JOURNALISM OF COURAGE

SINCE 1932

`̀ 63 per kilo

`̀ 91 per kilo

`̀ 110 per kilo

`̀ 55 per Dozen

RAILWAYSDESIGNSITSOWNVENTILATORPAGE5

INSIDE

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI, APRIL4

THEMAHARASHTRA govern-ment is considering if some re-laxation in the lockdown couldbe rolledoutpostApril 14, statePublic Health Minister RajeshTopesaidonSaturday.Addressing the people of

Maharashtra, Tope said that therelaxations, which could be in-troduced in a phasedmanner,would be determined by thewillingness of the residents tofollow social distancing proto-

cols and rules laid down by thestate."People feel what will hap-

pen post April 14. The CM hasjust nowsaid that post April 14,weareconsideringif someformof relaxation can be given inphases. That is possible only ifwe followdiscipline,"headded.Earlier in the day, Chief

MinisterUddhavThackerayhadsaidthatthedecisiontorelaxthe21-day lockdown depended onhow people conformed to thestate directives of maintainingsocialdistancingandstayingin-side theirhomes.Tope, meanwhile, said that

overthelastfewdays,over9lakhpeople have been traced in thestate. He added that over 2,400teamsofhealthofficialswasop-eratingincontainmentzonessetupacrossMaharashtra.He further said that there

wasnodearthof equipment formedicalprofessionals.

HealthMinisterRajeshTope

Lockdown may be relaxed in phases,possible if directives followed: Govt

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI, APRIL4

TWODAYSafterBJPpresidentJPNaddaurgedhispartyleaderstorefrainfromgivinganycommu-nal colour to theCOVID-19out-break, Shiv Sena leader andMaharashtra Chief MinisterUddhavThackeraywarned thatstrictlegalactionwouldbetakenagainst people spreading “fakenews” and “communal hatred”over thepandemic.“Likecoronavirus,thereisan-

other virus that is emerging,which iscreatingarift in theso-ciety—itisthevirusoffakenews

CONTINUEDONPAGE2

‘Don’tdo itevenfor fun’

BMCSCRIPTSFIGHTBACKPAGE 3

Won’t spare those spreadingfake news, communalmessages on virus: Uddhav

Americans should wear face masks while outside,recommends Trump — then he says he won’t

Highest 1-day toll inUSTHE WORLD PAGE 10

The RecoveredHidden behind grim statistics of death, COVID-19 cases is anotherheartwarming number: those who recovered. Their stories

SUNDAY STORY PAGE 8

MUMBAI,LATECITY

APRIL5,202014PAGES,`5.00

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMD A I L Y F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , C H A N D I G A R H , D E L H I , J A I P U R , K O L K A T A , L U C K N O W , M U M B A I , N A G P U R , P U N E , V A D O D A R A

RAVISHTIWARINEWDELHI, APRIL4

AN INFORMAL group of UnionMinisters has beenbrainstorm-ing on the issues arising out ofthe nationwide lockdown tocounter the coronavirus out-breakandexploringthepossiblenext steps andoptions after the21-dayperiodendsApril 14.“This (nationwide lockdown)

cannot continue for an indefi-nitelylongperiod.Butitalsodoes-n’tappearadvisabletolift it fromeverywhere in one go,” said asourceawareofthedeliberationsin the informal groupheadedbyDefenceMinisterRajnathSingh.The committeemet for the

third timeonfridayand is likelytomeetearlynextweekagain. Itis learnt that the groupmay beinapositiontomakeupitsmindonly after looking at the coronanumbers — rate of growth ofnew cases, extent of the spread—byApril 10.More so, when currently,

positive cases have been re-portedfromlittleover200oftheover 700 districts across thecountry.“Given that there could be

asymptomatic cases of COVID-19inareas/hotspotsandpositivecases, thesewillhavetobedealtwithdifferently.Ruralareaswillhavetobedealtwithseparately.Smaller shops need a differentresponse thanwhatneeds tobedoneformallsorshoppingcom-plexes,” said thesource.“Forexample,largeshopping

malls could pose a challenge inCONTINUEDONPAGE2

ENSECONOMICBUREAUNEWDELHI, APRIL4

THE NINE-MINUTE ‘lights-off’exercise scheduled for Sundayevening, as per PrimeMinisterNarendraModi’s appeal topeo-pleacrossthecountry,hasforcedthe grid operator to initiate anelaborate set of contingencymeasures to avert any crisiscaused by the suddenmassiveloadreductionquickly followedbyasharp increase.Thesemeasures include ta-

pering thermal output and in-creasinggeneration fromhydroandgasstationstoenableramp-ing up anddownof power dur-ing the episode, calling for allpersonnel tobepresentondutyacrossthecountryandevenreq-uisitioningfor“blackstartfacili-ties” to be kept active as a con-

tingencymeasure.This refers tothesetofrestorationproceduresatregionalloaddespatchcentresalluding to the possibility of

CONTINUEDONPAGE2

ABANTIKAGHOSHNEWDELHI, APRIL4

OVER 33 per cent of all COVID-19casesinthecountryarelinkedto the gathering of the TablighiJamaat at Nizamuddin in Delhilastmonth.Sofar,1,023of the3,072posi-

tive cases in India have beentraced to that one congregation.The cases have come from 17states and Union Territories —Tamil Nadu, Delhi, AndhraPradesh,Telangana,UttarPradesh,Rajasthan, JammuandKashmir,Maharashtra, Karnataka, Assam,Uttarakhand,Haryana,HimachalPradesh, Kerala, ArunachalPradesh,JharkhandandAndamanandNicobarIslands.Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary

in theMinistry of Health, saidSaturday, “About 30 per cent ofallourcaseshavebeenlinkedtothis one incident. For us, it is a

CONTINUEDONPAGE2

AVISHEKGDASTIDARNEWDELHI, APRIL4

WHATDOyoudowhenyouareatarailwaystation,waitingforatrain?OnSunday,agroupof50pas-

sengers from various parts ofIndiawillperformyogatogetherin the waiting hall of Varanasirailway station. After that, theywill watch the re-run ofRamayan on Doordarshan on a55-inch TV installed especiallyfor them. After Ramayan, therewill be lunch.Thesepassengershavebeen

waiting for their trains since

Sunday, March 22, when thegovernment observed JanataCurfew.The“curfew”ended,buttheirwait fora traindidnot.The 21-day lockdown hap-

pened, the city shut down, andtherailwaystationbecametheirhome.Caught in this unintended

consequence of the lockdownare daily-wage labourers, farm-ers, traders, professionals andpilgrims to the KashiVishwanath Temple from suchfar-flungplacesasMaharashtra,Andhra Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh, Karnataka, AndhraPradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat.Therearewomen,children,sen-

ior citizens - all waiting for thatoneelusiveobject: a train.“Thereisnothingtodo.Inthe

beginning, Iusedtogooutof thestation to look for some otherways to go home. But now, wejust wait,” says Manoj Shinde,part of a groupof 11daily-wagelabourers from a village nearAurangabad,Maharashtra.Shinde and group did some

work around Patna for a fewdays and were due to returnhome. The Janata Curfewwasstill 24 hours away. So fromPatna station, the local authori-ties got them to board a train,which, they said, was going toMaharashtra.

“Around 3 in the night, thetrain stopped at Mughalsarai.Wewere told that the train hasbeenterminatedherebecauseoftheJanataCurfew.Wewalkedtothe Varanasi station after that,”hesays.Ittooktherailwayauthorities

just about a day to realisewhathad just happened. On Sunday,even as the curfewwas on, thegovernmentsuspendedalltrainservices tillMarch31.Officials soon realised that

therewasagroupof somehun-dred people waiting at theVaranasi station. “They werescatteredacross the station.Wequickly got them to the large

waiting hall with benches andall.Thenweformedaplan,”saysAnandMohan,thestationdirec-tor, whose job, apart from run-ningthestationduringthelock-down,hasalsobeentotakecareof thisgroupof stranded.A couple of days later, Prime

Minister Narendra Modi an-nounced the 21-day lockdown.The station authorities realisedthatthesepeoplewerenowherefor the longhaul.“Slowly, with coordination

withstateauthorities,westartedsendingsomepeoplehome,theoneswholivedwithindistancesmanageablebytaxis.Butfinally,a group of 50 remained - they

weresome1,500-2000kmawayfromtheirhomes.Wedecidedtotake care of them as best aswecould,”hesays.The yoga class and TV are

newadditionstotheirdailyrou-tine, starting Sunday. “...so thatpeople have something to doandalsostay fit,”Mohansays.The station officials arrange

food. There is tea a few times oftheday.Childrenplay,peopleareon phones, the senior citizensareseenprayingdaily.Fightsandlaughter break out in equalmeasure,peoplesingsongs,playmusic on phones, clothes arewashedandputtodryeveryday.

CONTINUEDONPAGE2

Thegroupof50, fromMaharashtra,Karnataka,Andhraandotherstates,hasbeenstucksinceMarch22

Amid yoga, TV and chai, group at Varanasi station asks: Will trains take us home?

LIGHTING,WHICHispartof thedomestic load, ac-counts forunder10percentof theall-India load.If lighting loadgoesoff, itisunlikely tohaveama-jor impacton thegridfrequency innormaltimes.Whilegrid fre-quency isexpected toswing, thepossibilityoftripping is remote.

GridnotlikelytotripE●EX

PLAINED

For 9-min lights-offtoday, power sectorswitched on high alertPMcallonlyfor lightsathome,notstreet lightsorappliances:Ministry

Almost 33% cases tracedto Tabligh meet, Govtsays one slip can be big

AtGhaziabadhospitalwheresomewhowereatMarkazeventareadmitted.PTI

ASTHASAXENANEWDELHI, APRIL4

DELHI’SSIRGangaRamHospitalhasquarantined108staffmem-bers,including20doctorsand75nurses, after they came in con-tactwithtwopatientswhowerebrought to the hospitalwith nocoronavirussymptoms,butlatertested positive for the disease.While85peoplehavebeensentto home quarantine, 23 havebeen quarantined at the hospi-tal’s isolationward.Apart from the doctors and

nurses, nine ward boys, threetechnicians and apantry stafferhavebeenquarantined.Thetwopatientswithcritical

illnesseswere admitted to thehospital’sICUlastweek.“TheydidnothaveanysymptomsofCOVID-19whentheywereadmitted.Butthey later developed respiratorysymptomsandwerecheckedforCOVID-19asper ICMRprotocols.Since then, staff associatedwiththe patients have been quaran-tined,”saidDrDSRana,chairman(Board of Management), SirGangaRamHospital.

CONTINUEDONPAGE2

After two test positiveat Ganga Ram hospital,108 staff quarantinedABANTIKAGHOSH

NEWDELHI, APRIL4

ASTHEnumberof novel coron-avirus(COVID-19)casesclimbedto 3,072 and the toll rose to 75on Saturday, the HealthMinistry, for the first time, ad-vised use of “homemade facecover” for those steppingout oftheir houses, saying thiswould“helpinprotectingthecommu-nity at large”.In theUStoo, theCenters for

Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) revised the earlier standand recommended “the use ofsimple cloth face coverings toslowthespreadof thevirus”.

The World HealthOrganisation (WHO), however,hassaidthereisnoevidencethatcovering the face has any “self-protectionparadigm.”Meanwhile, of the total

CONTINUEDONPAGE2

AtSirGangaRamHospital inNewDelhi, Sunday,after108medical staffwerequarantined. PraveenKhanna

200OF500DISTRICTSHIT, KEYGOALTOBRINGGOVERNANCEBACKONTRACK

ACROSSSTATES, 107MORECASESWITHTABLIGHI LINKPAGE 6

WHOTESTEDPOSITIVEAGE GROUP CASES

(IN%)0-20years 8.6121-40years 41.8841-60years 32.82Above60years 16.69Source:MinistryofHealthandFamilyWelfare

CORONACOUNT

3072CASES

75DEATHS

213RECOVERED

79,950sampleshavebeentestedasonApril4,2020

ZEEZEE WARRIORS

eyeTHE SUNDAY EXPRESS

MAGAZ INE

eyeDearReader,

Thenational lockdowntofightthecoronavirushasdisruptedproductionanddistributionofTheSundayExpress.Thishascompelledusto reducepagecount.Toensurethatyoudonotmissoutonthespecialweekendpackage,Eye,TheSundayExpressMagazine, isbeing integrated intothemainedition.

Pages 11-13

SHUBHAJITROYNEWDELHI, APRIL4

PRIME MINISTER NarendraModiSaturdaysaidhehadanex-tensivediscussionontheCOVID-19 crisis with US PresidentDonaldTrumpover thephone.Statingitwas“agooddiscus-

sion”, thePrimeMinistersaid ina tweet, “Hadanextensive tele-phone conversation withPresident @realDonaldTrump.We had a good discussion, andagreedtodeploythefullstrengthof the India-US partnership tofight COVID-19.” The two alsodiscussedtheimpactof thepan-demic on the global well-beingandeconomy, thePMOsaid inastatement.“Stressing the special rela-

tionshipbetweenthetwocoun-tries, the PrimeMinister reiter-ated India’s solidarity with theUSA in overcoming this globalcrisis together. The two leadersagreedtodeploythefullstrengthof the India-US partnership toresolutely and effectively com-bat COVID-19,” the statementsaid.ModiandTrumpexchanged

noteson thesteps taken ineachcountryformitigatingthehealthand economic impacts of thepandemic.“Thetwoleadersalsotoucheduponthesignificanceofpractices such as Yoga andAyurveda (traditional Indianherbalmedicinepractice)foren-suringphysicalandmentalwell-being in these difficult times,”thestatementsaid.Theyagreedtheir officials would remain inclose touch.

CONTINUEDONPAGE2

Easing lockdown,how,when,where:Ministers explore stepspost-April 14

Modi, Trump:Use India-USpartnership tojointly fightCOVID-19

Use homemade maskwhen stepping out: Govt

MCS/204/2020-22RNINO.MAHENG2002/21899

THESECONDPAGE2 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHE SUNDAY EXPRESS,APRIL5,2020

Easinglockdownmaintaining social distancing.There could be intra-districtmovements allowed wheretherearenocases,butinter-dis-trictmovement?Notsure.Also,dependinguponthespread,dif-ferent situations prevail in dif-ferent states after April 14. Allthese factorshavetobeconsid-ered,” said the source.One key issue being dis-

cussed is how to bring aspectsof “regulargovernance”backontrack after April 14 withoutcompromisingtheneedforvig-ilance against the transmissionof thepandemic.Directions have already

beenissuedrelaxingmovementof farm labourgiven theneces-sityof farmoperationsandalsothebroadpatternsofarthatru-ral areas and smaller townswith low population densitiesarenotreportinganysignificantoutbreak.“Theeconomicrealityisthat

foralargesectionof thepopula-tion, there is little cushion for along duration of lockdown.Many of them barely scrapethrough eachmonth. This is abroadunderstandingwithinthegroup,” said another sourceawareabout thedeliberations.“Butgiventhatthenumbers

are rising and there is a spreadinmanystates,cautionhastobeobserved. If it doesn’t getmuchoutofcontrolandthecurvesig-nals flattening,wecould seeaneasing,” said the source.For this group of Ministers,

the first phase of the lockdown- the issue of migrants move-ment - is almostover.“Thatwasanissueinthefirst

phase. Ithasnowbeenattendedtobyandlarge,”saidthesourcehighlighting how shelters andfood arrangements have beenmade to arrest large-scalemovementthat initiallythreat-ened to undermine the lock-down.Thegroupconsiders thepe-

riod till April 14 as the secondphase which has its own chal-lenges for unaffected popula-tionand thoseaffected.“As for the unaffected pop-

ulation, there is disruption butkey issues of supply have beenresolved.Theotherchallenge isaroundtheaffectedpopulationand health infrastructure forthem.Availabilityof testingkits,trained health workers in caseof cases emerging in newer ar-eas, identifying asymptomaticcases,testing,tracingandisolat-ing them- that remains a focusarea,” said the source.Sources said the Ministers

wereusingtheirministriesandpolitical networks to gauge thesituationbeforeprovidingguid-ancetoshapethegovernment’spolicyprescriptions.Besides Rajnath Singh, the

group comprises HomeMinister Amit Shah, FoodMinister Ram Vilas Paswan,Petroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan, I&BMinister Prakash Javadekar,HRD Minister RameshPokhariyalNishank,AgricultureMinisterNarendraTomar,WCDMinisterSmriti IraniandAnimalHusbandry Minister GirirajSinghamongothers.Interacting with Chief

Ministers over video-confer-ence Thursday, PrimeMinisterNarendraModi had suggestedthe need to “formulate a com-mon exit strategy to ensurestaggered re-emergence of thepopulation” when the lock-downendsafterApril 14.

DelhihospitalThequarantinedhealthcare

workers are mainly from theICU, medicine emergency andfever OPD. The hospital saidnone of them had developed

symptoms for coronavirus un-til Saturdayevening.“We have hired a special

building to accommodate ourhealthcareworkersdeployedinthe COVID-19 ward. Fifty percent of our staff is already notcomingasallourOPDsareshut.We are also trying to keep ourhealthcare workers safe asPPEs are still not enough,” saidDrRana, adding that thehospi-tal has more than 5,000employees.The 600-bed hospital has

earmarked51beds inthe isola-tion ward for coronavirus pa-tients,andkept50morevacant,to be used in case of an emer-gency.Over the past few days, at

least 15 healthcare workers inthenational capitalhave testedpositive for coronavirus, withmost of them catching the in-fection from patients. Severaldoctors and medical expertshave highlighted the shortageof personal protective equip-ment(PPE)kitsacrossthecoun-try.On Saturday, Delhi Chief

Minister Arvind Kejriwal tooraised the issue: “In Delhi, thesituation is a little critical aswearehavingtotaketheresponsi-bility of those who came fromabroad. Around 2,300 peoplewere evacuated from theMarkazandmanyamongthemare likely to test positive. So,suddenly, there has been ashortage of PPE kits. I amwor-ried about our doctors andnurses. I don’twant any doctorand nurse to treat corona pa-tientswithoutPPE.Wewrotetothe Centre yesterday, seekingthe kits urgently, but so far wehavenot receivedanykit.”Hospitals in Delhi where

healthcareworkershavetestedpositivearemeanwhileprepar-ing lists of staff members whohavebeenincontactwiththem.TheDelhiStateCancer Institute(DSCI) iscontemplatingshiftingall cancer patients to a privatehospital after fourof its health-care workers — a doctor andthree nurses — tested positiveforCOVID-19.“Wehave48patientsadmit-

tedtothehospitalandareplan-ning to shift them to a privatehospital.Cancerpatientsareal-ready on strong medicationswith a weak immune system;thismakesthempronetocatch-ing the disease. We can’t takethe riskandbecomethesourceof transmission.Atourlevel,weare trying to contain the infec-tion,”saidDrBLSherwal,direc-torof DSCI.

