India’s Covid-19 Crisis Shakes Modi’s Image of Strength

Overconfidence and missteps contributed to the country’s devastating second wave, his critics say, tarnishing the prime minister’s aura of political invulnerability.

NEW DELHI — His Covid-19 task force didn’t meet for months. His health minister assured the public in March that India had reached the pandemic’s “endgame.” A few weeks before that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi boasted to global leaders that his nation had triumphed over the coronavirus. India “saved humanity from a big disaster by containing corona effectively,” Mr. Modi told a virtual gathering at the World Economic Forum in late January, three tricolor Indian flags displayed in the background. Now, a second wave has made India the worst-hit country in the world.