If India is an idea, then the idea is chaos. Government has always been no more than a thin veneer, with a spotty and selective role. https://twitter.com/snsachinnandu/status/1388541449285750786

In India, the government has always been a wafer-thin layer.

Luckily with such a large mass the pressures (as well as the blame) get too diffuse and get dissipated.

This is one crisis where it has crumbled and fully visibly.

If this doesn't lead Indians into a deep deep introspection then there is little hope.

Extremely wide and deep reforms are needed.

Autocracy must also be considered.

The govt has been absent in India for ages. In fact, with Modi's arrival, we were beginning to see the first signs of a govt.

But such is the throw of the dice. Modi will be saddled with the blame for the absence of govt because the pandemic made its absence so starkly visible.

Bottom line: Indians have a very high tolerance for bearing passively received pain while an equally high resistance to paying to avoid any such pain in the future.