9-minuteslights-offpotentialgridfailureandhavingto restart thegrid fromscratch.After many states, through

their respective state loaddespatch centres, flagged risksto the grid from the proposedmove, the national grid opera-tor, Power System OperationCorporation Ltd (POSOCO), is-sued a 30-point guidelineSaturday to load despatch cen-tresatthestate,regionalandna-tional level. The objective is tocounterbalance the expectedsharpreductioninloadandsub-sequent recovery, which it hastermedas “unprecedented”.“These apprehensions are

misplaced,”saidtheMinistryofPower in a statement Saturday.“TheIndianelectricitygridisro-bust and stable and adequatearrangementsandprotocolsarein place tohandle the variationindemand.”The ministry also clarified

that the PM’s appeal is to onlyswitch off lights and not otherappliances.Thestatementsaid,“The appeal of the Hon PrimeMinister is to simply switch offthelights intheirhomesfrom9pmto9.09pmonApril5.Thereis no call to switch off eitherstreet lights or appliances like

Computers, TVs, Fans,Refrigerators and ACs in thehomes. “The lights inHospitalsand all other essential serviceslike Public Utilities, MunicipalServices,Offices,PoliceStations,Manufacturing Facilities, etcwill remainon...All local bodieshave been advised to keep thestreetlightsonforpublicsafety.”PIB Principal Director

General KS Dhatwalia also ap-pealed to people to not use al-cohol-basedhandsanitisersbe-forelightingcandlesonSunday.From the grid managers’

perspective, the primary con-cern is that just before 9 pm,there may be unprecedentedloadreduction,followedbysud-den increase in load post 9.09pm.Duringthis lights-outexer-cise, about 11,344-12,879MWof load nationwide is expectedto drop suddenly and thencomeon streama fewminuteslater — the equivalent of fivelarge thermal generating sta-tionsgoingoff together.POCOSO’s30-pointdetailed

guidelines, issued under threebroad heads — generationscheduling and frequency con-trol; voltage controlmeasures:and general guidelines — in-cludebasicchecklistssuchasallclocksatgeneratingstationsbe-ingsynchronisedtoIndianstan-dardtime, strengtheningof thecontrol room staff across theNLDCandall loaddespatchcen-tres staying “in alertmode andmonitor the grid closely in or-der to take care of any contin-gency”.Distributioncompaniesarebeingwarnedtoensurethatdistribution substations, hous-ing society and residentialapartments main supply shallnotbeswitchedoffateitherthefeederormains level.On the generation side, too,

there are a series of detailedcontingency planning meas-ures.During evening peak hours

— from 6.10 pm to 8 pm— hy-drogeneration is tobe reduced“and conserved” for providingflexibility for the 9 pm event.During this time, thermal andgas generation are to be sched-uled to manage the peak de-mand. After peak hours, majorthermal Inter-State GeneratingStations generation are to be“graduallyreducedtoneartech-nical minimum level of 60 percentby8.55pmandsimultane-ously hydro generation is to beincreased tomaintain the loadgenerationbalance”.Hydro generation and gas

generation—both ofwhich of-fermoreflexibilityascomparedtocoal-firedunitsinrampingupand down in line with the re-quirements of the grid—are tobe specifically ramped downstarting from8.57pm,depend-ing on the system frequency.Gas-based units have beenspecifically instructed to rampdownto the “minimumlevel”.Subsequenttothis, ramping

upofthermalunitsaretobecar-ried out from 9.05 pm on. Andfrom9.09pmon,hydrogenera-tion is then to be ramped up tomeet the increase in load.Followingthis, “afterthestabil-isation of system parameters”,hydrounitsaretobewithdrawnin consultation with the re-gional and state load despatchcentres.Atthestate,regionalandna-

tional load despatch centres,someofwhichhavebeen func-tioning on a rotational staffingbasis on account of the lock-down,therearespecific instruc-tionsof all handsneeding tobeon deck. “All RLDCs/ SLDCs &NLDC (regional, state and na-tionalloaddespatchcentres)areadvised to extend the eveningshift timings till 10 pm prefer-ablyandallowoverlapwiththeincomingnight shift.”All senior personnel have

beenaskedtobeavailableatthegeneratingstations,substations,Load Despatch Centers (LDCs)between 6 pm to 10 pm on

Sundayasamatterofabundantcaution. India is one of thelargest synchronous intercon-nected grids in theworld, withan installed capacity of about370 gigawatts (3,70,000megawatts) and a normal baseloadpower demand of roughly 150gigawatts.When an exigency occurs,

like an outage at a power plantorthetrippingofatransmissionlineorsuddenchangeinelectri-caldemand,theoperatorneedsto ensure that there is an auto-matic corrective response, fail-ing which the operator thenneeds tomanually intervene toavert a crisis.While domestic load is

about 30-32 per cent of totalload during the normal times,thegrid loadcurrently,becauseof the lockdown, is largely ac-counted forbydomestic load.Thenormalbaseloadpower

demand of roughly 150 gi-gawattshasalreadydroppedby20percentsincemostof indus-try and commercial establish-ments are not operational. Sothe lighting load, as a percent-ageof total load, ismuchhighernowandtheimpactofasuddendrop in lighting load could bemore accentuated than in reg-ular times. There is, however,hope that the airconditioningload in the country’s westernandsouthernregionswouldactasacounterbalance. Inthewestand south, the airconditioningload is already high, whichcouldensurethattheswitchingoff of the light could place alesser stresson thegrid.

Tablighmeetdailybattle,contacttracingisonin all these 17 states... I want totellyouthatourdoublingrateislower thanmost countries, butI want to emphasise that onefailurebyonepersonwillputusback hugely. a chain is only asgoodas itsweakest link.”From the first week of

March, hundreds of TablighiJamaatactivistshadgatheredatits Nizamuddin headquartersforareligiouseventthatcontin-ued for days even as a govern-ment advisory barred all con-gregations in view of theworseningCOVID-19 situation.AccordingtotheMinistryof

HealthAffairs,morethan2,000of the Tablighi Jamaat partici-pantswereforeigners.Afterthegathering, over 800 of themtoured various parts of thecountry.On Thursday, the MHA

blacklisted 1,320 foreigners as-sociated with the TablighiJamaat for violating visa rulesevenasitcancelledtouristvisasof all suchvisitors to India.PunyaSalilaSrivastava, Joint

Secretary in MHA, said about22,000 people linked to theTablighi Jamaat and their con-tactsacrossthecountryarecur-rentlyunderquarantine.Of the2,000foreignersfrom

70countrieswhowereindiffer-entpartsof Indiaontouristvisa,most are from Bangladesh(493), Indonesia(472),Malaysia(150) andThailand (142).HealthMinistryofficialssaid

that before the fallout of theTablighi Jamaatgatheringcameto light, there were “serioussigns”of thelockdownbringingdown the rate of increase ofcases.“We were hopeful that we

could really bend the curveand not just flatten it in a fewmore days. But all of that hasnow changed. That is why it isso important that there are nomore slip-ups,” a senior officialsaid.

Use mask,says GovtCOVID-19 positive cases re-portedacrossthecountrysofar,

8.61% are in the 0-20 years agegroup, 41.88% in 21-40 years,32.82% in 41-60 years, and16.69%above60years.(According to the 2011 cen-

sus, about 40.71% of the popu-lation fall in the 0-19 years agegroup; about 31.93% in 20-39years; about 18.41% in 40-60years; and about 8.57% over 60years.)Currently, thereare58criti-

cal cases, mostly from Kerala,MadhyaPradeshandDelhi.The ICMRhasalso issuedan

advisoryfortheuseof rapidan-tibody tests in “areas reportingclusters (containment zone)and in largemigration gather-ings/evacueescentres”.There-sultsof theantibodytestcanei-therbeconfirmedusingRT-PCR-theDNA-basedtest-orthean-tibody test can be repeated af-ter10daysofhomequarantine.And, inthefirstsignthatthe

“all-patients-in-hospital”ruleisbeing relaxed, it said: “If symp-toms worsen, refer to desig-nated COVID-2019 hospitals.When home quarantine is notfeasible,considerfacility-basedquarantine”.In its late night advisory on

Friday,theHealthMinistrysaid:“It issuggestedthatsuchpeoplewho are not suffering frommedical conditions or havingbreathing difficulties may usethe handmade reusable facecover, particularly when theystepoutof theirhouse.Thiswillhelp in protecting the commu-nity at large. This face cover isnot recommended for eitherhealth workers or thosework-ing with or in contact withCOVID-19 patients or are pa-tients themselves as these cat-egoriesofpeoplearerequiredtowearspecifiedprotectivegear.”The government also said

AyushmanBharatbeneficiariescan opt for testing and treat-ment for COVID-19 free of costat private laboratories and em-panelledhospitals.“Testingandtreatment of COVID-19 is al-ready available for free in pub-lic facilities.Now,more than50crorecitizens,eligibleunderthehealth assurance scheme, willbe able to avail free testingthrough private labs and treat-ment for COVID-19 in empan-elled hospitals,” said theNational Health Authority,which implements AyushmanBharat.LavAgarwal, JointSecretary,

Health Ministry, clarified thattheministryhadnotchangeditsearlier position on the use ofmasks.“The earlier guidelines re-

main;medical masks are to beused when someone is sick,when caring for an ill person;the new guidelines are forhomemade face or mouthcover, notmasks per se. This isawayof increasingpersonalhy-giene.Theseareclothcoveringsthatcanbeusedindenselypop-ulated areas when going out. abarrier approach. that is notmeant forhealthworkers.Also,these should not be shared. Ifthere are four people in a fam-ily, they should have their ownindividual ones, ideally twoeachsothattheycanbewashedandused,”he said.In the US, the CDC issued a

similarrecommendation.“CDCis additionally advising the useofsimpleclothfacecoveringstoslowthespreadof thevirusandhelp peoplewhomay have thevirus and do not know it fromtransmitting it to others. Clothface coverings fashioned fromhousehold items or made athome from commonmaterialsat lowcostcanbeusedasanad-ditional,voluntarypublichealthmeasure,” it said.TheWHOsaidwhile it sup-

ports such calls, based on thelevel of transmission and re-sources available in a country,there is “clear evidence thatwearingamaskinpublicplacesdoesnotprotect you.”WHOExecutive Director Dr

MikeRyanalsoemphasisedthatsurgical and medical maskssuchasN95,FFP2andFFP3res-piratorsareforthemedicalsys-temandmustbeprioritised forusebyfrontlinehealthworkers.Meanwhile, with 11,182

samplesbeingtested in the last24 hours, 79,950 samples havebeen tested across the countryso far. The ICMRsaid 3,113pos-itivecaseshadbeendetectedtillnow.The government has de-

cidedtocovertestingandtreat-ment for COVID-19 under itsAyushman Bharat PradhanMantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).While it is already freeinpublicfacilities,thosecoveredby the scheme can now availfree testing in private labs andtreatment in empanelled hos-pitals.OnSaturday,PrimeMinister

NarendraModi chaired a jointmeeting of the 11 empoweredgroups on COVID-19. “PM. re-viewedcountrywideprepared-ness regarding availability ofhospitals, proper isolation andquarantine facilities as well asdiseasesurveillance,testingandcritical care training,” the PMOhandle tweeted.He directed the “concerned

groups and officials to ensuresufficient production, procure-ment and availability of all es-sentialmedicalequipmentsuchasPPEs,masks,glovesandven-tilators,” it said.Modi is also scheduled to

hold a video conference withfloor leaders of political partiesonApril 8.

VaranasistationIt has been 13 days, so by

nowthere is a “system”.“My husband’s clothes got

stolen.Wehad left themtodry.Wewere not carrying somanyclothes with us here,” saysYogita Adkine from Nanded,Maharashtra, who had arrivedin Varanasi with her two chil-dren, husband andmother-in-lawtoimmersetheashesofherfather in law in theGanga.Amid all this the threat of

COVID-19 looms.Multiple times every day,

the station officials sanitise thewaitinghallandthebathrooms.Officials have enforced amini-mumdistancebetweenpeople.Everybody has been given twofacemasks.“I have my wife, aged par-

entsandchildrenathome.Theykeep asking every day when Iwill come home. I tell them tonotworry.Thegovernmenthastaken good care of us. Policecome every day to ask howwearedoing,”saysNarendraSinghBhakre,anadvocatefromUjjainwhohadvisitedVaranasi “for aday’s work”. Like millions ofothers,he, too,had thought theJanataCurfewwasaone-dayaf-fair. So he stayed put in a hotelonSundayandevenstoodatthewindowat5pm.“Very quickly, all transport

optionsvanishedforme. It isaf-ter all some 20-24 hours jour-neyfromheretoUjjain,”hesays.The civil administration in

Varanasi has standing instruc-tions in place for taking care ofthe stranded. “Food packet isdistributed every day. The lawenforcement officials check onthem. People of the city alsocontributewith packs of food,”says Kaushal Raj Sharma,DistrictMagistrateof Varanasi.It’s a diverse group that

speaks a diverse set of lan-guages. Station staff say it’s thesame set of questions, asked indifferent languages: Will thelockdownendonApril14?Willtrains come to takeushome?

Won’t spare:Uddhavand communal hatred. If any-

body circulates fake news orvideoswith inflammatorycon-tent such as notes beingsmeared with saliva, law willcatch upwith them. They willnotbespared.Don’tdothisevenfor fun,”Uddhav saidwhile ad-dressing the state through so-cialmedia.Maharashtra has so far

recorded635casesofCOVID-19,of which at least seven havebeen traced back to a TablighiJamaat gathering atNizamuddin in Delhi in mid-March. The state has alsorecorded 32 deaths from coro-navirus.“We have the support and

blessings of all the people, in-cluding all religions and politi-calparties...So, Iwon’tallowanyattempt to divide our unity inthe fight against coronavirus,”theCMsaid,addingthathewasintouch inwithPrimeMinisterNarendraModi, Congresspres-ident Sonia Gandhi and NCPchief SharadPawar.Saying that the liftingof the

21-day lockdown would de-pendonhowwell people com-plied with government direc-tives, Uddhav said, “Thelockdownwill end on April 14and what is to be done after-wards depends on the peopleand how strictly they followgovernmentdirectives.”During a recent video con-

ference with CMs, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadsaid that states should lift thelockdown inphases.TheCMalsosaidnopermis-

sion would be given for publicevents in the state. “Till furthernotice, no permission will begiven for cultural, religious andsportingevents in the state. Bigfestivals such as Gudhi Padwa,Ram Navami have been cele-brated insidehouses. Similarly,people from other religionsshould also celebrate their fes-tivals indoors.”Uddhavsaidthatduringthe

video conferencewith the PM,some CMs had expressed fearsofa“Delhi-likeevent”(thegath-ering at Nizamuddin Markaz)happeningelsewhere.“The permission for a simi-

lar event was denied inMaharashtra. Thenamesof thepeoplewhoattended theDelhievent is being shared with usdailyby theCentre andall havebeen traced. They have beenisolatedandquarantinedingov-ernment facilities. Peopleshouldcomeforwardtoinformus if anyone has been left out,”headded.Uddhavalsoadvisedpeople

to go only to dedicated COVID-19 hospitals if they showsymptoms of fever, cold orpneumonia.

Modi,TrumpOn Saturday, Modi also

spoke to Brazil’s President JairMessias Bolsonaro and Spain’sPM Pedro Sanchez Perez-Castejon.Modi and Bolsonaro

stressed upon the significanceof close cooperation betweenthe two countries, bilaterallyand in themultilateral institu-tional framework, to mitigatethe grave crises caused byCOVID-19. They agreed on theneed to forge a new human-centricconceptofglobalisationfor thepost-COVIDworld.With Spain’s PM, the two

leaders agreed on the impor-tanceof international coopera-tion for fighting the globalhealth crisis.“TheSpanishPrimeMinister

agreed with Prime Minister’sobservation that the worldneededtodefineanew,human-centricconceptofglobalisationfor the post-COVID era,” thestatement said.

FULLREPORTONwww.indianexpress.com

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Understanding India’smigrantsNEWEPISODEEVERYDAYOntheSandipRoyShowpodcast, authorChinmayTumbetalksaboutmigrantworkersandwhytheyareoftennotconsideredduringpolicymaking

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EXPRESSNEWSSERVICENEWDELHI, APRIL4

UNIONMINISTERforConsumerAffairs, Food and PublicDistributionRamVilas Paswanon Saturday appreciated therole of Food Corporation ofIndia (FCI)employees inensur-ing supply of wheat and ricethroughout the country amidthe lockdown. He also urgedstategovernmentstoensuretheprompt supplyof foodgrains tobeneficiariesunderthePradhanMantri Garib Kalyan AnnaYojanaInaseriesof tweets,Paswan

said,“All theStateGovernmentsare urged to ensure lifting anddistribution of their quota of 5kg foodgrains/beneficiary un-der the Pradhan Mantri GaribKalyan Anna Yojana for thismonth as soon as possible sothat all beneficiaries get food-grains on time.”“ThankstoallFCIemployees

including depot level and re-gional level officers and 80thousand labourers who areworking day and night to en-sure the supply of foodgrainsthroughout the country anddue to their hard work food-grains are reaching to 81 crorebeneficiaries,” Paswansaid inaseparate tweet.Meanwhile, Paswan’s son

and president of Lok JanshaktiParty Chirag Paswan has ap-pealedtopeople tosupport thePrimeMinister’s call for light-ingcandlesor lampsat9pmonApril5 toshowsolidarity in thefight against COVID-19.

RamVilasPaswan

Paswan laudsFCI employeesfor ensuringsupply amidlockdown

ADILAKHZERSRINAGAR,APRIL4

FOURHIZBULMujahideenmili-tantswerekilledinanencounterinJammuandKashmir’sKulgamdistrictonSaturdaymorning.J&KPolicesaidthemilitantswerebe-hindrecentkillingsofciviliansinsouthKashmir.Joint forces launched a cor-

don-and-search in HardmandGuriinManzgamareaofKulgamdistrict after receiving inputsabout the presence of militantsinthearea,policesaid.Duringtheoperation,militants firedon thesecurityforces,triggeringtheen-counter around 5.45 am, policesaid.Fourmilitantswerekilledand

weaponsrecoveredfromthesite,said Srinagar-based DefenseSpokespersonColRajeshKalia.Apolicestatement issuedon

Saturday night identified theslainmilitants as Shahid SadiqMalik, a resident of Kulgam,MohdAshrafMalikaliasSadam,a resident of Anantnag, andWaqar Farooq, a resident ofHananChawalgam.Theidentityof the fourthmilitant isyet tobeascertained.

4 militantskilled, had rolein civiliankillings: J&KPolice

3THESUNDAYEXPRESS,APRIL5,2020

THEOUTBREAK Mumbai

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EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI,APRIL4

WITH ASIA's largest slum,Dharavi,recordingitsfourthpos-itive coronavirus case Saturday,the Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) is startingscreening clinics in containmentzonesanddenselypopulatedar-easinMumbai,with10suchfacil-itiesbeginningoperationsSunday.The move follows a rise in

cases inhotspot areas, especiallynearslumpockets.Andisthelat-eststepintheBMC'spushback--fromconducting themostnum-beroftestsinanycity(over9,500)to rampingup isolation-bed ca-pacityto2,689andquarantineto1,119.WithMumbai recording330

positive cases nearly twoweeksinto the national lockdown, theCorporation has deployed 200teamswith over 3,100 staff fordoor-to-doortracking.This push is significant be-

cause any turnaround in the citywillbekeytowhateverexitstrat-egythatMaharashtraislookingatafterthe21-daylockdownperiod.The state has conducted 12,859testssofar,with635positivecases.Withthecountry’sbiggestand

busiest international airport,Mumbai’s first cases showeduponMarch11—anelderly couplefromDubai.BMCofficialssaidthatsince then, 7,000 people havebeen put in home quarantine,

with2,133havingcompletedtheir14-dayisolationperiod.With over 200 designated

containment zones, anddensely

packed areas likeWorli,Malad,ChemburandGhatkoparseeingarise in cases, each of the BMC'snewscreeningclinicswill haveadoctorandnursewhowillcollectswab samples to be sent to SionHospitalfortesting.Officials said threemunicipal

zoneswill have twoclinics each,with one each in the remainingfourzones.“Since zones 2, 4 and 5have

more than15 cases of COVID-19each,itwasdecidedtosetuponeadditional screening clinic there.Themedical officer of thehealthdepartmentineachwardwillor-ganiseadoctorandanursefortheclinicwhileotherlogisticslikePPEforstaffwillbearrangedbyassis-tantcommissionersofeachward.Thecollectionofswabswillbefa-

cilitated by Dr Sujata Baveja ofSion hospital andher team. Thetest sampleswill be transportedbymunicipalvehiclestohospital,”aBMCofficialsaid.Officialssaidtheseclinicswill

beoperationalfrom9amto1pm,andhealthofficers in chargewillensure that social distancingnormsarefollowed.Five hospitals, meanwhile,

havebeendedicatedforsympto-matic patients: Kasturba, Saifee,St George, Seven Hills andNanawati. And seven others fornon-symptomaticpositivecases.Officialdatashows28percentoc-cupancy in isolation and 18 percentinquarantinebeds.Referringtothebedsavailable,

aBMCofficialsaid:“Thiswillhelpinefficienthandlingofelderlypa-

tientswithco-morbiditywhoarepositive for coronavirus and ad-mittedinthefivededicatedhospi-tals.”Then, there are thenumbers

thattellthestory:■2.7 lakh international trav-

ellersscreenedtillMarch22.■9lakhpeopleinformed,ed-

ucated and screened across 2.4lakhhomes.

