Election strategist-turned politician Prashant Kishor -- one of the sharp critics of the modalities of the lockdown -- today questioned if the government has a plan in case the extension of the restriction proves ineffective. "Do we have an alternate plan or the will to course correct?" questioned the former leader of Bihar's ruling Janata Dal United.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the lockdown till May 3, underscoring that for the next seven days, every district in the country will be strictly monitored.
The announcement comes on a day the country witnessed the largest-ever jump in cases. With 1,211 new patients testing positive in the last 24 hours, the total number of coronavirus cases in the country is now 10,363.
This morning, Prashant Kishor tweeted:
It's pointless to endlessly debate the rationale & modalities of the #lockdown2
— Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) April 14, 2020
The REAL question however is what happens if we don't get the desired result even by staying the course on our chosen path till 3rd May?
Do we have an alternate plan or the will to course correct?
Mr Kishor had earlier insisted that the government was just enforcing the lockdown on the people without having a holistic policy to battle the virus.
On April 8, under the hashtag #DifficultTimesAhead, he tweeted, "It is simply incomprehensible to see a police-led generalised lockdown pushed as PANACEA to get over a public health and economic crisis like #CoronaPandemic".
The 43-year-old poll strategist, who earlier criticized the Narendra Modi government over citizenship law and the national register of citizens, had called the lockdown "botched up".
In his address today, PM Modi said India was in much better shape than many other countries in the fight against coronavirus. "If the country had not taken a holistic, integrated approach and had not acted fast, then it is frightening to think what it would have been like today," he said.
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