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Rohan Venkat Profile picture
Rohan Venkat
@RohanV
Newsletter: India Inside Out || Visiting Scholar & Consulting Editor, @CASIPenn
May 16, 2021 • 16 tweets • 7 min read
Why is Modi's government so prickly about criticism of its vaccine exports? Why has the Centre-controlled Delhi Police arrested people for asking 'Modi, why did you send our children’s vaccines abroad?'

Because it knows this is a powerful critique.

🧵
thehindu.com/news/cities/De… With its vaccine programme, Modi was taking a bold bet – and walking a tightrope.

It wanted to portray itself as the country that fixed a global problem, vs China, the source of the problem.

Hence a statement like this at the UN in March:
May 14, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
1.92 crore ?? No new announcement. This is just the amount that it was anyway going to provide through the 50% GoI channel.
May 13, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
So finally, after months of prodding including from the Supreme Court, government puts out its estimates for when there should be enough vaccines *available*, on the production side, for India's adult population.
From a month ago scroll.in/article/992625…
May 10, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The Centre's affidavit on vaccine pricing literally talks of its "persuasion" (scare quotes and all) of manufacturers on vaccine pricing... Link: livelaw.in/pdf_upload/cen…
May 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
So first, @psychia90 and @sharmasupriya reported on this key question:

Where are the 300 tonnes of emergency Covid-19 supplies that have landed in Delhi in last five days?

scroll.in/article/993973… Then the Centre claimed it had promptly distributed all the supplies, but @psychia90 found that it was only on May 3 (the day the previous story came out, after questions were sent to govt) evening that NITI Aayog held a meeting with state officials scroll.in/latest/994059/…
May 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
There's a... Modi address to the nation this evening? The Hindu confirms he said this but doesn't say the address is today.

"The address to the nation by the prime minister, Mr. Yediyurappa said, is coming in the light of Supreme Court directions, and that the State is expecting directions." thehindu.com/news/national/…
May 3, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Ajay Shah and Amrita Agarwal say that the open market option for vaccines "will unlock the energy from varied Indian buyers — states, firms, communities, and individuals — and increase their accessibility to global supply." business-standard.com/article/opinio… They have been arguing for some time now that "central planning has worked well for Covid-19 vaccination in countries like the US and the UK.... But central planning works poorly under conditions of low state capacity." blog.theleapjournal.org/2021/04/an-imp…
May 3, 2021 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
Today on the Political Fix:

(Get it in your inbox by signing up here: thepoliticalfix.substack.com)

As India's 2nd wave continues to batter its people, is the Modi government battling the virus – or fighting narrative wars?

scroll.in/article/993912… *Health Minister boasts about India having the lowest fatality rate even as people die in hospitals without oxygen

*MEA decides to attack foreign missions for trying to protect their staff

*SG says asking for help is being a 'cry baby.'

thepoliticalfix.substack.com/p/the-politica…
May 3, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
"The TMC’s triumph shows the BJP is susceptible to a politics built around economic class and gender." - @NeelanjanSircar hindustantimes.com/opinion/the-be… "The big issue, however, is more deep, and that has to do with the gigantic second wave of COVID-19 that is battering India. The BJP, which always sought the “party of governance” badge for itself, is now floundering on that score." - @nistula thehindu.com/elections/anal…
May 3, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
!!!

Despite vaccination centres around the country running dry, and despite vaccination being opened to 18+, the Centre has not yet placed fresh orders with the two Indian vaccine manufacturers — SII and Bharat Biotech, according to multiple sources.

business-standard.com/article/curren… The last order placed with the two vaccine makers — 100 million doses with SII and 20 million doses with Bharat Biotech — was in March. Industry sources revealed that the final tranche of deliveries of this order will be completed within the next few days business-standard.com/article/curren…
May 2, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
On the MEA's claim re: oxygen cylinders and the Philippines embassy People will take help from where they can get it right now.