■Helpline logged4,239 callstill April 3, and 230 suspectedcaseshavebeenadvisedtests.OthermeasuresincludeCCTV

cameras in containment zones,home-testingbyfourprivatelabsbasedonprescription,requisitionof empty spaces to quarantinecontactsofpositivecases,andtie-upswithfooddeliveryAppstode-livergroceriesamidthelockdown.

ABHAGORADIAMUMBAI,APRIL4

A COUPLE of days ago, a teary-eyedVaishali,astudentofclassVIat Maharashtra AikyavardhakMandal inTilakNagar, calledherschoolteacherSangitaPatil.Amid the lockdown,Vaishali,

whose parents are constructionworkers, has been livingout of ahalf-builtconstructionsiteinTilakNagar. “She broke downon thephone, and saidher father beatsher mother, and there wasnowhere to go. The boredomofstayingputwasconstant. I askedher to refer to a section ofmathproblems and focus on Englishspellings.“‘Prepare as though you still

haveexams’, Itoldher,”saidPatil.Asmore andmore stories of

migrants struggling to fend forthemselves emerge, educationhas takenabackseat for childrenwho are a part of these groups.Here,thestruggleforsurvivalhasovertaken other aspects ofgrowth,with education comingtobe considered aprivilege. Thedigital divide has grownwider,with many private schools,switchingtoonlineclassesaswellasexams.There are66,033 schools un-

derthestateschooleducationde-partment, run by zilla parishad

and local independent bodies.With schools being shut, the ac-cess to virtual classrooms andotherfacilitieshasbeencutforallits students. As of September2019, 2,71,892 students study atBMCschools,most ofwhomarefrom underprivileged back-grounds.Out of nearly 200 students

who study at MaharashtraAikyavardhakMandal in TilakNagar, only about2per cent stu-dentswouldhavelaptopsorcom-puters at their homes, said Patil.“Theparentsofmanychildrenareragpickers, or involved in similarjobs.Attheirhomes,onefindsfourto five vessels and few clothes.Mostofthemeatonlyonceaday.Atpresent,manyhaveleftfortheirvillages,”sheadded.

ClassVstudentSiddhiRajguru,who lives in PanchasheelNagar,doesn't have anyaccess to a cell-phone or a laptop. Her fatherSatish Rajguru, who works ashousekeepingstaff,said,“Theonlyway to keep her engaged isthroughbooks, by repeating thesamechapters.Other children inourareaareonlyplaying,asmostdon't have access to educationalresourcesontheInternet.”While it is yet to be an-

nounced, education experts andofficials from the departmenthave said they believe that thelockdown on schoolswill con-tinuetillMayend.Co-founderofNGOPratham,

FaridaLambay.said,“Ourexperi-enceofworkinginruralareashasshown that only one person inmost houses owns a smartphone, usually it being themalemember. The digital divide is ahardrealityamongthepoor,whoaremosthit.Aftereverysuchdis-aster,thereisaproblemofschooldropouts andhuge learning lossamongthem.”Lambay suggested that the

state government should targetschoolchildrenthroughreliefma-terial that is beingdistributedbythestate.“Quizzes,puzzles,ques-tionnaires canbeways inwhichthis canbedone.Usageof televi-sion and radio can also prove ahelpfultoolatsuchtimes.”

When contacted, SchoolEducationCommissionerVishalSolankisaidthatthestateschooleducation department will berollingout aprogrammeforun-derprivileged children onMonday. The department haspartneredwithNGOLeadershipForEquityandUNICEFtodevelopcontent for state's own onlineplatformcalledDiksha,aswellasfor radio and television. The ini-tiative will be launched byMinister Varsha GaikwadthroughFacebookLiveandothermediums.Academicadvisortothestate,

Madhukar Banuri, said: “Whileprivate schools havedevisedon-linemechanismsforstudents,wehave been figuring outways tohelp underprivileged children.”Diksha, an already existingplat-form of the state, has been up-datedwithover 8,000-plus con-tent pieces. This canbeaccessedthrough the QR codes alreadypresentonthebackofeverystateboardtextbook.“Even in backward areas like

Amravati andMelghat,wehavefound60per centpenetrationofsmartphoneswithgoodnetwork.The intention is to involve stu-dentsinself-learningandconveythemessage that the state is do-ingeverythingitcantoensurethatstudents keep learning. Around30 to40per cent students in re-

mote pockets of the state stillstruggleforInternetconnectivity,butoncetheresourcesaredown-loaded, they canbe accessedof-fline,” Banuri said.He is also thefounder and CEO of NGOLeadershipwithEquity.Following suit of initiatives

started by other states,Maharashtra is also planning tolaunchprogrammesthroughtel-evision and radio, said officials.Nextweek, theprogrammeswillbebroadcastedontelevisionandradio for students who do nothaveaccesstoInternetorcomput-ers. ThestatehaspartneredwithUNICEFtoalsodevelopaplanforrespondingtoCOVID-19.“Sixweeksof academic time

hasalreadybeenlost.Wehavede-visedamixmethodinvolvingra-dio, TV and the Internet appDiksha,tobringeducationalcon-tenttoasmanychildrenaspossi-ble. Inphase1,weare lookingtillMayend.Existingcontentinvolv-ing simple games, episodes onparenting and others, will verysoonbebroadcast and telecast,”saidUNICEFeducation specialistReshmaAgarwal.UNICEF, alongwith the state

department, is also creating alearningmanagement systemwherein content developedacross all states canbe accessedby teachers and students, saidAgarwal.

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI,APRIL4

TWOMEN reportedly assaulteda 38-year-old woman and herfamilymembers, including herminorson,onbeingtoldtofollowtheprohibitoryordersandreturnhome, police said Saturday. Thetwomen,policesaid,werestand-ingnearthewoman’shouseatJaiBhim Nagar on Reay Road insouthMumbai,andtalkingwhenshe reportedly asked themtogobackhome.Thewoman,AnishaIdrisi,her

12-year-old sonand57-year-oldmother-in-lawsustainedinjuriesontheirface,neck,headintheat-tack,policesaid.Inherstatementto thepolice, Idrisi said, “Around3pm,thetwomen,ZuberAnsariandBabuChikna,were standingon the road opposite our houseandchatting.Iaskedthemtoobeytheprohibitoryordersofthelock-downandreturnhome.”According to police, the two

mancamecharging at the com-plainant and assaulted thewomanandherfamilymembers.Theyalsopeltedstonesatherres-idence, police said. “Thewomanand twoof her familymemberssustained injuries on their face,neck, head, back and hand.Ansari’s wife also went to thewoman'sresidenceandassaultedher later,” an officer fromSewripolicestationsaid.Acaseundersections324(vol-

untarily causinghurt bydanger-ousweaponsormeans),504(in-tentional insult with intent toprovokebreachofthepeace)and34 (acts doneby several personsinfurtheranceofcommoninten-tion)of theIPChasbeenlodged.Senior police inspector

GajananKurhadesaidpolicewerelookoutforthetwomen.

SANDEEPASHARMUMBAI, APRIL4

SANTOSHHINDE(45)hadbeenathisjobasasecuritypersonnelin a private firm on March 31when the BMC declared theWorliKoliwadaintheislandcityas a “containment zone” afterfour COVID-19 cases were de-tected in the locality.On Saturday, five days later,

thenumberof casesstoodat10,necessitating an extended pe-riodof containmentof the area.While authorities have advo-cated that residents stay insidetheirhomes, forHinde,theseal-ingmeans staying lockedout ofhisownhouse.While

Hinde’s jointfamilylivesin-side Koliwadanear theGolfadevitem-ple, he claims that he could notgethomeintimebeforetheseal-ing off exercisewas carried out.Thesoleearner,hesaidhisvoicecracking, “We had no time toprepare,mywhole family is in-side. Ihavebeen living inmyof-fice since then.Myfamily isdis-traught as they have littlesupplies inside.”For the last five days, Hinde

has been shuttling between hisoffice,wherehecurrently stays,and the barricaded entrance ofthe Koliwada to ferry essentialfor his family that isn’t permit-ted to leave the containmentzone.On Saturday, he and a col-

league fromhisoffice arrived ina two-wheeler loadedwith es-sentials.Thepolicepostedatthebarricades supervised as hehandeditovertoanotherfamilymemberontheothersideof thebarricade,ensuringthatprecau-tionarymeasures for COVID-19were adhered to. Hewould re-turnmomentslaterwithawhiteenvelope,presumablyfilledwithcash, which was also handedover toa familymember.Assistant Police Inspector

Sandeep Gavai, who is associ-atedwith the Dadar police andhas been posted here since thecontainmentmeasurewas an-

nounced,said:“We havebeen tellingpeople thatthis is not be-

ingdonetoinconveniencethem.We ensure that theymaintainsocial distancingwhilehandingover materials. Things havecalmed down a little now,” hesaid, adding that the first twodays, the police had to face a lotof resistance.RightbehindHindenear the

barricade is Harish Shukla, aDadarresident,whohascometodeliver foodgrains and vegeta-bles to his friend, Anil Nakhwa,whose family is stuck inside.While Nakhwa thanks Gavai ashereceivesthesuppliesfromhisfriend, Koliwada residents arenowlearningtograpplewiththesuddenrestrictions,andthecon-sequent shortages in essentialsupplies.TheWorliKoliwada,whichis

among the oldest fishermencolonies inMumbai, also falls inthe constituency of ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray’sson and EnvironmentMinisterAaditya Thackeray. In a videomessages issued following thecontainment, Aaditya assuredlocals that essential supplieswon’tbedisrupted.But Nitesh Patil, secretary,

WorliKoliwadaNakhwaSociety— a representative outfit of thelocalcommunity—complainedthat the supplies have been ir-

regular. “The local kirana storesare running out of stock. Therearenofreshsupplies. Iwantedtobuy medicines for my seven-month-old daughter, but thepharmacistssaid itwasn’tavail-able. We are cooperating withthe authorities, but they shouldunderstand our plight aswell,”hesaid.Gavai, however, argued that

thepoliceand thecivic authori-ties have been more than ac-commodating to the residents'needs. Two days ago, therewasan episode where some localshad breached the containmenttravelling toMahim by boat forprocuringessentials.On Saturday, the local Sena

unitdistributedessentialsinthelocality. Local corporator,HemangiWorlikar, whowas apartofthedrive,claimedthatthedistributionwas undertaken atAaditya’s insistence.“Thingsareimproving gradually. Suppliesare farbetternow,” shesaid.Seven km away, at another

containment zone, at an uppermiddle class locality inWadala,authorities on Saturday relaxedsomemeasures,arguingthattheresidents themselves had de-cidedtohonourtherestrictions.“Therewasonlyonepositive

case in one of the buildings,which has been sealed. The pa-tienthadself-quarantinedhim-selfafterreturningfromEurope.so the chances of a spread are alittle less, but the residents toldus they will see to it that theydon’t move out much,” said aBMC official posted outside thepremises.Residentshavecomeupwith

asystemofplacingordersonthephoneandgettingtheessentialsdelivered at the security gate.Bhavesh, 28, whoworks at thenearby Royal Chemists, said,“They call us to place orders formedicines,oneofourshopboysthendropsitoffatatableplacednear the security gate and theresidents collect it from there.Paymentisdoneeitheronlineoratthedropoffpoint.”AsCOVID-19 cases increase in Mumbai,BMChassealed241areasacrossthecity.Similarmeasuresareex-pected tobe takenelsewhere inthestateaswell.

SANDEEPASHARMUMBAI,APRIL4

TWODAYSafterahomelessmanwas founddeadoutside theCSTstation,theplansofthestategov-ernment to house and feed thehomeless inMumbai during thelockdown does not seem to beshowingthedesiredresults.According to a report com-

piledbytheBMC,Mumbai'sshel-ters for thehomeless have so farhousedonly 863people. The re-portwaslastupdatedonApril2.In the city, BMC is the nodal

agency formeeting the shelter,water, foodandmedical require-ment of the homeless and thestranded migrant labourers.While theofficial report claimedthat28,145migrantworkerswerestranded inMumbai amid thelockdown, it pegged the totalhomelessshelteredatjust863.“Mostof themdonotwantto

staythenight.Theycome,eat,andgo,”saidaseniordeputycollector,in charge of one such shelter.Whilehewasreferringtothelocalhomeless population, some ofwhom have been residing onMumbai'spavementsforgenera-tions,theauthoritieshaven'tsofarbeen able to even gather allstrandedmigrantworkers intothetemporaryshelters.Thereportclaimedthattheauthoritieshavesofarsuppliedwaterandrationto14,832 migrant workers andserved cooked food to another4,305, and the shelter require-mentremainedminimal.Sitaram Shelar, Director,

CentreforPromotingDemocracy--anorganisationworkingforthewelfare of the homeless inMumbai – complained that theshelters in the citywere ill-pre-pared to cope with the emer-gency, and lacked even basic

amenities.“The shelters just offer food

and accommodation. They lackother facilitiesandsupport func-tions.Thereisnomilkforchildren,some do not providewater forbathingorwashingclothes.Thereisno24x7medical facility iscaseof an emergency,” said Shelar,who is also a member of theHomeless Collective inMumbai,anoutfitoforganisationsworkingforthehomelessinthecity.However, Additional

Municipal CommissionerJayshreeBhoj,said:“Adoctorwillbe available at the camps roundtheclock.”Shearguedmostofthehomelesswanted to safeguardtheir turf on the road, andhencehadshownunwillingnesstoshifttothetemporaryshelters.ShesaidBMChasaskedpolicetointensifymeasurestoshiftthehomeless.But a 38-year-oldman, shel-

teredina facilityatBandra,com-plainedthatthefoodbeingservedtoowasnotuptothemark.Othersshelter residents complained ofovercrowding, crammed space,andlackof facilities.The report, meanwhile,

claimedthatthehighestnumberofmigrantworkerswerefoundedstranded in H-East municipalward,which covers areas on theeastern sideof Bandra,Khar, andSantacruz, followed byM-East,whichcoverspartsofMankhurdandGovandi.

Fourthcase inDharavi,BMCscreeningclinicsopentoday

Ramping beds to tests, BMCscripts COVID-19 fightback

MAXIMUMCITY,MAXIMUMTESTING

9,500+INMUMBAI■Karnataka:5,061

■Delhi:3,694

■TamilNadu:3,684

■Telangana:3,468

BMC stafferssealabuildingatWorlipolicecamp. PrashantNadkar

L CKDOWNLOG

Life inside containmentzones: Locals learn todeal with shortages, curbs

Woman, twoothers attackedfor urging twomen to followlockdown orders

LocalsatWorliKoliwadafaceadifficult timeferryingessentialgoods. Express

Migrantworkers fromJharkhandatashelter.Express

Entry toChunabhattiwassealedoff onSaturday.PrashantNadkar

Parents ofmanychildren are

ragpickers, or involved insimilar jobs. At theirhomes, one finds four tofive vessels and fewclothes.Most of themeatonly once aday.Atpresent,manyhave leftfor their villages”—SANGITAPATILSCHOOLTEACHER

As schools switch to online classes, studentsfrom weaker sections get cut off from learning

Uddhav’s homelessshelter plan fails totake off in Mumbai

NO ENTRY

4THEINDIANEXPRESS,SUNDAY,APRIL5,2020

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THEOUTBREAK Maharashtra

TABASSUMBARNAGARWALAMUMBAI, APRIL4

ANANALYSISof 423coronaviruspositive samples inMaharashtrahasshownthat4.6percentofthethosetestedingovernmentlabo-ratorieshavecomepositive,whileinprivatelaboratories,wheretest-ingcriteriaaremorerelaxed,only0.24percenthavetestedpositive.Therationalethat'testmoretode-tectmore',stateofficialssaid,thenmaynotentirelybetruefor Indiawhere cases are still notwide-spread. Currently,Maharashtrahas 50,000 quarantine beds,10,000 isolationbeds, and1,000ventilators for tackling coron-avirusburden.A state medical education

department’sreporton423pos-itive samples Saturday showedthat government laboratorieshad tested8,956high-riskcate-gory samples, of which it found414samples (4.6per cent)posi-tive. The government labs testonly four category of people —those with travel history andsymptoms, asymptomatic sen-ior citizens with travel historyand co-morbidities, healthworkersandpatientswithacuterespiratorydistress syndrome.Private laboratories are al-

lowed to test awider spectrumofpatients that includeall thosewhofallundertheabovecriteriaandpeopleadvisedsobydoctors.Datashowtheseprivatelabshadtested 3,896 people and foundnine (0.24 per cent) positivecases. “If therewas communitytransmission or the virus was

widespread,evenprivatelabora-tories would have shown ahigherrateofpositivecases.Thisshows our strategy to only testhigh-risk groups is on the righttrack,” said SanjayMukherjee,themedicaleducationsecretary.Archana Patil, additional di-

rector in Directorate of HealthServices, said the current gov-ernment criteria for testing areenough at this point. “Privatelabsmaybetestingpeople fromthe general population, hencetheir rate for positive cases arelow... We also don’t need to in-troduce rapid testing at thispoint. Rapid testing will onlyshow howmany people havedeveloped antibodies againstthevirus.Whatinterventionwillwe be able to providewith thatinformation?”Overall, in Maharashtra,

threeper cent of the total num-ber of people tested have beenfound positive for COVID-19.What worries health officials,however, is that 69 per cent ofpositive persons are asympto-matic and capable of transmit-ting the infection unknowinglyto others. Theremight bemorewho have beenmissed by thetestingnet.At least fivepercentof those

infected have died in the state,while twopercentremaincriti-cal. Maharashtra’s death rate ishigher than India’s average (2.5per cent), but in sync with theglobaldeathrate(5.17percent).The mortality rate is highest(66.6 per cent) for those agedabove80years, therateis27percent for those aged 71-80 yearsand keeps on decreasing for

youngerpopulation.Maharashtracontinuestore-

portthemaximumcasesinIndiawithMumbaicontributingto50percentof stateburden.Thenumberofnewcasesre-

mainserratic—from15casesonApril1to88casesonApril2and67newcasesonApril3.Stateof-ficialshaveattributedthis trendto a delay in confirming test re-sults from private labs by thegovernment.“Ifwekeepaback-log of private reports and con-firm them on a single day, theday’s tally goes up.We are notable to truly reflect howmanynew cases are getting detectedeachday,” a stateofficial said.To prepare for a steep spike

in COVID-19 cases, apart from10,000 isolation beds, the stategovernment plans tomake useof 1,096 hospitals empanelledunder the Mahatma JyotibaPhule JanArogyaYojana.Butof-ficials from the insurancescheme said the empanelledhospitalshaveshownhesitancein treating COVID-19 cases.“They do not have the requiredpersonal protective equipment.They have asked us to providethat,” said Dr Sudhakar Shinde,whoheads thescheme.Officials from thehealth de-

partment said the empanelledhospitals are being consideredas the last resort when govern-ment facilities run to its full ca-pacity. “Wewill make arrange-ments for PPE when required.Currently, there is adequatestock for healthworkers in iso-lation wards,” said an officialfrom Directorate of HealthServices. SANJANABHALERAO

