After advocating lockdown, the Prime Ministers of both the UK and India now face the challenge of reopening the economy.
Bringing businesses back on track while containing the spread of coronavirus has been termed as a "two-fold" challenge by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and "ride down the mountain harder than the climb" by his UK counterpart Boris Johnson.
What the political leaders seem to be concerned about is a complicated and sensitive situation that the two countries are in. If London has emerged as the coronavirus capital of Europe, Modi faces a daunting task of reopening a continent-size country.
Germany was among the first countries to ease restrictions. But the results were not at all encouraging as the number of new Covid-19 cases jumped immediately. This explains the dilemma of world leaders planning to lift the lockdown or even ease the curbs.
Johnson seems to have adopted a wait-and-watch policy with the opposition terming his government guidelines as confusing and unclear.
Back in India, the governments at the Centre and in 28 states are set to match the steps as the country of 1.36 billion tries to get back on track. But while some states like West Bengal and Telengana want to continue the lockdown, Delhi is prepared to reboot.
After Johnson set out his phase-wise easing of lockdown restrictions, several politicians have sought more clarity, whereas regional leaders have distanced themselves from the Prime Minister's initiative.
In Parliament on Monday, Johnson fended off criticism of his government's 50-page plan to exit lockdown and "rebuild the UK for a world with COVID-19."
Johnson has replaced nationwide "stay at home" slogan with "stay alert" in his lockdown addresses and made it clear that anybody unable to work from home was being "actively encouraged" to return to work.
But his new stance has left many Britons confused about when and how they can go to work, leave their homes, or socialise.
In his revised message, the UK PM contended that they were not expecting a huge turnaround this week and the government was simply trying to egg on those segments where people can not work from home.
After the outcry, Johnson toned down the plan for rebooting the economy. He amended his earlier proclamation to say people "should now think about going back to work providing your workplace is Covid-secure and providing you can travel to work safely."
The shift in tone ended a day of confusion over the UK government's new messaging as business leaders expressed concerns and Wales and Scotland said they would be taking different approaches to ending the lockdown, shattering a cross-country consensus that has characterized the response so far.
Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, was scathing about the government's approach. "What the country needs at this time is clarity and reassurance," he told The House of Commons. "At the moment, both are in pretty short supply."
Under Johnson's original plan, restrictions are to be eased in phases. The immediate changes, taking effect May 13, are in three main areas: A return to work for those who need to leave their homes to do so; relaxation of rules on leaving the home for recreation; and an encouragement to wear face coverings in shops and on public transport to help stop the spread of the disease.
Modi reaffirmed the importance of 'do gaz doori' (a two-yard distance) and added that suggestion of "night curfew" raised by many Chief Ministers would surely reaffirm the feeling of caution among people.
Modi, however, has made it clear that a lockdown would continue in some form or the other even after May 17.
As the UK and India gear up to reopen, both the leaders have gained popularity for handling the coronavirus outbreak. Voters have rallied around those world leaders who took coronavirus seriously. They are among the world leaders whose acceptance ratings have gone up since the World Health Organisation declared a pandemic.
Quoting Morning Consult, a pollster, a report in Economist said a group of 10 politicians has enjoyed an average gain of nine points since January end. Academics call this pattern rally-round-the-flag effect.
Britons got behind Johnson at first and his popularity bounced to 20 points. A recent dip of around 5 points may reflect fears that a tardy lockdown led to thousands of extra deaths.
Modi's ratings, after up and down in the graph, has now settled at the gain of around 12 points.
