India’s Triple Crises: Is There a Way Out?

India is in a state of deep turmoil. There was an economic slowdown even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country. To deal with the pandemic, the Modi government decided to lock down the economy for close to three months, and it continues to be in partial lockdown even now. Not only did this inflict misery on the working people, it did not even help flatten the Covid-19 curve. It is a classic case of all pain and no gain. And now we are in a Catch-22 situation. If the lockdown is reimposed, the economy will be pushed into a deeper recession. And if the economy is allowed to function without adequate safety measures (beyond the health care workers), the infection curve will become steeper and the death toll higher. As a side effect of this lockdown, there is a third crisis, climate change, which has come to the fore because of the decline in emissions and pollution as the result of a partial halt in economic activity. A political opportunity has therefore arisen to discuss this crisis, which is often treated as a proverbial bridge that we will cross when we come to it.