MUMBAI,APRIL4

THENATIONALlockdownduetoCOVID-19has led to a change inthedietaryplansofanimalsintheMumbaiZoo, officials said.Mostcarnivoreswhowerefedastaplediet of redmeat have nowbeenforced tomake dowith chickendue to the shortage of buffalomeat inthecity.Varun and Soumya (a pair of

striped Hyenas), Drogone andPinto (a pair of leopards) andShakti and Karishma (a pair oftigers) have been forced to altertheir food choices owing to the21-day lockdown. All 6, alongwith four jackals in thecivic-runBycullazooarebeingfedchickenmeatasopposedtobuffalomeatsinceMarch25.The ten carnivores presently

housed in the Zoowould con-sume around 50 kg of chickenand buffalo meat every day.However, after the lockdown,transportation of livestock fromacross the country, especiallyUttarPradesh,Rajasthan,Gujarat,MadhyaPradeshstopped,result-ing in the shutting of Deonarabattoir aswell as the supply ofbuffalomeat.“Buffalomeat isnotavailable

since the slaughter house isclosed andwe are giving theseanimals chicken meat. In be-tweenwhentheslaughterhousewas open, wemanaged to getthree to fourdays’ supplyof buf-falomeat.Ifthiscontinuesfortoolong, itmighthavean impactontheir foodhabit as protein levelsvary in differentmeats,” saidDrKomal Raul, veterinary, Byculla

zoo.Sincethe lockdown, thezoohas been trying to get exportquality buffalomeat for the ani-mals.OnFriday,authoritiesman-aged to procuremeat for its tencarnivores.Star attractions- seven pen-

guins (Olive, Molt, Bubble,Donald, Daisy, Popeye andFlipper) at the zoo have contin-ued with their favourite food,sharp-smellingfish.Penguinseatfive tosixkgof fishdailyand thesupplyisstoredinablastfreezer,whichwas especially procuredforthepenguins.Toensureseamlessfoodsup-

ply, the zoo authorities boughttwoadditionaldeepfreezerseachwith a capacity of 500 litres tostoremeatandvegetablesfortheanimals. The zoo is also in talkswithacontractorwhohasfrozenbuffalomeatstockincoldstorageto beprovided to the zoo. Tigersare fed at least eight to ten kg ofmeat daily,while leopards con-sume three to four kg of meateveryday.Zoo director Sanjay Tripathi

said,“Wehaveenoughmeatsup-ply for thenext tendays at least,andwewon’trunoutof food.OnMarch25,wehadour firstmeatsupply. We are not procuringchickenmeat daily tominimisecontactandprocureinbulk.”After intervention by the

CentralZooAuthority,zooswereincludedunderessentialservices.Sanjay Gandhi National Park,whichhas20animals, includingtwonewleopardcubsincaptivity,isprocuring120kgoffrozenbuf-falomeat daily. Soon after thelockdown,animalsinthenationalpark were also dependent onchickenmeat.

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI,NAGPUR,PUNE,APRIL4

ENERGYMINISTER Nitin RautSaturday said residents shouldparticipate in Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s 'Diya Jalao'campaignand light a candlesorflash torch ormobile light for afewminutesSunday,butrefrainfrom switching off all houselights.Rautsaidswitchingoff lights

simultaneously could lead to amulti-state grid collapse andblackout in the state and eventhe entire country. He directedthe state power companies toensure that health and emer-gency services remain unaf-fected Sunday night when thePrime Minister has appealedpeople to switch off lights athomefora fewminutes.“If everyone switches off

lightatthesametime,itwillleadtoasuddendropindemand.Dueto thepresent situation, there isalready a demand-supplymis-match. Switching off lightsSundaymaydeteriorate the sit-

uation further and cause thestate and central grid to fail.Thereisaneedtoreconsiderthedecisionand I requestpeople tolightlampsandcandleswithoutswitching off electricity,” Rautsaid inavideomessage.ThePMonFridayurgedpeo-

ple to switch off lights at homeand light lamps, candles orswitchonmobilephonetorchesfor nine minutes at 9 pm onSunday to display the country's“collective resolve” to defeatcoronavirus.Raut toldTheSundayExpress

thatduetothenationwidelock-down, power demand inMaharashtra had come downfrom 23,000 mega watts to13,000MW. “Due to the lock-down,theindustrial loadiszero.The 13,000 MW is consumedlargely by the emergency serv-ices and residential areas. Ifeveryone switches off houselightstogether,thenthegridcanfail and power stations trip. Ifstates, likeMaharashtra, whichhaveahighpowerdemandsuf-fer grid failure, it will lead to amulti-state grid failure and fur-ther throw the entire country

intodarkness,”Raut said.It takes a minimum of 16

hours to restoreapower supplyifastationwitnessesfailure,Rautclaimed. “Itwould take awholeweektorestorenormalcyacrossthecountry.”“Myofficerssoundedmeout

sayingthatasuddendropofde-mand,causedbyasuchapowerswitchoff,does leadtotripping.This has been borne out by thefact that the PM convened anemergency meeting of powerministers of all the states aftermyvideowentviral.Heperson-

ally spoke to me during themeeting. The central govern-menthasnowissuedanotifica-tion in this regard abouthowtorestore power supply in theevent of tripping of power sup-ply,”hesaid.Raut saidUnionpowermin-

ister R K Singh also called himSaturday afternoon. “Singh saidthe Centre has takenmy objec-tion seriously andwas now di-recting states to ensure that allelectrical home appliances re-mainfunctionalduringthenine-minuteperiod.Theministersaidthey are issuing directives to allthe states in this regard,” Rautsaid.Rautsaidthestatewouldde-

pend on hydro-power plants totaketheloadwhenpeopleofthestate switch back their houselights. “We are going to arrangefor 2,845MWpower from ourhydro- electric power stationsenoughtomeettherequirementof the state during night. Allstateswillbedependingontheirhydro-powertokeepthesupplyonafter thenineminuteswhenlights are switch off as hydro-electric power stations can be

immediatelyswitchedon,unlikethermalunitsthattake16hoursto restore,”Raut said.The MSLDC confirmed it

would rely onpower generatedfrom Koyna Hydroelectric sta-tion for gridmanagement andensuringsupplyofpowertothestate in case things get out ofhand. Officials claim itwill takeovertwohoursfortheentiresys-tem to stabilise in case of thenine-minuteshutdownandhasasked all its officials to be vigi-lant.Maharashtra State Load

Despatch Centre chief engineerAnil Kolap has stated that theswitchingoff lightswill leadtoasudden drop in demand of1,700-1,750MWthatwill causeanincreaseinsystemfrequencyduring thedrop indemand.TheBJP,meanwhile,hassaid

that the state has the expertiseand resources to handle theeventwithoutcausingproblemsto thegrid.“We have previously wit-

nessed incidents whereMaharashtra has seen a 2,500MWbackdownofpowerplants.Wehavetheexpertisetohandle

suchcases...Theconsumptionoflight bulbs is only10per cent ofthe total electricity demand.Shutting themoff for ninemin-utes will only lead to a backdownof1,200MWandoursys-temcanhandlethis,”formeren-ergyminister ChandrashekharBawankule said.Meanwhile, in a statement

Saturday evening, Raut said,“Who does what, who lightslamp and who switches it offdoesn'tbotherme,butitbothersmewhenthePMdoessoonlytohoodwinkthemassesonthe is-sue of coronavirus to hide hisfailure to address the issue...(The) power sector was incur-ringhuge lossesduetodecreas-ingdemandsinindustrialsectorwhich had caused anxietyamongallthestategovernmentsirrespectiveoftheirpoliticalaffil-iations. During suchgrimsitua-tion, askingpeople to switchoffthe lampswould definitely ag-gravate the sufferings of powersector.”

WITH INPUTSFROMVIVEKDESHPANDE,NAGPUR,MANOJMORE, PUNE, AND ZEESHANSHAIKH,MUMBAI

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI, APRIL4

THEAURANGABADbenchoftheBombay High Court has askedthestategovernmenttorespondto a plea challenging a high-powered committee’s decisionto excludeprisoners booked foroffencesunderspeciallawsfrombeingconsideredfortemporaryreleasetodecongestprisonsdueto COVID-19 outbreak. A benchof justiceRGAvachat heard theplea filedby twoundertrials.The high-powered commit-

tee, constituted in the state fol-lowingtheSupremeCourtorderondecongestingprisons,hadlastweek decided that undertrialprisoners booked for offenceswithmaximumpunishmentupto seven years will be releasedon interim bail initially for 45days on furnishing personalbonds.Thecommittee,however,excluded those booked for seri-

ousoffencesunderspecial laws,including Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA),UnlawfulActivities(Prevention)Act, Maharashtra Control ofOrganised Crime Act (MCOCA)and Narcotics, Drugs andPsychotropicSubstancesAct.Theplea filed throughadvo-

cates Pradnya Talekar andMadhaviAyyappanclaimedthecommittee's directivewas con-trary totheSupremeCourt’sor-der. “The discretion given by SCwas to ensure that the commit-teeshall take intoconsiderationtherelevantparameters soas toensurethattherightcategoryorclass of prisoners are releasedrather thanmaking blanket ex-ceptionsbasedonirrelevantcri-teria,”thepleastated. Itclaimedthat the state’s review commit-tee forundertrials isyet tomeetandtakeanydecision.Thecourthasissuedanotice

to thestateandpostedthemat-ter forApril 8.

SADAFMODAKMUMBAI, APRIL4

EVENASthestateprisondepart-ment has begun releasing un-dertrial prisoners on bail to de-congest prisons, many of themare finding it difficult to reachhome due to the nationwidelockdown.A woman in her 20s, who

was released by the Bycullaprison in Mumbai on April 1,could not reach her family inPalghar district. A jailor of theprisongavehersheltertoherfora day in her house, hoping tomake arrangements the nextday at a state shelter home forwomen. Butwith entry to suchhomes currently restricted, an-other inmate,whowas also be-ing released, ultimately had tostepintotakethewomanhomewithher.“Thewomantoldusthatshe

stays at a railway station inPalghar districtwith her family,including her children. As shecould not reach there, a jailorkept her in her house for a day.Subsequently, we tried to takeher to a shelter home, but thatwas also seeming difficult.Another inmate, also inher20s,offered to take her home inGovandi,” saidMeenalKolatkar,

a social worker with Prayas, afield action project of TataInstitute of Social Sciences,which works with prisoners.Another socialworkerSaturdayvisitedthewomantoensureherwellbeing.So far, 2,910 undertrial pris-

oners, who face up to sevenyears imprisonment, havebeenreleased on bail across 37 pris-onsMaharashtrawiththemax-imum,429,releasedfromArthurRoad jail, followed by 284 fromThaneand279fromTalojainthecityafteranorderwasissuedbytheSupremeCourt lastmonth.The prison department has

asked jail authorities across thestate to ensure that appropriatearrangements should bemadefor the prisonerswhowere be-ing released on temporary bail.

“We have been calling familymembers of the prisoners andgivinge-passes to themandthepersons getting released to en-sure they are dropped home.Some are also being droppedhomewithhelpfromthepolice,”saidHarshadAhirrao,Thanejailsuperintendent.Other prison officials, how-

ever, said that due to lessman-power,ithasnotbeeneasytoen-sure each prisoner can bedroppedhome.Manyundertrialprisoners have walked homefrom the jails to their homes infaroffsuburbsofthecitywithnomeansof transportavailable.In Latur, the District Legal

Services Authority (DLSA) hassoughtassistancefromPrayastodroptheprisonershome,whichis being done since lastmonth.“Weareintouchwithofficialsofother districts, includingMumbai, and havemade themanoffer incase they requireanyassistance inmaking arrange-ments for prisoners being re-leased,” said Vijay Raghavan,projectordirector, TISS.Prayas has also reached out

through cash transfers and ra-tion distribution tomore than200 families of prisoners, whoare from the informal sector,who have faced a loss of liveli-hooddue to the lockdown.

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI,NAGPUR,APRIL4

THENUMBERof COVID-19 roseto 635with 32 deaths recordedin the state by Saturday.Maharashtra recorded145newcases,thehighestjumprecordedinaday till now.Across the state, six more

deathshavebeenreportedinthelast twodays.WhileMumbai on Saturday

reported99cases,22testedpos-itive in nearby districts ofMumbai, 12 in Pune, eight inLatur, two in Osmanabad andoneeachinNagpurandJalgaon.KEMhospital inMumbaihas

recorded four deaths in the lasttwodays.A70-year-oldman,whowas

admittedtothehospitalonApril3 with complaints of fever andbreathlessness, died withinhoursdue to respiratory failure.Doctorssaidhisnasalswablater

tested positive. A 67-year-oldman,whowasadmittedonApril2, died a day later. He also hadfever and breathlessness, andsufferedfromdiabetes.Hissam-ples testedpositiveonFriday.A53-year-oldman,whosuf-

fered from asthma, was admit-ted to KEM hospital on April 1.Hehadfever,breathlessness,andloosemotions.HetestedpositivethesamedayandsuccumbedtosevereacuterespiratorydistressonFriday.A 57-year-old electrician

fromMumbraalsodied.Hesuf-fered fromdiabetes and hyper-tension.DrHemantDeshmukh,dean

inKEMhospital,saidthreeofthepatientswerebrought inacriti-cal condition.“We immediately sent their

swabsfortesting.Withoutwait-ing for results, symptomatictreatment was started,” headded.At Nair hospital, a 43-year-

oldwomanwas admittedwithhighfever,cough,breathlessnessonApril2.Shealsosufferedfromischemicheart diseasediabetesand chronic lung disease. OnApril2,hersamplestestedposi-tiveforCOVID-19.Thenextafter-noon, she suffered acute respi-ratorydistressandpassedaway.In Amravati, a 45-year-old

man, admitted in the districthospital, died on Saturday. Hehad no foreign travel history,state officials said. He sufferedfromasthma thatworsenedhiscondition."A 45-year-oldmanwas ad-

mittedforthreedaysinaprivatehospital before being shifted tothe government hospital onThursday around 12.30 am. Hehad developed pneumonia andsuccumbedat9.30am.Hissam-ples were sent to Nagpur fortest,"saidAmravatiCivilSurgeonShyamsundarNikam."Wehave started to quaran-

tine people who had come in

contact with him, includingthoseintheprivatehospital,"headded.Meanwhile, two persons

tested positive in Mumbai'sDharavi–a30-year-oldwomanwho lived in the same societywhere a local resident had diedduetoCOVID-19,anda48-year-oldmanwho lives in the slumbutdidnotcomeincontactwiththe deceased. At Shivaji Park inthe city, a 60-year-old womanwith no foreign travel historytested positive. The BMC disin-fectedherbuildingandsealedit.All residentshavebeenaskedtoremainunderhomequarantine.Onepersontestedpositivein

Nagpur,takingthetotalnumberof infected people in the city to17.In order to contain clusters

wherecoronavirustransmissionhas been recorded,Mumbai in-creased its number of healthteams to 523, Pune to 423 andNagpur to210.

SRINATHRAOMUMBAI, APRIL4

BEED NATIVE and BJP MLCSuresh Dhas was booked onThursday for allegedlyviolatingthe lockdownandcrossingoverintoneighbouringAhmednagardistrict to protest the detentionofmigrantworkersbythepolice.Dhas, who lives in Beed's

Ashti town, is alleged to havedriventoKhedinAhmednagar'sKarjat taluka around 1 am onThursday despite Beed sealingits borders toall vehicles exceptthose transportinggoods.A senior police officer said

thatmigrantsugarcaneworkersfrom Ashti travelling to

Ahmednagar were stopped bythe police at Khed village in theweehoursofThursdayandpre-ventedfromproceedingfurther."When Dhas came to know

about the detention, he usedsome obscure routes, passingthoughinteriorvillages.toreachKhed. He participated in aprotestagainstthedetentionbe-fore returning to Ashti a fewhours later. It is not possible forus to seal all roads," the officeradded.ThepoliceinBeedonlylearnt

lateronThursdaythatDhashadcrossed the district border by-passing checkpoints and block-ades at several villages. An of-fence was registered at Ashtipolice station against Dhas un-

der the Disaster ManagementActandtheIndianPenalCodeforviolating orders issued by theBeed district collector and forcommittinganegligentactlikelytocausethespreadofCOVID-19.Throughout the country,

strandedmigrantworkers havebeenstrugglingtoreturntotheirhome ever since all means oftransport were suspended lastmonth to prevent the spread ofCOVID-19.Migrant workers have been

leftwithlittlechoicebuttowalklong distances or pay privatetransport companies to ferrythem home. In response, thestate police has stepped up itsscrutinyoftrucksandbusestrav-elling longdistances.

MONEY MATTERSCustomersqueueupoutsideabankatKalyan inThaneonSaturday.Deepak Joshi

Only 3% of those tested forcoronavirus found positiveRapidtestingnotneeded instateasofnow,sayofficials

Out on bail, undertrial prisonershave no means to reach home

Awoman,whowasreleasedfromBycullaprisononApril1, couldnotreachPalghar.Ajailorgavehershelterforadayandlateranother inmate,whowasalsobeingreleased,tookher in later BJP MLC booked for violating

lockdown, driving to Ahmednagar

TEMPORARYBAIL

Plea challenges decision toexclude undertrial prisonersbooked under special laws

635 TOTALPOSITIVECASESIN

MAHARASHTRANumberofdeaths 32*

Totalnumberofpeopledischarged 52

Numberofpatientscritical-

Numberofpeople tested14,352

Totalnumberquarantinedinhospitals today 708

Numberofnewcases 145(99inMumbai,12inPune,8 inLatur,1eachinNagpurandJalgaon,2inOsmanabad,22innearbydistrictsofMumbai)*Apart from32,onePhilippinesnational’sdeathwillbeassessedbydeathreviewcommitteeofBMC

State records highest jump in cases,sixmore die; 635 infected overall

Switching off lights may lead to multi-state grid collapse, blackout: Raut

NitinRaut

Withslaughterhousesshut, zoosstruggle toprocurebuffalomeat

Lockdown leads tochange in diet ofmany carnivores

RAVIKBHATTACHARYA&JOYPRAKASHDASNIJAMPUR,APRIL4

POLICEMENAND local guardsman the entry andexit points ofNijampur, a village130km fromKolkata. A log and woodenbenchesblockthebreadthof thethin road that snakes its waythrough the village. A bamboobridgeover theKansai tributary,theonlyotherwayout, hasbeensevered by residents ofGobindopuracrossthewaters.Ever sinceMarch31,when a

goldsmithbackfromMumbaiandhis father tested positive,Nijampur in Daspur 1 block ofWestMidnaporehasbeenunderquarantine. All its 250 familieshavebeenorderedindoors.Noonegetsin,noonegetsout.

