It is hard for any democratic government to escape criticism — whether it is right or wrong. That is the heart of any democracy. Having said that, fighting the pandemic is not an everyday affair. It is a life-and-death matter.
So, the heavy-duty gunfire occasioned by the initial mishandling of the coronavirus crisis should not deter the policy-makers engaged 24x7 in containing the invisible menace. Happily, respective state governments have got a grip on the migrant exodus from their places of work following the nation-wide lockdown. It was a failure, no doubt.
The response of the daily-wagers who for various reasons, including lack of work and food, insistence of landlords on rent, and a desire to use the forced break for visiting native village, etc, was not anticipated. But when you are waging a war against an invisible enemy whose movement and intensity is hard to predict, such unforeseen slip-ups are not uncommon.
The State governments have now been firmly directed to ensure that migrants don’t breach the lockdown, while temporary shelter, food, etc. is being provided in camps set up in closed-down schools and other public buildings. Another highfluting concern of the usual suspects in the media and the opposition circles concerns the alleged breach of privacy of citizens.
This is a bogus argument. If the state in its single-minded effort to exterminate the virus from this land, takes some absolutely necessary measures, among them the key one to trace the movement of those suspected to have contracted the infection or of those who knowingly or unknowingly had come in contact with them, it does not constitute any breach of anyone’s privacy. In fact, this is welcome.
Larger good must prevail over the squeamishness of a few armchair critics. Much older democracies in the West have virtually followed the same course to quell the pandemic threat. In any case, once the pandemic has been well and truly vanquished, the State is expected to shed the powers it had temporarily assumed to fight the pandemic.
Restoration of the privacy of citizens, that is, in case some rudimentary breach was necessary for the fight against the scourge, will then be absolutely necessary. Armchair critics once in a while should put themselves in the place of policy-makers to get a perspective on the underlying crisis confronting the nation.
Meanwhile, social media images of the police raining batons and generally roughing up citizens in Spain who were found in violation of the curfew ought to help inject a measure of perspective in these extraordinary times. We are not condoning the way the police in some places here tried to restrain the poor from violating the lockdown, but merely pointing out that very often the use of force against a few helps deter numerous others from breaching the law.
Also, while hauling the police over the coals for the occasional excess we ought to be mindful of the tremendous physical and mental strain they work under, leaving behind their families and homes for days to remain on duty 24x7. Compassion and empathy are virtues which everyone should possess —and it ought to be spared for the tens of thousands caregivers tussling against the invisible devil.
Also, when citizens are impervious to the call of discipline in these trying times, sometimes even the most controlled personnel slip up under tremendous pressure. It is by no means a justification for the use of force or humiliation of citizens. Far from it. But it must be understood that without active cooperation of the people no war can be won.
For instance, the failure of the members of the Tablighi Jamaat, a sect of Islam, who were holed up in the very crowded quarters in Nizamuddin West, New Delhi, to respect the lockdown, has confronted the authorities with a huge problem. Even after a number of them showed symptoms of the virus, they neither came forward for testing nor self-isolated themselves.
This was inexcusable behaviour. On Monday, the authorities had to evacuate the building in the most unhygienic and densely populated basti and send them all for testing while others who were in close proximity to them were now being traced in places as far apart as Hyderabad, Chennai, Meerut, etc.
Had these people come forward for testing when they first developed symptoms of the virus, the nation-wide hunt wouldn’t be necessary. They defied every instruction in the standard operating procedure of the lockdown. The fear that the total number of corona-hit persons might increase substantially in comparison to the tally thus far is not misplaced. The point. Without active citizen cooperation the war against coronavirus will be hard to win.
