Narendra Modi on Sunday telephoned Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, among several political leaders, to seek their suggestions in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

Besides the Congress president and the former Prime Minister, the leaders he spoke to included Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, DMK chief M.K. Stalin, Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, TRS chief and Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Prakash Singh Badal, BJD chief and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik and former Presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil.

The outreach to political leaders came on the 12th day of the countrywide lockdown, which the Prime Minister has been criticised for announcing without consulting even the chief ministers who are at the frontline of the coronavirus battle. It also came two days after the Prime Minister had held a videoconference with sportspersons to seek their suggestions on battling the virus.

The government did not offer any details of Sunday’s telephone conversations.

On Saturday, the government had announced that an all-party meeting of floor leaders of various parties in Parliament would be held on Wednesday. Trinamul Congress has already indicated that it was not interested in “wasting time” on that meeting, dismissing it as a “photo op” and pointing out how the government had so far been dismissive of the Opposition’s efforts to discuss the crisis.

Sources said Sunday’s outreach to party presidents came because of fears in the government that other Opposition parties might also decide to stay away from Wednesday’s meeting.

The government stand, however, is that the rare outreach by Modi, who unlike other Prime Ministers does not usually hold all-party meetings to discuss any crisis, was an attempt to ensure the country battles the Covid-19 challenge unitedly.

The government has come under severe criticism for its handling of the crisis, particularly the sudden and unplanned imposition of a 21-day lockdown and the failure to provide adequate protective gear to doctors and nurses.

The outreach came on a day Modi was going all out to portray his torch-light call as a novel move to unite the country in the battle against the pandemic. The Opposition has dismissed that as yet another event to shift focus from the failures of the government.

The most challenging task before the government now is how to handle the situation after April 14 when the 21-day lockdown ends. Internally, the government managers feel that the already faltering economy will suffer a brutal blow if the lockdown continues but, on the other hand, there is danger of infections spiralling beyond control if it does not.