Theonlypeoplevisiblearevillageresourcepersonsandanauxiliarynursemidwife(ANM)whomakeateamofnine.Wearingpersonalprotective equipment, theyhavebeengoingdoor-to-door,lookingfor anyone with symptoms ofCOVID-19.Theyouthandhisfather,who

testedpositive,areataninfectiousdiseaseshospitalinKolkatawhileothersinthefamily,andtheirrel-atives areunder isolation ingov-ernmenthospitals.While their shifting out did

bringawaveofreliefinNijampur,thathassincebeenovertakenbya fear of social ostracisation.BecausenoonewantstohaveanydealingwithNijampur,atleastnotnow.SuchisthefearofNijampurthatresidentsofadjoiningvillagestoo have locked themselves in.They callNijampur the villageofcoronavirus-that’sthereasonforthedismayhere. Constables andguardsmanning the roadheadwhere Nijampur ends andParbatipur begins say theyhavebeenworking in shifts 24x7 forthe last three days. “No one canenterorleaveNijampur.Thisistheorderwehavebeengiven. Therewere twocaseshere and thevil-lagehasbeenquarantined.Another teammakes rounds

of thevillage to ensure everyoneis at home all the time,” saysSambhunathPanda,the22-year-oldcivilguard.Thebamboobridgehasbeen

cordonedoffattheNijampur-end,and severed byGobindopur onthe other side. “Links to neigh-bouringvillageshavebeencutoff.

You can see the bamboobridge.My family too is scared that I dodutyhere.Butdutyisduty,”Pandasays.Noonestirsout.Thetempleis

empty and the local quack’schamber is shut. From behindwindows, faces emerge. A littlelater,peoplestandatthedoors.“Our entire village is cut off.

We cannotmoveout. Police andpeople of neighbouring villageschaseus.Weheardthat thestategovernmentisgiving5kgriceandflour, free,toeachfamilyfromra-tion shops. The ration shop is inGobindopurandwecannotleavethis village. Panchayatmemberssaidtheywouldgetusthefreera-tion,but thathasnothappened,”saysMithuPramanik.Amotheroftwo, she is very upset thatGobindopur chose to sever thebamboobridgeatitsend.HerhusbandDilipPramanik,

whodrivesaToto,ane-rickshaw,sayshesneakedouttogettoagro-cerinParbatipur.“Thepolicemenandresidentsofthevillagechasedme.Theysaidtheywillnotletmeenter their village. I had to runback home.Weneed groceries,we have run out of essentials.There’snocookingoil left.”OtherslikeManikPramanik,a

farmerwho is also the secretaryof theUnnayanCommittee (vil-lagedevelopmentcommittee),tryto help people in the village bysharingwhattheyhave.“I have two cowswhich give

7-8 litres ofmilk daily. I share itwith others in the village. Thereare vegetables in our fields, butmosthouseholdshaverunoutofrice, flour andpotatoes.Wealsoneedmedicines,”hesays.QuarantinemeansNijampur

cannot take its produce to themarket.Most farmers growveg-etablesinsmallplots,andhavetoensurethese

perishablegoodssellearly.“Ihaveadailyyieldofcucum-

bers.IhavebeencallingtradersinTimohinimarket,justaboutakilo-metreaway.Theysaytheywillnotacceptvegetablesfromourvillage.Myproduce lies in the field andwill soonrot.Evenif thisquaran-tineends,thestigmawillremain.Whowill buy our vegetables,”saysAjitPramanik.Families in the village have

told their sons, who works asgoldsmiths or flowerdecoratorsinthebigcitiesofMumbai,Delhi,HyderabadandAhmedabad, not to return

evenafterthelockdownends.On Friday, 27-year-old Sisir

Majhi, sufferingfromkidneyfail-ure,wasunabletoreachthetownofGhatal fordialysis. “Mycondi-tionisnotgood.Everyweek,Ihaveto undergodialysis twice. In themorning,Igotacallfromthehos-pital in Ghatal. The person saidsince the virus is now inour vil-lage,thedialysiswillnothappen.”When The Sunday Express

contactedhealthofficials,anam-bulance arrivedSaturday to takeMajhi to the hospital in Ghatalwherethedialysiswasdone.Theteamofhealthworkerson

thegroundhaveaHerculeantaskonhand.Theyaregoingdoor-to-doordaily.SheikhLatifuddin,oneof the village resource persons,says: “In eachhousehold,wearechecking foranykindof ailment,especiallyfever,coughorrespira-tory problemswhich are symp-toms of COVID 19. This is beingdone every day.We are a nine-member team now. I have re-questedfortwomorepersons.”MamoniJanaGhorui(30),the

secondaryANMwhoridesacycletodo thedaily rounds, says, “Weknoweachfamilyhere.Soeveniftheyhide any symptom,wewillfindout. If theyhaveotherhealthproblems,we try to help them.Wehavealsodistributedhandbillson precautions that need to betakenagainstCOVID-19.”KamalKrishnaSamanta,prad-

han of Nandanpur 1 grampan-chayatwhichincludesNijampur,says, “Twopersons have testedpositive.Weareawarethatrationand groceries are yet to reachNijampur.WewillsoongetrationfromtheshopatGobindopurandtransport it to thevillage. Earlier,therewasaproblembecausepeo-ple inGobindopurprotested.Butithasbeenresolved...Wearetak-ingallcarepossible.”

PolicemenandvillagersatNijampurvillage inWestMidnaporedistrict. ParthaPaul

5THESUNDAYEXPRESS,APRIL5,2020

THEOUTBREAK Nation

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

LIZMATHEWNEWDELHI, APRIL4

IN THEmiddle of a nationwidelockdown,BJPelectedrepresen-tatives and senior leaders, whootherwise criss-cross states onorganisationalwork,arecoordi-natingcommunitykitchensanddistributionofrationtothepoor,andmonitoring the pandemicover telephone and throughconference calls and video-conferencing.Soon after Prime Minister

NarendraModi announced theJanata CurfewonMarch 22, BJPpresident J PNaddaandgeneralsecretary (organisation) B LSantosh decided to shape andguidetheparty’scourseofaction—at least foramonth.Days later, each BJP office-

bearerandMPmakesanaverage80-90 phone calls each day, at-tend at least four video confer-encesandspends10-12hoursin

coordinating various activities,party leaders told The IndianExpress.BJP general secretary P

Muralidhar Rao told The IndianExpressthatallworkofdistribut-ingfoodisdonewhilemaintain-ing social distancing. “Therecouldbesomeminoraberrationstolockdown,butnocompromiseonsocialdistancing,”hesaid.While Rao is coordinating

party’s community activities inthesouthernstates,especiallyinTamil Nadu and Karnataka, fel-low BJP general-secretary AnilJainkeepstrackoftheseactivitiesinHaryanaandChhattisgarh.ForJain, the day starts early withyoga andpuja, followedby tele-phonecallsandvideo-conferenc-ingwithstateministersanddis-trictin-charges.“Wecollectdailyreportsfromthemandsubmititto the central office. There is ameeting of general-secretarieswithNadda-jiat7pmeverydayonSkype,”hesaid.

Withinstructionstolauncha‘maskmovement’, Jain has out-sourcedmaking of thesemaskstoanNGOrunbyhiswife - theyget clean old clothes, disinfectthem and stitchmasks. Being adoctor, he says suchmasks arenotfoolproofbutthey“alsohelp”.InBihar,whereAssemblypolls

are due later this year, state BJPchief Sanjay Jaiswal is busywithcommunityactivitiessuchascre-atingahelplinenumberforwork-ers employedoutside Bihar andreturning during after the lock-down. “Thehelplinehas alreadyhelpedaround4,200peopleinthelast fivedays.We reachhelp andfollowuponeachcall,”hesaid.Jaiswal, a heart surgeon, and

his gynecologist-wife pack foodfor at least 100 people each dayanddistribute it at the local gov-ernmenthospital.Theyhavealsobroughttogetheragroupofdoc-tors fromprivate hospitals for a24-hour medical service cell.Jaiswalsaidhetreatsatleast8-10

patientsadayduringthebreak.In Bhubaneswar, BJP vice-

presidentBaijayantPandasaidheworks 12-14 hours a day, as hecoordinates party activities inJharkhand.“Iholdvideo-confer-eningeverydaywithUnionmin-istersDharmendraPradhanand

PratapChandra Sarangi; the BJPstate president and core groupmemberstotakestockof theac-tivities...”Besidesrunningcommunity

kitchen for at least 650 peopleanddistributingdryrations,BJPMP from Ayodhya Lallu Singh

ensures that 20 kg gram is pro-vided to monkeys at differentplaces in Ayodhya. His niecemakes home-made hand sani-tiserusingspirit,aloevera,neemleaves and camphor, and partyworkersdistributethemamongvillagers.Singh’sdaystartswithapujaandhewatchesRamayanonTVwithfamilymembersbe-foremeetingpeopleat11am.The leaders said despite the

lockdownandthestay-at-homepolicy, they hardly get time topursueanyhobby.“Iusuallyfin-ishabookeveryweek,but I justcouldfinishwhatIwasreading-10% Less Democracy: Why YouShould Trust Elites a Little Moreand the Masses a Little Less(GarettJones)—becausethereissomuchtodo,”Pandasaid.Jain has started Sixteen

StormyDays:TheStoryoftheFirstAmendmentoftheConstitutionofIndiabyTripurdamanSingh.

FULLREPORTONwww.indianexpress.com

LOCALISED, QUIETER ORGANISATIONAL ACTIVITIES

LokSabhaMP andBihar’sBJP stateunitchief Sanjay Jaiswaldoingechocardiographyof apatient.

Under lockdown, BJP leaders focus on community kitchens, reaching rations

MANOJCGNEWDELHI, APRIL4

RAJYASABHAMPandCongressleader Abhishek Singhvi hasturnedasingerduringthelock-down. He has sung some oldBollywood numbers and up-loaded themon his YouTubechannel.Thesongsareforvari-ousmoods and are titled “ro-mance during corona”, “thetruth of life:which corona re-minds us of”, “camaraderiewithcoronaorchallengetoit?”,“ephemeralityof life...ofwhichcorona also reminds us”, and“the Sargam of life and thesoundofsilenceduringcorona”.Lok Sabha MP Manish

Tewariisfocusingonmonitor-

ing his constituency, writing,meditation, kung fu, readingthe lawonbio-weaponisationandpowersoftheInternationalCourt of Justice, and theRomeStatutes. He haswritten twopolicy briefs, four articles, fin-ishedJairamRamesh’sbookonV R Krishna Menon andWilliam Dalrymple’s TheAnarchy, and is now readingCrisisPointbyUSSenatorsTrentLottandTomDaschleandHeinG Kiessling’s Faith, Unity,Discipline:TheISIofPakistan.Lok Sabha MP Shashi

Tharoor isdevotingmore timetoexercising, spendingclose toanhour andahalf onkeepinghimselffit.HespendssixtoeighthoursonCOVID-related inter-ventionsforhisconstituency.

Reading to Bollywood songs:what Cong leaders are doing

Ministerbooked forfloutingnormsKolkata:UnionMinister ofState forWomen & ChildDevelopment DebasreeChaudhuriwas bookedonSaturdayforallegedlyflout-ingsocialdistancingnorms.An FIR was lodged afterRaiganjmunicipalitychair-man Sandip Biswas filed acomplaint against the LokSabhaMP.AccordingtotheFIR, Chaudhuri allegedlydistributed face masksalongwith other BJP partyworkers in Raiganj policestation area. Sources saidChaudhuri had travelledfrom Delhi to Kolkata onMarch23andhadbeenun-der home quarantine.However,sheviolatedquar-antinerulesonthenightofMarch 31,when she trav-elled from Kolkata toRaiganjwhereshestayedatherrentedaccommodation.OnThursday, she tookpartinan“awarenesscampaign”againstcoronavirusanddis-tributedmasks in Raiganj.Local politicians, includingRaiganj MLA MohitSengupta, filed complaintsagainstChaudhuriwiththeDistrictMagistrate and aninquiry was initiated.Chaudhuri allegedly pre-ventedhealthofficialsfromputtingupquarantine no-tice outside her house,sourcessaid.Denyingtheal-legations,Chaudhurisaid,“Ifthisnoticewasputupout-sidemyhouse,othersinthisflatwouldfacedifficulties.”

ENS

GITAMdonates toCMrelief fundNew Delhi: M Sri Bharat,President of the GandhiInstitute of Technologyand Management,donated Rs 25 lakh to theTelangana CM’s ReliefFund on Saturday. SriBharat met TelanganaministerKTRamaRaoandhandedoverthechequeinthepresenceofMedakMPKotha Prabhakar Reddy,GITAMHyderabad Pro V-C N Siva Prasad andresidentdirectorDVVSRVarma, according to astatement. ENS

CORONAWATCH

DebasreeChaudhuri

AVISHEKGDASTIDARNEWDELHI, APRIL4

WITHINAweekof receiving in-structionsfromthegovernmentabout“exploringthepossibility”of making ventilators, theRailways’ Rail Coach Factory(RCF)inKapurthalaonSaturdaycame outwith a prototype thathas an original design andwillcost a fraction of what regularventilators cost.The first such breakthrough

by a PSU, the prototype namedJeevanwillnowgofor final test-ing at the Indian Council ofMedicalResearch(ICMR)beforebeing put to production to aidthe country’s fight againstCOVID-19, theRailwayMinistrydecided Saturday. In-housemedicalprofessionalsofthepro-ductionunithavetestedtheunitandgiven it ago-ahead.“The cost will be under Rs

10,000withoutthecompressor.Overall, the cost will still be afractionofwhatregularventila-torsavailableinthemarketcost,”Ravinder Gupta, general man-

agerof theRCFandalsothechiefdesignerofthemachine,toldTheSundayExpress.Guptaisa1984-batchMechanical Engineeringofficeof theRailways.“It can be used as an emer-

gency ventilator. Production iseasy and can be done with lo-cally sourced components,” hesaid.Theheartof thedevice is the

compressed air container towork the Ambu bag with airwithout anymoving parts like

servo motor or piston or linkmechanism. “It is very silent.Anditisnotreverseengineering.This is an original design fromscratch,”hesaid.Behindthemachineisateam

of 10 railway engineers and agroup of medical professionals.The intellectual property rightsrelating to theventilatorbelongto theRCF.It has a microprocessor-

based controller and the circuithas been designed by the RCF

team.One of India’s premier pro-

ductionunitsthatmanufacturesthe German-design LinkeHoffman Busche coaches, RCFfirstlookedwithintosourcema-terials to startwith. So thebodyis taken fromacoach, the argonflowmeter is froma laserweld-ingmachine and the compres-sor is froman air cooler. “If youopenthebox, it’sacomplexma-chine, but all under Rs 10,000,”Guptasaid.The RCF needed to source

twoparts fromvendors inDelhiand Noida. It sourced the valvefromtheIndianarmof Japaneseengineering firm SMCCorporationbased inNoidaandtheContributionControllerfromAPaulbased inOkhla.Amid thelockdown,RCFused“emergencytransit” services to get the twocomponentsbyroadandtrain.Thedesignersandengineers

arepreparingthetechnicaldoc-uments forperusalof the ICMR.By next week, the prototypewill be sent there for testing asper instructions of the RailwayBoard.

ICMRTOTESTPROTOTYPE

Rly unit first PSU to make ventilator In quarantined Bengalvillage, fear of stigmaas big as that of corona

DEEPMUKHERJEEJAIPUR,APRIL4

THE FATHER of a newborn onSaturdayalleged thatdoctors atthe government hospital inRajasthan's Bharatpur districtturnedthemawayafterlearningthat they are Muslims and re-ferred thecase to Jaipur.IrfanKhan,34,saidhiswifede-

liveredintheambulanceonwaytoJaipur,butthenewborndiedeven

as the staff at Bharatpur's RBMJenanaHospital allegedlydrovethemawaya second timewhentheyreturnedintheambulance.Subhash Garg, Minister of

State forMedicalEducationandMLA from Bharatpur, deniedthat the familywas asked to goto Jaipur because they areMuslimsandsaidaninquiryhasbeenorderedintotheallegation.The Sunday Express reached

outtoDrRachnaNarayan,princi-pal of the medical college in

Bharatpurwhichhasjurisdictionoverthehospital,butsherefusedtocommentandsaidtheMedicalEducationDepartmentSecretaryis therightpersontocomment.MedicalEducationSecretary

Vaibhav Galriya said an inquiryhasbeenordered.Khan said that he suspects

thestaffattendingonherexpec-tantwifethoughttheywerecon-nected to theTablighi Jamaat.Vishvendra Singh,MLA from

Deeg-Kumher constituency in

Bharatpurandaminister,calledita “shameful” incident. In succes-sive tweets, Singh wrote:“PregnantMuslimWomanwasrefusedmedicalattention...&wastold togoto Jaipurgivenher reli-gion.... Shameful.... The (Tablighi)jamaatmost certainly has beenhazardous...however, it doesnotmeancitizensof Islamic faitharetreated theway apregnant ladywashandled...”

FULLREPORTONwww.indianexpress.com

ASTHASAXENANEWDELHI, APRIL4

A RETIRED Chief Justice ofChhattisgarh High Court andpresently amember of Lokpal,Ajay Kumar Tripathi, has beenadmitted to AIIMS trauma cen-tre after hewas tested positiveforCovid-19.JusticeTripathiwasadmitted

toAIIMSmainhospitalonFridaynightandwaslatershiftedtothe

traumacentre.A senior doctor from the

trauma centre said, “We aremonitoring his health condi-

tions.We are tracing his familymembers to understand thesource of transmission. He hadtested positive for COVID-19whenbrought to thehospital.”Twopatientsconfirmedwith

thevirushavesofarbeenadmit-ted toAIIMStraumacentre.The state IntegratedDisease

Surveillance Programme cell istracing Justice Tripathi's con-tacts. Sources said his familymembers have been quaran-tined in theirnative state.

Delivered in ambulance, newborn dies, fathersays hospital drove them off for being Muslim

TheprototypehasbeennamedJeevan.RCFKapurthala

Aseniordoctorsaidtheyaretracinghisfamilymemberstounderstandthesourceof transmission

Chhattisgarh HC ex-CJ tests positive,admitted in AIIMS trauma centre

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEBENGALURU,APRIL4

THEKARNATAKAgovernmentisconsideringaphasedwithdrawalofthelockdowninthestate,sen-iorministerSSureshKumarsaidonSaturday,followingameetingwith Chief Minister B SYediyurappaandBJP legislators.Speakingatabriefingonthe

COVID-19situation,Kumarsaid,“AfterApril 14,wewill examinethe situation and decide on re-moval of lockdown in stages.Some modalities on phasedmannerof relaxingof the situa-tionarebeingworkedoutatthestate level. At thenational level,a Central committee under(Defence Minister) RajnathSinghislookingatthesituation.”On Friday, Yediyurappa had

said that relaxation of the lock-downwould be subject to theextent to which people in thestate adhere to the norms overthenext10days.Meanwhile, Karnataka re-

porteditsfourthcoronavirus-re-lated death on Saturday, with a75-year-oldmansuccumbingtolung failurewithin a day of ad-

missiontoagovernment facilityinBagalkote.Health authorities are yet to

ascertainthesourceof the infec-tion, andare looking to see if theinfection occurred after hewasvisitedbyhissonfromBengaluru.“Hefellilltwodaysagoandwentto a local Ayurveda doctor andthen to two private hospitals.After doubts on Friday, hewassenttoadesignatedhospitalanddied in thenight.Hewasaheartpatient andhad a stent implant,high uncontrolled diabetes andhypertension.Whenhe came tothe hospital one lungwas dam-aged,”Kumarsaid.

