Modi’s India Shutdown Is an Unprecedented Gamble

Since 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at a prime-time television address that he was withdrawing most of India’s currency overnight, such speeches have been preceded by wild speculation. Modi’s message on Tuesday evening was even starker than most expected. From midnight, this country of 1.3 billion will shut down: “For 21 days, forget what going out means.”

Modi is one of the world’s most accomplished politicians, a man who has demonstrated time and again his ability to understand exactly how to appeal to voters’ hearts and minds. But this pandemic will test even Modi’s hold over Indians. Earlier, he had called for a “people’s curfew” last Sunday, with a 5 p.m. round of applause from balconies for health workers on the frontlines. In some parts of India, that turned into a farce — an excuse for celebration in the streets. Which is why, perhaps, in this speech he had to stress the danger of not observing strict social distancing: “Step outside in the next 21 days, and you set this country back 21 years.”