Last week, Indians woke up to good news regarding the effectiveness of their government in terms of coronavirus. A few days later, the same news wasn’t good anymore, rather it was shared for mere point-scoring.
The ruling party, Bhartiya Janta Party’s (BJP) Twitter handle posted the news that India has secured 100 out of 100 marks on the COVID-19 Government Response Stringency Index developed by Blavatnik School of Government at the Oxford University.
The ‘full marks’ underline Modi government’s proactiveness, seriousness, and swiftness in implementing effective lockdown.
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Here’s the tweet:
India scores 💯/💯 on Government Response Stringency Index developed by University of Oxford researchers, for taking composite measures to combat COVID-19.
The ‘full marks’ underline Modi government’s proactiveness, seriousness and swiftness in implementing effective lockdown. pic.twitter.com/a5DIiNXCJF
— BJP (@BJP4India) April 10, 2020
While it is a great achievement to score full marks, there were no “marks” as the index only states the strictness of the measures taken by a government. It doesn’t represent the ‘appropriateness or effectiveness of a country’s response’. The developers of the index, Blavatnik School of Government, were quick to respond to the tweet, saying the index should not be misinterpreted.
Thanks for your interest in our tracker, which simply records the number and strictness of government policies. The related stringency index should not be interpreted as measuring the appropriateness or effectiveness of a country’s response – there are no 'marks' as such.
— Blavatnik School of Government (@BlavatnikSchool) April 12, 2020
In its blog, the research institute wrote:
A higher position in the Stringency Index does not necessarily mean that a country’s response is ‘better’ than others lower on the index.
The tweet has triggered plenty of replies. Let’s have a look at a few:
I wish they knew that a higher place in Stringency Index does not mean that the country's performance is better than the others at the lower level in the Index.
— Swati K. (@mynameswatik) April 13, 2020
https://twitter.com/SyedSuggestion/status/1249712165789065218
lol that’s a facepalm moment🤦♂️
— Mirza Farhan Beg (@Farhanbeg_mirza) April 12, 2020
Now BlavatnikSchool will be considered “Anti-International” in India 😆😆
— Arun Kumar ❤️🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 (@kumar_mv11) April 13, 2020
https://twitter.com/bhavesh0128/status/1249603312879616002
https://twitter.com/amartya6ku/status/1249604270153805824
What are your thoughts on the story? Let us know in the comments.