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEJAIPUR,APRIL4

RAJASTHAN CHIEF MinisterAshok Gehlot has constitutedtwo task forces for suggestionsonwithdrawingthelockdownina phasedmanner and to bringthestatebackontrack.Ordersinthisregardwereis-

suedFriday.Gehlotformedthesetask forces after an appeal byPrimeMinister NarendraModiduring a video conferencewithChiefMinistersonThursday.Additional Chief Secretary,

Home, Rajeeva Swarup willheadthefirst taskforcethathas12 officers and experts. TheHome Department will be theadministrative department forthetaskforce.Gehlotformedthesecondtaskforceunderthechair-manshipofArvindMayaram,theChiefMinister'sEconomicAdvisorand Deputy Chairman of theRajasthanTransformationCouncil.ThePlanningDepartmentwillbetheadministrativedepartmentofthistaskforce.The first task forcewill give

suggestions on the lockdown,while the second task forcewillmake a strategy for improvingtheeconomy.

Gehlot forms taskforces to drawup lockdownexit strategy

Karnataka considersphased withdrawalof lockdown

CMBSYediyurappahadsaidrelaxationwouldbesubjectto theextentpeopleadheretonorms

MILINDGHATWAIBHOPAL,APRIL4

TWOMORE senior governmentofficials, including a PrincipalSecretary-level IASofficer, testedpositive for coronavirus onSaturday. Thismakes threepeo-pleoutoffourmembersofoneofthe special teams, formedby theMadhyaPradeshgovernment tofight the pandemic, have testedpositiveforthevirus.The special teamwas tasked

with looking after drugs, equip-ment and logistics to fight thepandemicinMP.AnIASofficerofthe 2011batch,whohadno for-eigntravelhistory,hadtestedpos-itive onThursday. A subsequenttest on theofficer onFriday con-firmedtheinfection.After the 2011-batch officer

testedpositive,morethanadozenIAS officers quarantined them-selves after giving their samplesfor tests. Samples of twoofficersreturnedpositiveonSaturday,in-cluding the Principal Secretary-levelofficer.Alltheseofficersinter-actedwithandattendedmeetingsaddressedbyChiefMinisterShivrajSinghChouhan,who isnowrely-ingmoreonvideoconferences.

Two more topofficers in MP’sCOVID spl teamstest positive

EXPRESSNETWORK6 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHE SUNDAY EXPRESS,APRIL5,2020

NOTICE INVITING e-TENDERNIT No.: RITES/RPO-LKO/JVUNL-JTPP/00018/P-7, Date: 04.04.2020The GM/P, RITES Limited, RPO-Lucknow on behalf of Jawaharpur Vidyut Utpadan NigamLtd. (JVUNL), Distt.:- Etah, UP (A 100% subsidiary of UPRVUNL) invites online percentagerate tenders on two packet system for the following work:-Name of work: Construction of Workshop Shed, POL Line, Administrative Building, StationBuilding, S&T Buildings, TXR Building, Rest Room and Staff Quarters etc. at Jawaharpur TPP,Singhpur Loya, Etah, Awagarh, Jalesar City, Shivala Tehu Stations and Proposed New BarhanStation on DFC Route (Package-7) in connection with construction of Railway Siding of 2 X 660MW Jawaharpur Thermal Power Project of JVUNL at Etah (UP)Estimated Cost: Rs 25.53 Crore, Earnest Money: Rs 25.53 Lac, Period of Completion: 15(Fifteen) Months, Last date of submission: 05.05.2020 at 15.30 Hrs.The bid forms and other details can be obtained from the websitehttps://etenders.gov.in/eprocure/app Addendum / Corrigendum, if any, shall be hosted onlineonly.

RITES LIMITED(A Govt. of India Enterprise)

REGIONAL PROJECT OFFICE, LUCKNOWCIN :- L74899DL1974GOI007227

GARGIVERMARAIPUR,APRIL4

CHHATTISGARH HEALTHSecretaryNiharikaBariksaysshehasn’t entered her house innearlyamonth.The49-year-oldIASofficerhasbeen living in theouthouse tominimise contactwith her aged parents andteenaged daughter. Every day,she steps out into the garden tointeractwithherdaughter,whostandsontheterrace.Over250kmaway,RaigadSP

Santosh Singh remains alone inthe front roomwhile at home.The toughest part, says the 37-year-old police officer, is whenhis infant son crawls towardshim,andhehas toshut thedooronhis face.Chhattisgarh, which went

into lockdownonMarch22twodays before the nationalmove,has reported nine cases so far.And, Barik and Singh are at theforefront of the state’s battle tocontainthecoronavirus.But likethousands of others like themacrossthecountry,fromgovern-mentofficialstomedicalprofes-sionals, they are struggling tocometotermswiththepersonalcost.“TheHealthMinisterandour

team had started preparing totackle the outbreak in January-end. Idecidedtomoveoutofmyhome in the second week ofMarch,beforethelockdownwasannounced. I can’t quarantine

myself. Imeetseveralpeople,in-cludingdoctors, and Ican’tmin-imise those interactions. Butsinceothermembersofmyfam-ilyareinagegroupsthataremoreat risk, I took this decision,” shesays.The 1997-batch officer, who

took charge as the state’s tophealth official in 2018, spendsmost of her day in the “warroom” created by the HealthDepartment, where she carriesher ownmeals. “I have sentmyentirestaffathomeonleave,andthere’s just one helpwho liveswithmyfamily.Shemanagesthehousehold since I can’t enter,”saysBarik.“I don’t let anyone elsewash

or clean forme. I leavemyuten-silsnearthedoor,whereI’vekept

asmalltable.Thehelpleavesfoodandwater there, which I carrywithme to theworkplace or tomyroom,”shesays.“Thehardestpartisnotbeing

able to interactwithmydaugh-ter. Shemight feel troubled, too,knowing that hermother is notaccessiblephysically.Thisisadif-ficultdecision, ittakesalotof re-solve. But unlikemany others, Ihave the privilege of isolatingmyself athome,”shesays.In Raigad, SP Singh says he

hasbeenfollowingsimilarnormstoprotecthiswife, twochildren,and aged in-laws who havemoved in to tide over the lock-down. “I have two young chil-dren,andtheyoungestisbarelyayear old. I have to go out on thestreets,meet people, andmight

alsohavetogonear thosepossi-bly infected,duetothenatureofmyjob.So,Ihaveisolatedmyselfanddon’t interactwithmy fam-ily, unless it is from a distance,”hesays.The 2011-batch IPS officer

says his children don’t under-standwhytheirfatherwon’tplaywith them, and often cry. “Myyoungest wants to come tomeand sometimes crawls towardsme. But I keepmydoor closed,”hesays.Singh says he’s at work for

more than 12 hours every day.“Mycookleavesthefoodoutsidethedoor...Iwashmyutensilsmy-self. Theonly time I seemychil-dren is while leaving for work,whentheystandnearthedoor. Ihope that when they grow up,theywillrememberthatIdidthisbecause I was a responsible fa-ther,”hesays.“Now, other officers have

similarly isolated themselves. Itis difficult, as everyonewants tobe able to relaxwith their fami-liesafterwork.Butthisisourwaytoensurethatthediseasedoesn’tcomehomewithus,”saysSingh.

AN EXPRESSSERIES

THEC RONAFIGHTERS

Price they pay to keep the virus away:Shutting out family, moving to outhouse

IASofficerNiharikaBarikhasbeenliving intheouthousetominimisecontactwithheragedparentsandteendaughter.

ONSATURDAY, states across thecountryreported107newCOVID-19casesandtwodeathslinkedtotheTablighiJamaatreligiouscon-gregation, held in Delhi’sNizamuddinarea.TAMILNADUThestaterecordedtwodeaths

and 73 new COVID-19 caseslinked to the religious congrega-tioninDelhi.OfthetwodeathsofCOVID-19patientsreportedinthestate, a 51-year-oldmandied inVillupurammedical college onSaturday morning. The statehealthdepartment said that thehusband and the son of the 53-year-old woman who died inMadurai were also part of theteamthattravelledtoDelhiforthecongregation. In the state, 422ofthetotal485casestestedpositivearedirectly linked to thecongre-gation.

UTTARAKHANDSixpersons linked toTablighi

JamaattestedpositiveonCOVID-19 infectiononSaturday.Amongthenewcases, fiveareinNainitaland one in Haridwar The totalnumber of COVID-19 positivecases recorded in the state so faris22.UttarakhandPolicesaid383people from the state had goneoutside to attend jamaats afterMarch1,and26ofthemhavenotreturned yet. The remainingmembershavebeenputineitherinstitutional or homequarantine.KERALAKerala on Saturday reported

11 fresh cases of COVID-19, ofwhomthreehadparticipated intheTablighiJamaateventinDelhi.Officialssaid157personsfromthestatehadattendedtheevent,andwith the freshcases, a totalof six

havetestedpositive.forthevirus.Thetotalnumberofpositivecasesinthestatetouched306.HealthMinister KK Shailaja

toldmedia that of Saturday’s 11newcases, fivehave a travel his-toryofDubaiandtwopersonsareprimary contacts of patientstestedpositive earlier. Adistrict-wise break up showed that sixnew cases are fromKasaragod,taking the total number of pa-tientsfromthatdistrictto137.HARYANAAfterPalwaldistrictwitnessed

a spikewith 13Tablighis testingpositive for coronavirus over thelast24hours,HealthMinisterAnilVijhasorderedmedicalexamina-tionof all theTablighiswhohaveenteredHaryana afterMarch 1.Palwal has registered themaxi-mum increase of COVID-19 pa-tientsinasingleday. Thestatehasidentified over 1,300 TablighisacrossHaryana, of whomover510hadattendedtheDelhicon-

gregation.Haryana’s total countofCOVID-19patientstouched70onSaturday.JAMMU&KASHMIRTen of 14 peoplewhowere

found positive for COVID-10 inKashmir on Saturday are con-nectedwith the Tablighi Jamaatcongregation.ThetotalnumberofCOVID-19

casesroseto92inJ&K.AspertheSaturday’smedia bulletin, thereare a total of 68 cases of coron-avirusinKashmir.KARNATAKATwofreshpositivecaseslinked

to the Tablighi event were re-ported in the state from theDakshinaKannadadistrict,takingthe total number of patientslinkedtotheDelhieventto16.A total of 16 fresh caseswere

reported in Karnataka onSaturdaytakingthetotalnumberof COVID19cases to144, includ-ingfourdeathsand11discharges.

--ENS

ABHISHEKANGADRANCHI, APRIL 4

FIVEPEOPLEhavebeenarrestedinJamshedpuroverthelast twodaysforallegedlypostingsocialmediamessages thatareoffen-sive, inflammatory messagesand flame religious hatred, thepolice said onSaturday.The messages were at-

tempts to spread rumours byciting the Tablighi Jamat con-gregationinNizamuddin,Delhi,inmid-March, thepolice said.Those arrested have been

identified as Rakesh Sahu,Baldev Singh, RamnarayanSingh,MumtazKhanandKhalidMajid.TheywerebookedunderIT Act and under IPC Sections188, 295(A) and120(B).Jamshedpur SSP Anoop

Birtharay said: “After reportsthat many people who at-tended the Nizamuddin con-gregation have tested positivefor coronavirus, some peopleareposting inflammatorymes-sagesandspreadingrumouronsocialmedia.Wehave arrestedfivepeople.Weare trackingso-cial media posts very closelyand will put all such personsinto jail.”Jharkhand Chief Secretary

SukhdevSinghsaidtheyareyettoascertainthenumberofpeo-plefromthestatewhoattendedtheNizamuddin congregation.

JAMSHEDPUR

Five held forspreading onlinerumour onTabligh event

107 new cases with Tablighi link, 2 deaths in TN

GOVERNMENT OF MAHARASHTRAPUBLIC WORKS DIVISION, NASHIK

E-TENDER NOTICE NO. 92 for 2019-20(RFQ_Consultancy) Corrigendum No. 1 (Ist Extention)

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7THESUNDAYEXPRESS,APRIL5,2020

ECONOMYWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

Crude WatchOIL SURGES OVER 13%New York: Crude futures surged for a second day on Friday, withboth US and Brent contracts posting their largest weeklypercentage gains on record due to hopes that a global deal to cutcrude supply worldwide will emerge early next week. REUTERS

AANCHALMAGAZINENEWDELHI,APRIL4

THE GOVERNMENT has retro-spectivelyextendedthevalidityof e-way bills under the Goodsand Services Tax (GST) regimethat would have expired be-tweenMarch20andApril 15 toApril30.Also, inamovethatwilleasetheworkingcapitalrequire-ments for businesses, the gov-ernmenthasdeferredtheimple-mentation of 10 per centrestriction on availing input taxcredit during February-August,whichwould then be cumula-tivelyadjusted inSeptember.Withhundreds of trucksget-

tingstrandedacrossthecountrysince March 15, when statesstarted to lock their bordersdownculminatingintoanational

lockdown announced by theCentre, The Indian Express re-ported on April 2 about trans-portersraisingconcernsoverpo-

tentialpenaltiesarisingfromex-pirede-waybills. Truckerswerehaving e-way bills for goods intransit or in godowns, which

were getting expired and couldnotberenewedonduedates.“... where an e-way bill has

beengeneratedunderrule138ofthe Central Goods and ServicesTax Rules, 2017and itsperiodofvalidityexpiresduringtheperiod20thdayofMarch, 2020 to15thdayofApril,2020,thevaliditype-riod of such e-way bill shall bedeemed to have been extendedtill the 30thday of April 2020,”theFinanceMinistrysaidinano-tificationlateFriday.TheMinistryalsonotifiedothercompliance-re-latedrelaxations,whichwerean-nouncedearlier.Accordingtonotifiede-waybill

rules,everyregisteredsupplierre-quiresprioronlineregistrationonthee-waybillportalforthemove-ment of these goods. The rulesalso specify that thepermits forconventional cargo (other than

over-dimensionalcargo)arevalidforoneday for themovementofgoodsfor100km,andinthesameproportionforfollowingdays.Taxofficialshavethepowertoscruti-nisethee-waybillatanypointdur-ingtransittochecktaxevasion.InOctober last year, theGST

Council put a cap on input taxcreditat20percentoftheeligiblecreditforbuyerswhosesuppliersdidnotuploadinvoices,whichwasthen further curtailed to 10 percent in theGSTCouncilmeetingonDecember18.Abhishek Jain, taxpartner, EY

said, “The relaxation for allowingcumulativereconciliationvia-a-vismonthonmonthreconciliationforavailinginputtaxcreditwasanim-perativeonetoobviatehighercashflowsandtoreapthebenefitofthereliefprovidedthroughextendedtimelinesforfilingofGSTreturns”.

EASINGWORKINGCAPITALREQUIREMENTSFORBUSINESSESHITBYCOVID-19 BRIEFLYGovtputscurbsonexportofdiagnostickitsNewDelhi:ThegovernmentSaturday put curbs on ex-portsofdiagnostickitswitha view to discourage ship-mentsamidthecoronavirusoutbreak.“Theexportofdi-agnostic kits (diagnostic orlaboratory reagents on abacking, preparation diag-nostic or laboratoryreagents)...isrestrictedwithimmediate effect,” theDirectorate General ofForeignTradesaid.

‘MoretimetoindividualstofileTDSexemption’NewDelhi:TheIncome-TaxDepartment has allowedindividualstosubmitForm15Gand15Hforthecurrentfiscal after June 30 forclaiming exemption fromTDS on interest income tomitigate the hardship ofpeopleamid theCOVID-19crisis. Forms 15G and 15Harefiledbypersons,whoseincomesarebelowthetax-able threshold, to seek ex-emptionfromTDSoninter-est income.PTI

ITCpartnersNGOstodeliverfoodsuppliesNewDelhi: ITC has joinedhandswith three NGOs inbuilding a network to de-liveressentialfoodsuppliesto thoseseverely impactedbythecurrentlockdown,asper a release. Child Rightsand You, SOS ChildrenâsVillage India and anothereminentNGOwillhelpim-plementthisinitiative.Thisprogram will be imple-mented by the respectivevolunteers of the NGOs ineachstate.ENS

ENSECONOMICBUREAUNEWDELHI,APRIL4

DESPITETHEcontinuedoutflowof funds by foreign portfolio in-vestors in March, foreign ex-change reserves saw a jump intheweek endedMarch 27, as itrose by $5.7 billion to hit $475.6billion.While low crude pricescontinuetohelpthecause,intheweekendedMarch27,Indiawit-nessed a rise in the value of itsgoldreservesanda riseinforeigncurrencyassets.The rise in reserves comeaf-

tertwoconsecutiveweekswhenthe reserves came under pres-sure.While they had hit an alltime high of $487.2 billion onMarch 6, they fell $17.3 billionover the following twoweeks to$469.9 billion onMarch 20. The

declineinreservescoincidedwithFPIoutflowthatamountedto$15billiontillMarch19,2020.During the week ended

March27,whilethevalueofgoldreservesjumpedby$3billion,theforeigncurrencyassets rose$2.5billion.Ontheotherhand,thenetoutflowbyFPIsfromdebtandeq-

uitymarkets betweenMarch20and March 27 amounted to$3.5billion.Expertssayforexreservesare

benefittingfromfallingimports.“Wheneverglobalgrowthslowsdown, our current accountdeficitlooksbetter.Whiletheex-ports also decline, the importsfall more since we are net im-porters and that results into arise in foreign exchange re-serves,”saidDKPant,chiefecon-omist, IndiaRatings.Thesharpdeclineincrudeoil

pricesoverthelastonemonthhashelped India’s cause as crude oilimportaccountsforalmost20percent of total import bill. Earlier,India’sforeignexchangereserveshad a smooth run for nearly sixmonths as they roseweek-on-week between September 20,2019andMarch6,2020.

PRABHARAGHAVANNEWDELHI,APRIL4

NOIDARESIDENTPreeti (namechanged) has not slept for fourdaysbecauseshehasbeenexpe-riencing“paralysing”anxiety.Thenationwide lockdownhasaggra-vatedherparanoiaoverCOVID-19andintensifiedherdepressionandanxiety.Itdoesn’thelpthatshecan’tget

the face-timesheneedswithhercounsellor. Tomake up for this,they speakmultiple times adayover thephone.Thethought thatgoes over repeatedly in Preeti’smind is—“When is this going toend?”The pandemic and ensuing

lockdown in India have exacer-bated symptoms like anxiety inthosewithexistingmentalhealthconditions. The isolationandun-certaintyhasalsopromptedsometo seekprofessional help for thefirst time. Issues range fromfearsabout thevirus toworries aboutjobsecurityandmanifestindiffer-entwaysacrossstatesandclasses.Delhi-based consultantneu-

ropsychiatristDr.UmangKochharestimatesa20percentincreaseinthenumberofpatientsduringthelockdownperiod. This includesthosewhomayhave sought hishelpinthepast,were“stable”,butnowsee a “spike” in symptoms.“Sleep is one thing thathasbeenimpactedthemost,”hesaid.Last week, the National

Institute of Mental Health andNeuroscienceslaunchedanationalCOVID-19psychosocialhelplineinconjunction with the HealthMinistry.Onthefirstday,theyre-ceived1,000calls.Onthesecond—3,000.“Manystateshavealsostarted

regionallanguagehelplines,”saidNIMHANSdirectorBNGangadhar.Other long-standingmental

healthorganisationshavehad tofind newways to be accessibleduringthelockdown.For instance,Mumbai-head-

quarteredpsychosocial helpline,iCALL, announced three newnumbersafterthelockdownpre-venteditscounsellorsfromreach-ing the office helpline. Thenewnumbers were “flooded” withcalls,butiCALLhasonlybeenableto cater to55-60aday insteadofitsusual75-80becauseofashort-age of counsellors. It is addingmorecounsellors.Aroundhalf thecalls concern

risingtensionsoverCOVID-19,in-creasing domestic violence andtheeffectsofthelockdownonjobsandpersonal finances. “Thecallsarenotonlycomingfromupperormiddle-classpeople,butalsodailywageworkerswhodonotknowwheretheywillgettheirnextday’spayfrom,”saidiCALLprogrammecoordinatorTanujaBabre.West Bengal-based activist

RatnaboliRay, founderofmentalhealth rightsorganisationAnjali,explained thatmental health is-sues takeondifferent shapes forthoselivinginpoverty.“Poorpeo-plewhohadbeenreintegratedinthecommunityandwereleadingameaningful life are feeling re-sourcelessandtheiranxietylevelshave goneup. They areworriedtheywillhavetodieoutofhunger,orhowtheywillaccess themed-icationtheyareon.”“Theeffectisgoingtobelarge,

widespread and in a sense, per-haps, long-lasting,” said SitaramBhartiaHospital consultantpsy-chiatristDr.AlokSarin.“Atthemo-ment, everybodyhas a sense offragility. Anxiety is nowthenewnormal,”heelaborated.

