Once bitten, twice shy? Almost, not entirely.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi found it hard to resist the charms of the V-word on Sunday while seeking to reassure the nation on Covid-19 but this time he chose to focus on the collective rather than himself.

The world has changed upside down for India since January 28, when Modi declared victory against the virus. The country “has saved humanity from a big disaster by containing corona effectively”, the Prime Minister had told the World Economic Forum four months ago.

On Sunday, during his Mann ki Baat audio address, Modi underscored “India’s victory resolve (vijay sankalp)” and said “her collective strength and our spirit of service always rescued the country from the midst of every storm”.

But he did not speak on the miseries brought on by his government’s mishandling of the situation.

The monthly address, which coincided with Modi’s second government’s second anniversary, oozed the “positivity” that the saffron ecosystem has been trying to promote to gloss over the mismanagement of the surging epidemic.

Modi claimed big achievements in the last seven years before imparting the spin that they were accomplishments “of the country, of the countrymen”. He seemed to be trying to milk “national pride” and portray the battle against the pandemic as a collective one to sidestep responsibility for the current mess.

Modi had conversations with an oxygen tanker driver, a woman loco pilot engaged in transporting oxygen, a group captain of the air force and a laboratory technician, asking them how they felt serving the people and the country.

When oxygen tanker driver Dinesh Babulnath Upadhyay, who hails from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, recounted how he was greeted at hospitals with the “V” sign, Modi interjected: “Achchha, victory ka V batate hain (Okay, so they signal V for victory)!”

A Covid patient’s relative waits to have an oxygen cylinder refilled in Ajmer on May 6 PTI

Dinesh replied: “Yes, Sir, they signal a V, some give a thumbs-up. We feel very satisfied….”

Modi: “All your fatigue must be vanishing!”

Dinesh: “Yes… yes, Sir.”

Modi: “So, do you come home and tell your children about that?”

Dinesh: “No, Sir. My children live in the village. I am here at Inox Air Products as a driver. I go home after 8-9 months.”

After the conversation, Modi referred to how the Indian Railways are ferrying oxygen across the country.

The Prime Minister was silent on the shortages of oxygen, vaccines, medicines and hospital beds, the harrowing scenes of people waiting in long queues for oxygen, patients falling back on voluntary organisations, getting help out in the open and in vehicles.

During the Mann ki Baat on Sunday, Modi told train driver Shirisha Gajni, part of an all-women “Oxygen Express” team: “Many women like you have come forward to give strength to the country to fight (the) corona(virus).

You too are a big example of woman power. But the country would like to know where you get this motivation from.”

“Sir, for me my motivation are my father-mother, Sir,” she replied, saying her parents were very encouraging.

Modi asked about her experience ferrying oxygen, saying the assignment was “very delicate”.

“I felt happy in doing this work,” Shirisha replied, adding that she observed all the safety protocols and thanking the railways.

“Friends, just now we heard Shirishaji. Her experience inspires us, makes us emotional too,” Modi said after the conversation.

Modi later marked his government’s anniversary by recalling the “mutual journey of seven years”, counting from 2014.

“Together, we have experienced many moments of national pride in these years,” he said.

Modi seemed to suggest that India was “now” resisting pressure from other countries — implying that previous governments may have yielded to such pressure — but did not cite specifics.

“When we observe that now India moves ahead not with the thought and pressure of other countries but with her own conviction, then we feel proud,” he said.

“When we witness that now India gives a fitting reply to those who conspire against us, then our confidence soars.”

Modi referred to his government’s flagship programmes and claimed achievements that the country, he said, had not witnessed in the previous years.

He said the “country had been put to test” by the Covid epidemic but added that it was a global crisis that had not spared others, again appearing to be seeking to escape accountability for the deaths and misery afflicting the country.