(And it has seemed evident that, with thousands taking to Twitter for help, almost no one thinks tagging the PM or his Cabinet ministers will lead to real help. There may be many explanations, but no getting around it)
Apr 30, 2021 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
I find it uncomfortable that the court gets involved in deciding some of these policy issues, but extremely useful for the court to at the very least put questions to the Centre and have them put policies on record, since they aren't otherwise explaining to citizens. How will manufacturers decide equity between states and the private sector?

It's been more than 10 days since the governments new "liberalised and accelerated phase 3 strategy of Covid-19 vaccination" was unveiled, and we still have no inkling. scroll.in/article/992921…
Apr 29, 2021 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
Instead of watching inane exit poll coverage, go read the superb reporting on election-going states from:

@ShoaibDaniyal: scroll.in/author/362

@psychia90: scroll.in/author/12843

@sruthisagar: scroll.in/author/11457 For example, @ShoaibDaniyal gave us deep insights into what was actually going on in West Bengal, like explaining why the BJP ran a largely non-polarising campaign in West Bengal...

scroll.in/article/993292…
Apr 29, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Facebook's moderation bias towards the ruling party in India is well documented.

So this is not surprising.

wsj.com/articles/faceb… From @ShoaibDaniyal, last year:

Why the allegations about Facebook favouring the BJP are so significant for Indian politics

scroll.in/article/970544…
Apr 26, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Most charitable reading of the vaccine policy is that the government thinks letting the rich get vaccines through the 50% private channel over next two months will lead to a faster rollout – but doesn't want to say so? Then post-July do the non-rich 18-45? That's what it seems like from this:
Nov 26, 2020 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
"Arguably, what made Ahmed Patel so important in the Congress scheme of things was the fact that he was never ambitious for himself – unlike, say, a Pranab Mukherjee. He revelled in the proverbial backroom." thewire.in/politics/ahmed… "While Mr. Patel’s stature grew nationally, the Congress in Gujarat shrunk over the years and many blamed his ‘towering presence’ as the reason why no local leader could grow in the State." thehindu.com/news/national/…
Nov 25, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Thread:

One of the subjects we like to focus on @scroll_in and on the Political Fix is federalism.

At the start of 2020, we asked whether Centre vs States battles would be one of the main storylines of Indian politics for this decade

scroll.in/article/949654… It's a subject we keep coming back to on the newsletter and especially in interviews on the Political Fix Q&A (which you can get in your inbox every week here: thepoliticalfix.substack.com).

Below, a few of the fascinating conversations we've had on the subject.
Apr 28, 2020 • 13 tweets • 6 min read
Thread:

India moved very early to lockdown, even though Covid-19 numbers were low.

While this may have helped reduce transmission, it made the decision to emerge from a lockdown much harder, because India has no sense of when its peak will be. scroll.in/article/959016… We wrote about this two weeks ago on the Political Fix, my weekly newsletter on Indian politics and policy (subscribe here: thepoliticalfix.substack.com).

The "early" lockdown gave states and Centre a disincentive to open up, despite the cost to the economy scroll.in/article/959016…
Apr 20, 2020 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
India's migrant labour question is quite complex but the way we discuss it tends to miss one crucial thing:

Labourers are citizens and humans, not resources. Policymakers need to acknowledge that they have aspirations and desires. scroll.in/article/959377… via @scroll_in .@p_semolina reiterates this point:

Migrant workers are individuals with rights, not resources to be deployed as the economy is rebooted

scroll.in/article/959755…
Feb 24, 2020 • 49 tweets • 29 min read
Here is a politician from the BJP, India's ruling party which also controls Delhi Police, giving an ultimatum to the same Delhi Police saying that he and his people will not even listen to the authorities and will take the law into their own hands. One video from today shows a police person in Delhi pelting stones along with a mob
Jan 31, 2020 • 13 tweets • 8 min read
The quotes in the first chapter of the Economic Survey sound like they're admonishing the Government of India for terrible management of the economy. "For more than three-fourths of known economic history, India has been the dominant economic power globally."

@sidin is one of the many people who added skepticism to this research that speaks to India's massive historical economic dominance livemint.com/Opinion/JFl9w4…