Sunday April5You’reontopoftheworld,oratleastyoushouldbe.Ifyouhaveaweakness, it’syourinabilitytoseehowwelloffyouare.Ifyouhaveaspecialstrength,it’syourabilitytoworkhardtoimproveyourlot.

Monday April6Events which take place today couldforeshadowopportunities of thenext twoweeks.It’samomentforquietthoughtanddiscreetagreements.

Tuesday April7You might feel as if you’ve been herebefore. But this time round you shouldhave much more control. That’s goodbecauseyou’llhaveabetterideaofwhattodoaboutmonetarymatters.

Wednesday April8Ifyou’vegotthefiguresrightthensparenoexpense when it comes to homeentertaining.Youcaneitherinvitethewholegangoverorhaveaquiet, intimatedinner.

Thursday April9It’s a dynamic time, full of potential forpositiveexperiences.Youcaneithergiveinand go under, or you can meet thechallengesandobstaclesheadon.

Friday April10For someone who is supposed to be sohumble, you certainly have a great deal toachieve. Great times lie ahead if you arepreparedtolayyourreputationontheline.

Saturday April11You’vegotplentyofgoodideas,theabilitytoput them intopractice and the faith in thefuture. Theworst thing you candonow isstarttofeelsorryforyourself.

If it’s yourBirthday

SUDOKU4170

DifficultyLevel5sInstructionsTosolveaSudokupuzzle,everydigitfrom1to9mustappear ineachofthenineverticalcolumns, ineachoftheninehorizontalrowsandineachofthenineboxes.

DifficultyLevel1s=Veryeasy;2s=Easy;3s=Medium;4s=Hard;5s=VeryHard;6s=Genius S

OLU

TIONSUDOKU4169

ARIES(Mar21-Apr20)Monetarymattersseemtobecausingafewproblems,althoughitisdifficult

toseewhetheritispartnersoryouwhoaretoblame!Itisreassuringtonotethatyourlong-termcelestialinfluencesareveryprosperousindeed.Romanticprospectsarealsosettocontinueonahighnote.

TAURUS(Apr21-May21)Youseemtohavebeenknockedoffbalance,perhapsbysomeonewhono

longerunderstandsyourbestinterests.However,overthenextfewdaysyoumaypullyourselftogetherandassertyourselfevenmorethaninthepast.Youcanexpectdramaticimprovementsbytheendoftheweek.

GEMINI(May22-June21)Groupeventspromisetobemoresatisfyingthanone-to-onemeetings.Perhaps

thatisbecauseyouwishtoavoidthecomplicationsthatmayariseoutofintimateencounters.Moneydevelopmentsmaybeofftheagendauntiltheendoftheweek,whentheMoonbeginsanewroleinyourfinanciallife.

CANCER(June22-July23)YourbestdaysshouldbeThursdayandFriday,whentheMoon,theplanet

responsibleforyouremotions,passesthroughasympatheticregionofyourchart.Evenbetter,otherpeoplewillgenuinelyunderstandyourhopesandneeds,whichshouldmakeyoufeelhappierandmoreconfident.

LEO(July24-Aug23)ProfessionalLeoshavemosttogainfromtheSun’scurrentmotion.Allofyou

withgrandambitionswillexperiencesomesortofdifficulty,mainlyaclashbetweenshort-termdomesticresponsibilitiesandlong-termhopes.Butwhatisimportantisthatyoudevelopyourcreativetalents,ratherthanblindlysubmittingtoaroutineimposedfromoutside.

VIRGO(Aug24-Sep23)MisunderstandingsarelikelyaroundthetimeoftheSolaralignmentsinthe

middleoftheweek.Haveyoubyanychanceconsideredmakingmoreofanefforttoexplainyourself?Ifnot,dosonow!Also,pleaseseetoitthatalltravelplansaresetoutclearlyandwithoutambivalenceorambiguity.

LIBRA(Sep24-Oct23)You’llhavealittlesupportfromtheMoonatthebeginningofthe

week,whichisasuresignthatyou’llfeelgoodaboutyourhomesituation.Yetafinancialcrisis,hopefullyabriefone,isboundtoflareuponWednesdayorThursday,whentheSunandPlutogetintotopgear.

SCORPIO(Oct24-Nov23)This isnotimeforweak-kneedcompromise.Instead,youmustbe

toughandunyielding,asonlyaScorpiocan.Youwillgainanenormousamountofsatisfactionfrompursuingyourowngoals, sodon’t feelguiltyaboutbeingselfish.Fascinatingnewsmayarriveattheendoftheweek—sothatshouldstirthingsup.

SAGITTARIUS(Nov24-Dec23)It’saweekforplots,rumoursandgossip.You’llalsodiscoverincreased

opportunitiesforspreadingalittlegoodwill,helpingpeopleworseoff thanyouandgenerallyadoptingacharitableoutlook.Youshouldbeliberatedfromatightfinancialcornerbytheendoftheweek.

CAPRICORN(Dec23-Jan20)TheSuncontinues tohelpyou,which issurelygoodnews.Takeacloser lookat

anumberof yourengagements,especiallysocial responsibilitiesandsee if thereareanythatcanbesafelyabandoned.Dowhatyoucantocreate therightconditions foramorecarefreeexistence.

AQUARIUS(Jan21-Feb19)Theemphasisonclosepartnershipsisstillverystrong,althoughitlooksasif

you’llbecommunicatingatadistance,vialettersandtelephones,ratherthanthroughpersonalmeetings.Theonepercentofyouwhohavefaxmachineswillbereceivingstrangemessages.

PISCES(Feb20-Mar20)Youcanbemuchtooreadytoaccommodate thewhimsandwishesof

otherpeople.Nowyoumayseize theopportunitypresentedbyhelpful lunarpatterns topushyourselfforwardandmakeotherpeopleunderstand justhowmuchyouhavetooffer.There isnoturningback,as Iamsureyourealiseperfectlywell.

YOURWEEKAHEADSUNDAY CROSSWORD 2263QUICKCLUESACROSS1. 1984sci-fi thriller (10)6. Beautypowder (4)9. Givestrength(10)10. Chesspiece (4)12. As________: inperfecthealth?

(3,2,1,6)15. Southeasternmosthillof Rome

(7)16. Erudite -academic (7)17. Many(7)19. Associate (7)20. Notusedto (12)23. Samoanseaport (4)24. Cranialnerves (10)25. Slaveorserf (4)26. Inavery largenumber (1,5,4)

DOWN1. Nerd(4)2. Be jealousof (4)3. Grandeurorsplendour (12)4. Drape(7)5. Hazard (7)7. Leavingorgivingupcompletely

(10)8. Adversaries, antagonistsor rivals

(10)11. Differenceof opinion(12)13. Amass (10)14. Enticement (10)18. Feedbag(7)19. Overflowing(7)21. Italianvolcano(4)22. Sight (4)

CRYPTICCLUESACROSS1. Cheeragroupofwhales,with

moremoving intoplace forancientpursuits (10)

6. Raisescontainers forpartof lock(4)

9. Have funetc.; I’mineffectverygenerous(10)

10. Articlewrittenbysailor inScarletO’Hara’s formerresidence(4)

12. Nomoreonemight tell asuccessfulbidder (5,4,3)

15. Stuffy ideatoget involvedwiththenur. (7)

16. Suspectcallsaboutdebt (7)17. Asmallquantityof Latin? (7)19. Howrare to injurebattle legend

(3,4)20. Aregreetingsadapted forgiving

guidance?(8,4)23. Internationaldevelopment

agencystudentswere initially

girls ! (4)24. Surprisingoldboat inbackward

Mediterranean island(Frenchocean) (10)

25. Sounds like theoppositeof ayesandonthedotwhenonit (4)

26. Besresult’savailablebytheserent-payerswhohavetenantsoftheirowninthepremises (3-7)

DOWN:1. Meatyparts forbadactors (4)2. Yearnto findthecolourone’s lost

(4)3. Don’tquoteme,but it’s taken

fromthealbum(3-3-6)4. Detailed toappear incourtagain

(7)5. Wealthydoctorandneedy

eccentric (7)7. Notquiteclearing it, coming

towards theend(6,4)8. Touristsmaygotoseesomething

cheekilydisplayedby ladies (6,4)11. Somethingwarmtoputonand

getafter the feller (6-6)13. U-boat raidresults insurrender

(10)14. Whatchocolateeatersdoon

bicycle (6,4)

18. Fellowwiththeunlinedgoldcloak(7)

19. Birdbehaving likeadog?(7)21. CompetentHollywoodstar’sno

good(4)22. Malebridgepartnersbeing

females (4)

QUICKCLUESAcross: 1Adequacy,5Odessa,9Rattling,10Assent,12About,13Enamoured,14Recant,16Student,19Antonym,21Creepy,23Metallica,25Calve,26Elixir,27Agrarian,28Stings,29Criminal.Down:1Abroad,2Extrovert,3Unlit,4Congest,6Dissolute,7Steer,8Antidote,11Mars,15Annulling,17Expulsion,18Harmless,20Main,21Charger,22Kernel,24Trini,25Claim.CRYPTICCLUESAcross:1Repaints,5Spring,9Question,10Troika,12East’s,13Boughtoff,14Marble,16Goesout,19Lugsail,21Points,23Colostrum,25Jiffy,26Elijah,27Petrarch,28Slacks,29Einstein.Down:1Roquet,2Pressgang,3Ictus,4Trouble,6Parcheesi,7Inigo,8Graffito,11Jung,15Beanstalk,17Outoftrue,18Slackers,20Lark,21Pompeii,22Python,24Leila,25Jerks.

Solutionsto2262

BRIDGE

West leadstheH7totheH3andEast’sHQ.Howdoyouplantheplay?

NORTH♠ K J 6❤Q J 3♦ 92♣KQ 6

NORTH♠ K 852❤53♦ A86432♣8

SOUTH♠ AQ❤ A J 6♦ KQ♣ KQ9643

WestleadstheH10.Plantheplay

Wecanseethat,withthekingconvenientlysandwichedbe-tweenthesolidqueen-jackandtheace,North-Southwillwintwotricksoutof the first three forone lost,buthowdoestheplaygoafterWesthasledtheten?

Wecanseethreespadetricks,twohearts,atleastonediamond,probablytwoasthehonoursarelikelytobewellplacedunderourtenace,and thusthelongclubswillneedtobeestablishedforthreetricksaftertheaceandkinghavebeenknockedout.Again,whichdefenderwinsthesetopclubtrickswillbecru-cial. The first point to realize is that, if East has both ace andking, there isnohopeas thedefendersareamoveahead.Onwinninghis first club, Eastwill knock out our secondheartstopperand,onwinninghissecondclub,hewillbeabletocashthreemorehearts fordownoneandthisallapplies irrespec-tiveofhowtheheartplaygoes.

ThecriticalcasethusariseswhenWesthasoneoftheclubho-nours and is able towin the first roundof that suitwhilehispartner’sentryiskeptintact–inotherwordswhentheclubsarebreaking2-2asabove.IfWestisabletoleadasecondheart,thenthecontractwillbeset.However,ifhehasbeenexhaustedofheartsbeforetakinghisclubtrick,weareamoveaheadandourclubswillcomeinfirst,allowingusninetricks.

Soweseethat, insituationswherethedeclarerwonthe firsttrick,thedefenceprevailsandviceversa.However,wecanin-sistonlosingthefirsttrick,whilestillkeepingourdoublestop-per intact, byplayinga small card inbothhands. This leavesthedefenderswithnoanswer.

DealerEast,bothvulnerable

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH1❤ 1NTPass 3NT Pass PassPass

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTHPass 1♣

Pass 1♦ Pass 3NTPass Pass Pass

DealerEast,nilvulnerable.

WEST♠ 10 7 42❤ 10 5♦ 8 7 543♣K 7

EAST♠ 983❤ K9864♦ KQ6♣A2

SOUTH♠ AQ5❤ A 7 2♦ A J 10♣J 9 53

Givenbelowarefour jumbledwords.Solvethejumblestomakeproperwordsandmovethemtotherespectivesquaresbelow.Selecttheletters intheshadedsquaresandjumblethemtogettheanswerforthegivenquip.When______,thinkoftheconsequences.-Confucius(5,5)

SOLUTION:EARED,BRIER,CENSUS,AUGUSTAnswer:Whenangerrises,thinkoftheconsequences.-Confucius

DRAEE CESUNS

BEIRR ATUUGS

JUMBLEDWORDS

ENSECONOMICBUREAUNEWDELHI,APRIL4

MORETHAN138tonnesofcargocomprising COVID-19-relatedreagents, enzymes, medicalequipment,testingkits,personalprotection equipment likemasks and gloves and other ac-cessorieshavebeentransportedthroughthecountryin107cargoflightsoperatedbetweenMarch26andFriday.Theseflights,flownbyprivate

carriersIndiGoandSpiceJet,inad-ditiontoAirIndia,AllianceAirandIndianAirForce,havebeenoper-ated under theMinistry of CivilAviation’sLifelineUdanscheme.TheMinistryhasestablisheda

hub-and-spokemodeltodistrib-utevariousessentialitemsacrossthecountry,whereinthesecom-modities sourced from variousparts of the country are firstbrought to various hubs such asDelhi,Mumbai,Chennai,Kolkata,BengaluruandHyderabad.Thereafter, these goods are

distributedtodifferentstatecap-italsorother townsasper requi-sitioning by state governments.Additionally, an “air bridge” be-tween Shanghai and Delhi hasbeen established by Air India,whichwill operate its first cargoflight to the Chinese city onSunday,inadditiontootherded-icatedscheduledcargoflightsforupliftingofcriticalmedicalequip-mentfromChina.

THESHARPdecline incrudeoilpricesover thelastonemonthshashelped India’s causeascrudeoil importac-counts foralmost20percentof total importbill.

Cheapcrudekey

Low crude prices, fall in imports, rise invalue of gold help forex reserves surge

Aroundhalf thecalls tomentalhealthorganisationsconcernrisingtensionoverCOVID-19, increasingdomesticviolenceandtheeffectsof thelockdownonjobs

Virus, lockdown take tollon mental health: Stress,anxiety, insomnia rise aspeople fret over future

107 cargo flights ferriedover 138 tonnes of PPEs,enzymes, medical gear

Centre relaxes e-waybill deadline,defers restriction of input tax credit

TrucksatAzadpurMandiduringthe lockdowninNewDelhionApril2.Manytrucksarestrandedacross thecountrysinceMarch15,whenstatesstartedto locktheirborders. PTI

8THESUNDAYEXPRESS,APRIL5,2020

THEOUTBREAK SundayStory

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

DIYANAIDU I 36CHOREOGRAPHER,BENGALURU

In hospital, waiting for secondtest to be cleared

AMRITADUTTA

ITBEGANasa lossof sensation—bothtasteandsmell.DiyaNaiduhadretur-ned toBengaluru fromSwitzerland aweekagoandthoughtsomethingwasamiss.“Ireaduponlinetoseeifthatwas

a symptomof COVID-19butat the time,notmanyhadreported it.Myfriends,whoweredoctors,saiditmightbesinus,”sherecalls.Butitniggledatthe36-year-oldchoreog-

rapher,nevertheless.ShehadreturnedfromaworktriponMarch9,nervousaboutwhethershehad to isolate herself. “But at that time,therewasnoquarantineprotocolinplaceforpeoplewhohadreturnedfromSwitzerland.OnlytravellersfromChina,Singapore,IranandItaly had to isolate themselves. Therewas a

helplinewehadtocall,butnooneanswered,”Naidu recalls. “The friends and colleagues Ihadmet in Switzerlandhad also gonebackhomeandwere leadingnormal lives. That’swhatIdidtoo.”Shehad self-reported to aprivatehospi-

tal,whendoctors told her she could not betested for COVID-19yet—shehadnot trav-elled to the countries on the list, andhadnosymptoms.Whenthetastelessnesspersisted,she returned. “By that time, travellers fromother countries toowerebeing screened. Sothey calledmeover, and Ihada throat swabdone,”shesaid. Itwaspositive.Withinhalf-an-hour,amedicalofficerhad

arrivedatherhousetotakehertoahospitalinIndiranagar,where shewaited for four daysbeforetheresultsofconfirmatorybloodtestscamein.“IwasnotconsciousofthefactthatIwas afraid. But I could see Iwas shiveringslightly. Fromthemoment youget that call,you start thinking, ‘Whoall did Imeet?Didsomeone Imeet go and visit their grand-mother?DidIputthematrisk?’”sherecalls.Till shewas diagnosed, Naidu had gone

about her life as usual. An artist who livesaloneinthecity,shemetfriends,attendedaconcert and visited the dance studio sheworksat. “Immediatelyafter I got toknowIwas positive, I put out a Facebook post, so

thateveryonewhohadcomeincontactwithme would get alerted. I also made aWhatsAppgroupofwhoever Ihadmetandinformedthem,”sherecalls.Sixdaysago,Naidu’sisolationattheRajiv

GandhiInstituteofChestDiseases,wherethecity’sCOVID-19patientsarehoused,cametoanend—whenshewaswheeledintoaroomwith another patientwhohad testednega-tiveafteraroundof treatment.ThoughNaidupresentedwith very few

symptoms—neitherfever,norcough—ithasbeenatryingtime.“Itfeelslikeabigwavehashit you andyou are trying to standup,” shesays.“Onceyougointoisolation,youtellyour-selfyouareillandyouneedtostayalone.Ididyoga for an hour to keepmyself sane. Thenurseswould come inwith their PPEs andtheir hazmat suits, but theywere very kind.Eveniftheycomeinfor30seconds,theytrytojokeabit.Thehealthcareworkers’dedicationis extraordinary. It’s the outside stuff thatmesseswithyourhead,”shesays.Whilepeopletrolledherfornotgoinginto

isolationonherreturn,herlandlordaskedhertomoveout evenwhile shewas inhospital.“StrangersonmyFacebookpost calledmeacold-bloodedmurderer,andcalledformyar-rest.It’scometothisthatifItestnegativeagain,I couldbedischarged in twodaysand Idon’tknowwhere to go,” she says. “But if peopledon’trefrainfromhatingpatients,thenextper-sonwhosuspectssheisinfectedwillhideit.”Inall this, ithasbeenthequietefficiency

of the government officials that has helped

Naidu keep the faith. “In India, we alwaysthinkthesystemwillbetrayus.Butthelevelofefficiency,strategyandcarewithwhichtheofficials have worked in Karnataka hasreinstalledmyfaith,”shesays.Severalofherdaysinisolationwerespent

overthephone,talkingtoofficialsofthepolice,themunicipalcorporationandthestatesur-veillance department, who painstakinglywentoverhereverymovement in theweekshespentoutsidethehospital.“Froma list of theOla cab drivers, food

deliverypeople I had interactedwith, to theplaces I had been to and the studio I hadworked in. They checkedCCTV footage andclinicallytrackeddownmyprimarycontacts.I had gone late at night to a grocer’s, I waswearing amask so they couldnot recogniseme.But theycross-checkedwiththeclothesIwaswearing, tracedmybank transactionsandmade sure the shopwas shut down.Luckily, none in the list ofmyprimary con-tactshastestedpositive,”shesays.Whatshereallywantstodoisreturnhome

andherlifeasadancer,thoughbothseemdif-ficultfornow.“Itwilltakealotofcourage,andmoretimebeforewecanalltaketothedancefloortogether,orwatchaconcerttogether.”Fornow,a friendhasofferedtheirvacant

officeasaplacetostaywhensheisdischarged.“Evenaftergettingdischarge,Ihavetoquaran-tine myself for another fortnight. If allCOVID-19patientsaregoingtobetreatedlikethis, then we have a big problem on ourhands...andIamnottalkingaboutthevirus....”

