oppn parties All Efforts of The Respective Governments Will Come To Naught If People Are Irresponsible

News Snippets

  • Sikh extremists attacked a cinema hall in London that was playing Kangana Ranaut's controversial film 'Emergency'
  • A Delhi court directed the investigating agencies to senstize officers to collect nail clippings, fingernail scrappings or finger swab in order to get DNA profile as direct evidence of sexual attack is often not present and might result in an offender going scot free
  • Uniform Civil Code rules cleared by state cabinet, likely to be implemented in the next 10 days
  • Supreme Court reiterates that there is no point in arresting the accused after the chargesheet has been filed and the investigation is complete
  • Kolkata court sentences Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case, to life term. West Bengal government and CBI to appeal in HC for the death penalty
  • Supreme Court stays criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against home minister Amit Shah in Jharkhand during the AICC plenary session
  • Government reviews import basket to align it with the policies of the Trump administration
  • NCLT orders liquidation of GoAir airlines
  • Archery - Indian archers bagged 2 silver in Nimes Archery tournament in France
  • Stocks make impressive gain on Monday - Sensex adds 454 points to 77073 and Nifty 141 points to 23344
  • D Gukesh draws with Fabiano Caruana in the Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands
  • Women's U-19 T20 WC - In a stunning game, debutants Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs
  • Rohit Sharma to play under Ajinkye Rahane in Mumbai's Ranji match against J&K
  • Virat Kohli to play in Delhi's last group Ranji trophy match against Saurashtra. This will be his first Ranji match in 12 years
  • The toll in the Rajouri mystery illness case rose to 17 even as the Centre sent a team to study the situation
Calling the case not 'rarest of rare', a court in Kolkata sentenced Sanjay Roy, the only accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case to life in prison until death
oppn parties
All Efforts of The Respective Governments Will Come To Naught If People Are Irresponsible

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-03-23 20:57:18

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

The central government, either on its own or in consultation with state governments, has taken many quick and stringent decisions in the last couple of days as it became apparent that despite the previous restrictions, there was an increasing possibility of community transmission of Covid-19 in India. After closing down schools, colleges and other public places like theatres, museums, malls, etc. and advising people to work from home wherever possible, the government moved in quickly to stop interstate bus services. After visas of all foreigners were canceled until March 31, international flights were totally banned. Then, it stopped all long-distance passenger trains and later revised the order to include Metro services and local suburban trains. The idea is to break the chain of transmission and this is possible only if people do not congregate even in small numbers.

Then, on 22nd March, the health ministry held a press conference and informed that it had advised state governments where confirmed cases of coronavirus had surfaced to declare a complete lockdown in such districts until March 31. The list was for 75 districts initially but later expanded to 83 districts. Some states like West Bengal have further expanded the lockdown keeping in mind the density of population in some districts where migrant workers have returned from various places in India that are already reporting many confirmed cases. With the increasing number of cases in the state, Maharashtra has decided to place the entire state under curfew from today and seal the borders. This is exactly what should be done. In fact, some experts are of the opinion that India should have taken these steps much earlier. But in a country where most cases were brought in by people coming from abroad, such a complete lockdown earlier was not called for and would have resulted in panic. Prime Minister Modi did the right thing in first involving the citizens to self-impose what he called a "Janta curfew" (which was a resounding success) and then declare the lockdown.

Subsequently, it has been decided today to stop all domestic flights from March 25. This is also a step in the right direction. There were many students and professionals who were staying away from home. But with the lockdown in place, they would obviously like to return home. They have been given enough time for that and with bus and train services already stopped, there was no logic in allowing domestic air travel. In any case, traveling in these times is full of risks and people should ideally keep themselves in self-quarantine wherever they are.

But all efforts of the Central and state governments will come to naught if the citizens do not understand the gravity of the situation. The wife of the Google staffer who was infected slipped away from their Bengaluru home and traveled by various means to Agra to be with her parents. She immediately placed all those who came in her contact during the long journey in danger. There was a case in Kolkata where a government official tried to shield her son who was returning from the UK from screening at the airport. Later, he was diagnosed with Covid-19. The mother had taken him to the state secretariat and there was immediate panic in government circles and CCTV footage was examined to see whether any of the persons she contacted in the secretariat had later been in contact with ministers of even the chief minister. Luckily, the parents of the boy and their driver and other house help did not test positive. In another case, singer Kanika Kapoor irresponsibly did not adhere to self-quarantine after returning from the UK and traveled to Lucknow to throw a party where many politicians and celebrities were invited. She also attended other social functions in the UP capital. She tested positive and it has just now been reported that her second test has also been positive. Just imagine the havoc her irresponsible behaviour has caused. This is the way the virus will transmit in the community. These are just three examples that have been reported. There might be hundreds of others who have been similarly irresponsible. If educated and supposedly responsible citizens do not care for their own safety and that of the community, no action the government takes will be enough to stop the spread of the virus.