By K Raveendran
Two kinds of images flashed across TV screens this week captured the essence of the nationwide lockdown declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight the spread of coronavirus. The first category showed people standing within boxes or circles to buy essential items so as to meet the requirements of social distancing, the main weapon that is believed to be most efficient to fight the deadly virus that has the world trembling at the very mention of its name. The second set of images show migrant workers climbing the rooftop of running buses in a desperate bid to go back to their villages.
The two imageries portray the true paradox that India is and the efficacy of whatever the government has been doing in response to the outbreak of the virus, the origin of which remains as mysterious as it is controversial, with an increasing section of world public opinion tending to believe that the whole thing may be part of germ warfare, a new tool for the destruction of the enemy. The speed and clockwork efficiency with which China has managed to contain the virus and set the wheels of its economy moving again so as to make the most of the distress outside its borders has given rise to all kinds of conspiracy theories.
While Modi has won international praise for his bold and timely action in declaring the national lockdown, there are serious doubts about how his game plan will ultimately play out. Migrant workers filling themselves in whatever vehicle they can access or walking hundreds of kilometres without food or water to get back to their roots is the ultimate antithesis to social distancing. Going by the government’s own assessment, three out of every 10 workers undertaking the long trek may be carrying the coronavirus.
The disaster that is waiting to happen once these workers reach their villages, where the concept of social distancing is as alien as the coronavirus and even access to drinking water a life and death issue, is not difficult to imagine. They are facing danger from both coronavirus and its cure, with a number of people already losing their lives. The Modi government’s cure for coronavirus is equally life-threatening to the majority of people in the informal sector, driving them to death from starvation.
The economic package announced by the government sidesteps this vast majority of workers, who will not get any relief from income tax sops, moratorium on loans or greater liquidity with the banks that they can use to provide more credit. The pittance that they have been promised by way of direct cash payment is no substitute for total loss of livelihood. The Modi government needs more creativity in devising mechanisms to deal with the real India.
The apparent success that we claim to have achieved through the national lockdown becomes a mirage when instances like Nizamuddin, which is threatening our entire defence against coronavirus, alter the equation. Only providential benefaction can prevent Nizamuddin, already declared a hotspot of the virus outbreak, from developing into a nationwide community infection.
Worse still, the virus being transmitted from the Tablighi Jamaat event seems to be more virulent, perhaps a reflection of the cause promoted by the outfit itself, with a number of deaths having already been reported in different states. Thousands of people who have attended the event and possibly carrying the virus have melted into the population already and isolating them to the last person would be a most impossible task.
Hundreds of them have tested positive to the presence of virus in their body and they have already likely interacted with a huge number of people, unaware that they were carrying the virus. Now tracking down each one of the primary contacts and subjecting them to quarantine, which alone can arrest further spread of the infection, is something that may be beyond the capability of grassroots level administration. Doing it in places like Delhi or Mumbai is one thing, but doing it in the remote villages of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, or even Maharashtra and Karnataka, is quite another.
According to officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs, nearly 1,500 Tablighi Jamaat members have so far been shifted to quarantine facilities and hospitals, while the rest of them were being screened for the virus. The Delhi police has filed a case against the Maulavi of Jama Masjid, Wazirabad. But the Masjid authorities are pleading innocence, saying they are victims of circumstances as the attendees could not proceed with their itineraries due to the declaration of national lockdown.
It is no rocket science that the government alone cannot fight any virus, let alone covid-19, which has proved itself too smart to be amenable to simple defences. Whether it is lock down or social distancing, it is only the community that can fight the virus effectively. Tablighi Jamaat and several outfits of similar nature have been less than forthcoming in reporting the problem and seeking early remediation. (IPA Service)