liberal concerns and recommendations.

Indeed, they even failed to note that Jacinda Arden, heroine of countless liberal narratives here and elsewhere, hailed from a centre-left administration. Yet while prognosticating about the dangers of populist politics at a time of a pandemic, very few of them acknowledged that left-of-centre and leftist administrations, Kerala included, had handled it better than most. In Donald Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic and the tensions it generated, they saw a confirmation of their worst fears. Although Colombo opted for a different strategy that combined army officials with medical professionals, the second, third, and fourth waves have made us realise the flaws of sticking to it dogmatically.Ĭolombo’s liberal intelligentsia, as well as the MPs they are attached to, predictably focused more on the West.

It was a litmus test of what governments ought to do during a public health crisis. Led by the Communist Party, the Kerala administration responded well to the virus, deploying State resources and ensuring no one was left behind. At the height of the first wave last year, the JVP and the FSP requested the government to look to Kerala.

Brian lara cricket 2005