Lockdown three was promulgated because majority states wanted it.
The other day an American doctor said on CNN that coronavirus could last two years in the United States. It could infect up to 70% of the population. He also warned that the virus would not disappear. A second wave could come any time.
The mishandling of the corona pandemic by President Donald Trump has led to a loss of many more lives due to his pretending to be a doctor who had no hesitation in suggesting weird cures, including injecting household bleach into Covid-19 patients. Then came his cutting of US annual contribution to the World Health Organization (WHO). China immediately made good the loss the WHO had suffered.
Day after day the US President continues to blame China for the origin of the virus in a laboratory in Wuhan. China has brushed off the allegation. These thoughtless pronouncements are made at his daily press conference. The result is that he has seriously damaged America’s long standing role as a global leader.
China is now all over the globe, dispatching medicines, doctors’ uniforms, gloves and disinfectants. China claims that life in Wuhan is now normal. The pandemic has been overcome. President Xi Jinping’s prestige has gone up, not only in China but the world over. In the beginning he faltered but that memory faded.
Now I come to our beloved country. A vital constitutional change has gone almost unnoticed. The parent-client relationship between the Centre and the States has undergone a dramatic transformation. The Prime Minister has become acutely aware of the authority and power of the states. Lockdown three was promulgated because a majority of states wanted it and pressed for it.
The Home Ministry on Friday produced a complex, at places incomprehensible notification which even a reasonably educated person would find bewildering. The editorial in the Economic Times of Saturday May 2 was headed, “Wrong call to extend lockdown”. It then pitched into the authors of this perplexing Katha. “The government’s decision to extend the lockdown by two weeks is wrong and will do Indians more harm than good. The notification extending the Lockdown has the kernel of what needs to be done but then proceeds to envelop it in layer after layer of impractical, unenforceable conditions that makes sense to a bureaucrat sitting in his office but no one else.” There is much more of the same.
This notification is no doubt meant to help the poor, the unemployed and the needy. Even member of my household staff is illiterate and so are their families. How do I explain to them the intricacies of Red, Orange and Green Zones?
The Economic Times also writes, “However, a maze of regulations, restrictions on movement of people and unbridled powers to local administration mean a vast segment of economy will still be locked down exacerbating economic stress.”
Why can’t four people sit in a car? Why is movement of individuals for non-essentials between 7 pm and 7 am prohibited? What are they supposed to do between 7 am and 7 pm?
The hope that China’s difficulty is India’s opportunity is misplaced. Many foreign companies and industries have moved to Japan and Vietnam. The dream of India having a five trillion dollar economy by 2024 is unlikely to materialise.
A new acronym, WFH, is doing the rounds. It stands for Work From Home. In India many minister are WFH-wallah but no Secretary will follow WFH in our set-up. His Joint Secretaries and the section officers, office assistants and clerks will sit in North and South Blocks. Till we go completely digital, files will go from the Secretary’s home to North and South Blocks and back. Not a time saving exercise.
There are many plus and constructive elements in the MHA’s notification. The process to implement them should start without delay.
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On February 27, 1967, I sent a note to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi concerning what a German member of Parliament, Felix Von Eckardt had said about the nuclear powers. I thought it would amuse her. It did. “Non-proliferation is like a club of notorious boozers who demand a written agreement from the teetotallers that they never take alcohol and won’t even touch a drop when a glass is offered to them. And then after the pact is signed, these drinkers not only sit together and booze it up again, but throw the empty bottles at the teetotallers.”