Leadership in the Time of Coronavirus: Viral Twitter Thread Provides Insights, Triggers Debate

Natashja Rathore, a filmmaker and social entrepreneur based out of Mumbai, had posted an unusually long Twitter thread -- with 69 tweets in all.

Rathore's straight-talking tweets appears to have captured the attention of the Indian twitterverse with thousands of retweets and likes at the time of writing.

In her thread, Rathore asks pertinent questions about the ongoing and unprecedented Covid-19 and attempts to provide some answers.

Rathore draws from the personal experiences of her gastroenterologist father and the struggles that he had to encounter to explain the social-political-economic challenges that India has been facing over the decades.

In her tweets, she highlights what has been recently happening in India with the works of American Political Scientist Gene Sharp in which he had showcased "198 methods on how to bring down a government through non-violent, democratic ways”, and suspects a sinister parallel.

According to Rathore, "the political game that is being played to bring down Modi is even more dangerous to the democratic and secular fabric of this nation."

She sees Modi as a leader of troubled times, and says that it is for the first time India has had a "leader who represents 90% of India's population" and "who comes from that socio-economic strata; who understands the general Indian public”.

She also reflects on the work that people like Sadguru have been doing for the public good.

Rathore calls out the spectre of fascism that has been used to criticise the current government.

"If the government is as fascist as you claim they are - would you even have the freedom to do this? It’s been 6 years of the Modi Govt. by the way - if full fledged fascism had to happen; if that really was the intention, it would have happened by now," she asks.

Taking on the vitriol-filled world of Twitter, Rathore explains how easy it is to spread negativity online and how that is now proving to be a deterrent in India's fight against the coronavirus.

Expectedly, the Twitter thread has raked up passions on both side of the debate. Many Twitter users have tweeted in support of her views:

"Extremely powerful piece of writing. This needs to be read," tweeted @flamingeyeballz.

While some have questioned her intent:

"When you say nation first rather than people first, we can see your saffron colours!," alleged @TamizhRatsaschi on Twitter.

Rathore has also posted the entire Twitter thread as a Facebook post.