Shekhar Gupta: Because the virus doesn't vote

There are things a strongman leader never does, like admitting he has erred. Three recent instances show that Narendra Modi, for the first time in seven years, has blinked

The virus is washing through our bodies, killing thousands, crushing our modest health system, causing crippling shortages of doctors, nurses, medicines, even oxygen. If last week we said this is the Narendra Modi government’s biggest crisis, it’s only become bigger since. It threatens to grow bigger over the next several weeks.

Growing alongside the crisis will be a call for unity, and clamour like, “this isn’t the time for a blame-game”. In this big, great national crisis, we should all shut up, and put our shoulder to the wheel. But in a democracy, politics doesn’t stop, nor does