In 2013 , after Narendra Modi became the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP, Amit Shah started playing an important role.
Shah was made in charge of Uttar Pradesh for the 2014 election and people questioned the wisdom of Modi, as Shah had no experience of national politics.
But BJP won 72 MPs out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh and Shah’s political importance grew. Amit Shah became the national President of the BJP. No one now questioned the talents of Amit Shah.
in 2014- 2019, Amit Shah made the BJP very strong and also extended the presence of BJP arms all over the country. Shah said that the BJP would make efforts to win in states where it had no presence earlier.
Shah targeted the Northeast states, Bengal and Odisha and the Southern states. In 2019 The BJP won a big number of Lok Sabha seats in the Northeast, Bengali and Odisha. In the South, BJP retained Karnataka, increased its votes in Kerala and won 4 MPs in Telangana. It was only due to Amit Shah that the BJP crossed the 300 MP seat mark.
After the 2019 victory, Narendra Modi made Amit Shah the Home Minister. As Home Minister, Shah took very important decisions on Jammu Kashmir and initiated the National Population Register (NPR) and the Citizenship(Amendment) Act (CAA) laws.
The defeats in many state elections last year did not matter as the central government was firmly in the BJP’s hands. But suddenly, the Coronavirus struck the world. Since February 2020, the government is trying to suppress Coronavirus. National lockdown has been ordered. But there are many weaknesses in the Corona fight.The Health Ministry and the officers have been unable to suppress Corona. Logistical and policy problems are increasing.
At this point, infected cases and deaths are increasing. The country feels the need of the efficient and strong hand of Amit Shah.
Issues with regard to coronavirus
There are no Testing Kits, medical clothing, Hospital ICU beds, ventilators and there is much chaos. State governments are also not happy with the Central leadership in giving them support. The crores of abandoned migrants have caused historical misery and disgrace for India. .
There is general agreement that the Health Ministry has wasted time from February 1,2020, when the Corona alarm rang. The Health Ministry made no arrangements or plans for this medical disaster thought it has 2 months’ time.
The number of infected has crossed 60,000. But many doctors says that the number is much more and the officers are not allowing such figures to emerge as they will be criticized. There are also murmurs that many deaths form Corona are not being listed as COVID-19 deaths.
The serious problems of Corona cannot be addressed by the present set up in the Health ministry. A strong and intelligent Minister is needed at this hour. No one can compete with Amit Shah inefficiency. The need of the hour is to give Amit Shah power to supervise all issues related to Corona.
It remains a mystery why Amit Shah is silent and in fact, literally invisible. Prime Minister Modi should bring out Amit Shah to fight Corona. When war is not going well, the Chief changes generals. Such a change is urgently needed. The public calls for Amit Shah ! Where is Amit Shah?
(Dr Pullarao is a New Delhi based political analyst and economist)