‘We always think system willbetray us. But care I got

reinstalled my faith’

The RecoveredHiddenbehindthegrimstatisticsof deathandmountingcasesofCOVID-19 isanotherheartwarmingnumber:of thosewhotestedpositive,yetbattled thevirusandmore,andcameoutwinning.TheSundayExpress tells their stories—fromachoreographer inBengaluruwhocan’twait toget

backtoherdancestudio toastudent inSuratwhousedher time in isolationtoreflecton life, familyandfriends

RITABACHKANIWALA I 21MANAGEMENTSTUDENT,SURAT

Discharged onMarch 29

KAMALSAIYED

THEFOURchairs around thedining table attheBachkaniwalahomehavebeenplacedatleast six feet apart to ensure proper socialdistancing.Thefamilyhasbeenverycautioussince Rita came home onMarch 29, afterbeing discharged fromNew Civil Hospital(NCH) inSurat.Rita tested positive for coronavirus on

March19,daysaftershereachedSurat fromLondon, where she is pursuing an under-graduate degree in International BusinessManagementatBrunelUniversity.“Aftermyuniversitywasshutdown,Ire-

mainedmostlyindoors... Imighthavepickedthe infection from either Heathrow airportor the Mumbai airport,” she says on thephonefromherhomeinSurat’sPiplodarea.Soonafter arriving in India, the21-year-

oldcamedownwitha feverandcough. Thecoronavirus diagnosis, she says, “did notcomeasashockasIhadpreparedmyself forit”. Her parents Nimish and Anjana, andbrother Janak,were alsoquarantined at theSuratMunicipalCorporation(SMC)quartersatVesu, thoughthey testednegative.Butitwasherdaysinisolationthattested

herresolve.“Iwasprescribedoralmedicinesand injections. I becameweakandwasalsogiven IV fluids. Thehospital staffmonitoredme five times a day, measuringmy bloodpressure, my body temperature and mybreathing. Themost painful partwaswhenthe doctors took swab samples frommynose,” she recalls. After getting discharged,Rita put up a video on her Facebook pagethanking the doctors at NCH and urgingpeopletotrustgovernmenthospitals.“Theywereveryhelpful,” shesmiles.Being away fromher familywas tough,

saysRita,addingthatall throughherdaysinisolation,shesawthemonlyonce—througha glass separation. “Therewasno televisioninmywardandmyphonewasmyonlycon-nectionwiththeworldoutside. Iwouldtalktomyparents,cousinsandfriends.Icouldn’teven do video calls because there was noInternet.Butithelpedmestayawayfromallthe alarming news around COVID-19,” saysRita,addingthatshemanagedtofinishthreenovelsduringherstayatthehospital—Gonewith theWind, InfernoandVanished.“When I got tired of reading, I played

Subway Surfers on my phone. I was alsocarryingmyeconomicstextbookandstudiedwhenever I got a chance,” says Rita. Herexamsaredue later thismonth.After getting discharged from hospital,

Rita was moved to a flat of the SuratMunicipalCorporation,alittledistancefromwhereherparentswerekept.OnMarch29,thefamily’squarantinefinallycametoanendandtheymovedback to theirhouse.“ThefirstthingIdidonreachinghomewas

tobowbeforetheportraitofourfamilyguru,SwamiNijanand.Mymother got a call fromChief Minister Vijay Rupani. He asked herabout ourwell-being andurgedus to followthepost-hospitalisationprotocol,”shesays.Looking back, says Rita, the COVID-19

experience “has taught me to value lifemore”.“Theisolationgavemetimetoreflectonmy life, my relationshipwithmy familyand friends, things that I would overlookearlier... I valuemy life a lotmorenow. It’s arebirth forme,” shesays.

‘I value my lifea lot more now.

It’s a rebirth’

MAULANAASADQUASMI I 43RELIGIOUSPREACHER,MUMBAI

Discharged onMarch 30

LAXMANSINGH

“WHEN Iwas in hospital, rumours of mydeathwouldspreadeveryday.Peoplewouldcallmetocheckif Iwasalive.Evenmyfam-ilymemberswouldgetsuchcalls.Itwasverydisturbing,” says MaulanaAsadQuasmi, 43, a preacheratalocalmosqueinMumbai’sGovandi, a largeslumpocketonthecity’seasternsuburbs.Withover300infections,

Maharashtrahas thehighestnumberofCOVID-19casesinthe country, and with thevirusnowfindingitswayintothedenselypopulatedslumsofMumbai,wheresocialdis-tancinghasitschallenges,thestate’shealthadministrationhasatoughtaskonitshands.Amaulanaforthepast20years,Quasmi

hadvisited Sri Lanka, Bangkok, CambodiaandMalaysia,beforereturningtoMumbaion March 17. On March 22, he testedpositiveforcoronavirusandwasadmittedtoKasturbaHospitalforInfectiousDiseasesinChinchpokli.“Afterreturningfrommytravels, Ideve-

loped fever.Whenmy condition did notimprovefora fewdays, Iwent to thehospi-tal.WhenIheardthatmyresultswereposi-tive, I thought itwas theendofmy life,” hesays,adding,“Oneday,whenIwasreturningtomybedfromthewashroom,Ihadabreak-

down. Iwasscared, Ididn’tknowif Iwouldseemy family again. The stress of beinginfectedwith the coronavirus took a bigmental toll onme. I have diabetes andmysugar levelswouldalso increasebecauseofthestress...Fortunately,lifehadotherplans.”On March 30, after two consecutive

negative tests, he was discharged fromhospitalandaskedtostayinself-quarantineforthenext14days.For thepast fewdays,Quasmihasbeen

spendinghisdaysina10x15roomonthefirstfloor of his house,while hiswifeandfourchildrenliveonthegroundandsecond floor.His roomhas a fewutensils,hisclothes,andabed.“I have been reading the

Quran Sharif and a book onthe life of ProphetMuham-mad.Sometimesmychildrensit outside the roomandwechat. I amhappy to be backwithmyfamily,”hesays.Quasmi is also relieved

that unlikemany of the re-portshehadbeenreading,neitherhenorhisfamilyfacedanydiscriminationinhisneigh-bourhood. “Most ofmyneighbourswereconcerned about my health and neverblamedmeforbringingthevirustothearea.EvenwhenIcamebackfromhospital,manypeoplecametomeetmebutIsentthembackas I amstill in quarantine,” he says. “Since Iamapreacher,peoplerespectme.”As he nowwaits for his quarantine to

end,Quasmi sayshe is relieved that all hisfamily members tested negative for thevirus. “Aftermy isolation ends, I will visitthemosqueandthankAllahforeverything.I cameback fromthedead.”

65-YEAR-OLDRAIPUR,CHHATTISGARH

Discharged onApril 2

GARGIVERMA

SOMETIMEINthethirdweekofMarch,the68-year-old developed a cold and cough.“It seemed normal, like any ordinaryillness... But then one day the ASHA didicametoourhousetoinquireifanyonewasill, and we told her about our father,”recountshis36-year-oldson.Inthenext48hours,thefamilyof15was

uprooted from their two-roomhouse inRaipur’sRamnagarareaandmovedtoagov-ernment-runquarantine facility in the city.OnMarch25,the68-year-oldtestedpositiveforCOVID-19—thethirdcaseinthestate.“This casewas different because the

patient did not have anyhistory of foreigntravel,” said a senior healthofficial, adding,“After he testedpositive, hewasmoved toAIIMSRaipur. Fourteen othermembers ofhis family, includinghis two sons and theirchildren, were placed in quarantine andtested.Fortunately,theywereallnegative.”Afterundergoingtreatmentfornearly10

days,the68-year-oldwasfinallydischargedonApril2,andjoinedhisfamilyatthequar-

antine facility. Theyhave to spendanotherfortnighttherebeforemovingbackhome.At thequarantine facility, the15 family

membersarehoused in fourroomswherethechildrenspendmostoftheirtimeplay-ing games on the phone. “The authoritiesalsoarrangedforafewbooks,andmysonsteach the children sometimes. But I can’twaittogooutforawalk,”saysthe68-year-old.Addshisyoungerson,“Sometimes,wetalk to people in the adjacent roomsthroughthewalls,butthatgetsboringtoo.”The68-year-oldhasanotherconcernon

hismind.“IamhappythatIamaliveandwell.But now,when I go back, peoplewill treatour family asuntouchables.Nomemberofmyfamilyshowedanysymptoms,butbeca-useofme, all of themsuffered,” he says onthephonefromthequarantinefacility.The family has anotherworry: the im-

pactofthelockdownontheirtransportbusi-ness. “Fortunately,weownourhouse andour tempos, soat leastwewill have shelterandsomehelp,”sayshiseldestson.As they spend their days inquarantine,

cut-offfromtheworld,thefamilyadmitsthattheywonderhowtheirfatherpickeduptheinfection. “Wedon’tknowwhathappened,butwearegladthatheisnowcured.Babujitheekhai, filhaal tousimesantoshhai (myfa-ther ishealthynow,wearehappywiththatfornow),”saysthe38-year-oldson.

‘Happy I am alive, but I feardiscrimination once I return home’

37-YEAR-OLDLABTECHNICIAN,GURGAON

Discharged onApril 1

SAKSHIDAYAL

THREE WEEKS ago, the 37-year-old, alaboratory technician at Civil Hospital,Gurgaon, was filling up forms and ascer-taining the travel history of suspectedCOVID-19 patients. On March 20, shejoined the growing list of positive casesherself, fighting a battle that was “moremental thanphysical”.“I gavemysamplesafterdevelopinga

sore throat and diarrhoea. The resultscameonMarch 20. Thenext day,my sonand husband were also tested. I wasplaced in isolation at Medanta — TheMedicity,” says the mother of a six-month-old boy.The 10 days in isolation, she admits,

were very difficult, “especially because Iwas away frommy baby, who is just sixmonthsold”.“TheonlythingIcoulddowasto stay in touchwithmy family on a dailybasis. The support frommy departmentalsogavemestrength,”shetoldTheSundayExpress on April 2, hours after beingreunitedwithher family.

Although the samples of her husbandandson returnednegative, the familyhadtofightanotherbattlebackhome,whereafew hostile neighbours demanded theymoveelsewhere.“Some of them really harassed my

husband. They wanted us to leave. Wefinally had to call the PCR to counsel ourneighbours,” she says, adding that therewere also people whowere “extremelysupportive”, sending foodtoherhusband,whodidnotknowhowtocook. “Sincemyhusbandwasinself-isolationandcouldnotleavethehouse, somepeoplealsogothimessential items.”All through her treatment, the family

remained in touch through phone andvideocalls.Whileinquarantine,shewouldwatchreligiousshowsontelevisionorreadnewsreportsonCOVID-19.OnApril1,after10daysinisolation,she

wasfinallydischargedfromhospitalwhentwoofhersamplesreturnednegative.Backhomenow, shesays shewants to focusonher homeand family, and is unsure aboutreturning to work immediately. “I havebeenallowedhomerestforoneweeknowbecause I still have somenausea anda lit-tle heaviness inmy abdomen because ofthemedication. I alsobeenaway frommyson... I don’tknowif Iwill re-joinmyteamanytimesoon,” shesays.

‘Have six-month-old child at home,not sure if I want to return to work’

SHAMBLI I 22MBBSSTUDENT,NOIDA

Discharged onMarch 26

ANKITADWIVEDIJOHRI

THE ‘ANGRYBIRDS’gameonherphoneand a copy of Chetan Bhagat’s The GirlIn Room105have been Shambli’s com-panion throughher days of quarantine—both in hospital and nowat home. “Ihave no idea of when the sun rises orsets. I have just been holed up in myroom,” says the 22-year-old MBBSstudent on phone from her apartmentinNoida.OnMarch 14, Shambli, a third year

MBBS student at Tbilisi State MedicalUniversity in Georgia, returned to DelhifromFrance,whereshewasonaholidaywith friends.While she headed straight to the flat

in Noida that her family owns, Shambli—whoseparentsliveinPakur, Jharkhand— says she feltweak, and had a runningnose,drycoughandheadache.“IimmediatelybookedanOlacaband

went to the Government Institute ofMedical Sciences in Greater Noida. OnMarch17, I testedpositive,” shesays.Atthehospital, forthenextthree-four

days, she continued to have fever andsome “side-effects” of themedicines shewas on. “Iwas vomiting, I had breathingissues...Buthonestly,atnopointdidIthink

Iwasgoingtodie. Itwasjust likeanyviralfever,”shesays.“I don’t want to complain about the

conditions at the hospital, but everyoneseemed scared. The doctors and nurseswereworried about taking the infection

home,”sheaddsOn hearing of her hospitalisation,

Shambli’s parents arrived at herNoida flat only to be put underhomequarantine.They also had to face taunts from

others in the apartment complex, whoaccused their daughter of not beingcarefulenough.“Theywereoverreacting.They didn’t deserve an explanationbecause I had taken care to self-reportandnotmeet anyone. I toldmy father toignore the taunts andonly interactwiththe Chief Medical Officer of GautamBuddhaNagardistrict.EvenonMarch26,when I came back home fromhospital,the head of the Resident WelfareAssociation raised a few questions, butnothing came of it. After all, I had comeback tomyownhouse,” shesays.At home now,while her parents are

throughwith their 14-day quarantine,she continues to be restricted to herroom. “My parents only get me food,there is no other interaction. For oursupplies,wemakeordersonline,anditisdelivered to the apartment gate. Myfathergoesandpicksitup... Imostlyplaygamesonmyphoneorread.Ilikereadingnovels,” shesays.For now, Shambli has decided not to

inform her university about her condi-tion. “Anyway, thecollege is closed. I amnowwaitingfortheonlineclassestostart.Ihopethathappenssoon. Idon’twanttowastemyyearbecauseofthepandemic,”shesays.Does sheworry abouthaving todeal

with any kind of stigma in the future?“No...Noonerecognisesmehere.EvenifI go and stand in the lobby of myapartment, no onewill know that I amthe girl who was diagnosed withCOVID-19,” shesmiles.

‘No one will know I was thegirl who had COVID-19’

‘Fortunately, life had otherplans... Happy to be with family’

“I don’t want to complainabout the conditionsat the hospital, buteveryone seemed scared.The doctors and nurseswere worried about takingthe infection home”

“I would talk tomy parents,cousins and friends. I couldn’teven do video calls becausethere was no Internet. But ithelpedme stay away from allthe alarming news aroundCOVID-19”

213total number of patientswho have recovered across19 states

Rita (left) isastudentatauniversityinLondon

STATE RECOVEREDANDHRAPRADESH 1CHHATTISGARH 3DELHI 15GUJARAT 14HARYANA 24HIMACHALPRADESH 1JAMMUANDKASHMIR 3KARNATAKA 12KERALA 41LADAKH 3MAHARASHTRA 42PUDUCHERRY 1PUNJAB 1RAJASTHAN 21TAMILNADU 6TELANGANA 1UTTARAKHAND 2UTTARPRADESH 19WESTBENGAL 3

“ThenurseswouldcomeinwiththeirPPEsandhazmatsuits,but theywereverykind.Eveniftheycomeinfor30seconds,theytry to jokeabit.Thehealthcareworkers’dedicationisextraordinary”

9 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHE SUNDAY EXPRESS,APRIL5,2020OPINION

NOPOLITICALcrisis fromdaysof yoreorelectionspasthasbeenaharsher testofNarendraModi’s leadershipthanthisChinesevirus. So, Iwaited for thePrimeMinister tospeakbeforesittingdowntowrite this. Likeyou, Iwill tonight turnthe lightsoff inmyhouse fornineminutesat9pmandlightacandle toshownationalist solidarity in thewaragainst this invisibleenemy. Imustadd,at theriskofhavingtheBJPoncemoreask for thiscolumntobeshutdown,that Ihadhopedformore.ThePrimeMinisterhasaviewofthe

battlefieldthatismorepanoramicthanwehaveundercurfewsoIwouldhavelikedtohearhimtelluswhetherhisstrategytowinthebattleagainstCOVID-19isworking.Iwouldhavealsolikedtohearhisviewsonhowheplanstomitiga-tetheterribleeconomiccrisisthatalrea-dylooms.Thosewhosurviveondailywagesopenlyadmitthattheirchoiceistodieofhungerordieofthevirus.Indiafacesthesameproblemsinthisextraordi-narilyterrifyingmomentintimeaseveryothercountry,butthedifferencebetweenusanddevelopedwesterncountriesisthatmorethan 80percentofourecono-myisinwhatiscalledthe‘unorganisedsector’. WeknowthatintheUSnearlytenmillionAmericanshavealreadyregisteredasunemployed,butwehavenowayofknowinghowmanyIndianshavebecomejoblessandarelikelytoremainjoblesstillthisvirusisdefeated.Political leaderseverywherefacethe

ultimatetestof their leadershiptoday,butModi’stestwillbehardernotjust intryingtosaveusfromeconomiccollapse.But,alsointryingtodestroythisruthlesskillerbecauseallhehasareprimitivetools.AsIwritethiscomestoriesfromMumbaiaboutpeopletestingpositiveinDharavi. InnormaltimesforeignvisitorsaretakenforpovertytourismtoDharaviasit is famousforbeingAsia’s largestslum.Innormaltimesitdoesindeedhaveagrotesquesortofcharmbutnowithasbecomesodangerousaplacethatthosewholiveinfinebuildingsinthecityareorderingtheirdrivers,maidsandotherdomesticemployeestostopcomingtowork.Theyareterrifiedthat iftheycometheywillbringtheviruswiththemfromtheslumsinwhichtheylive. Iftheyavoidgettingit intheircrowded,windowlesstenementstheywillsurelypickituponthetrains.It isvery,veryimportanttostopthe

virusfromspreadingexponentiallybutisthisevenpossible?If itstrajectoryfollowsthepatternthatwehaveseeninEuropeandtheUnitedStates,howwillwecope?If themostefficienthealthservicesintheworldarerunningshortofventilatorsandmaskshowwillourpublichospitalsmanagewhereevensoapisaluxuryandwheredangerouslysickpatientswillhavetotryandsurviveinfilthy,crowdedwards.WethankedourfrontlinecoronawarriorsinadvanceonthedayoftheJanataCurfewbyringingbellsandbangingour‘thalis’butcanwenowensurethattheyhavetheprotectiveequipmenttheydesperatelyneed?SpeakingofourfrontlinewarriorsI

havetosaythatthemostdreadfulstorylastweekwasofhealthcareworkersbeingbeatenupbymobsinIndore,HyderabadandBengaluru.ThosewhodidthisshouldbejailedasshouldtheheadoftheTablighiJamaatwhenheiscaughtandchargedwithcriminalnegligenceleadingtomassmurder.IslamicpreachersaretheworstenemiesoftheMuslimcommunityalwaysbutthistimetheyhaveendangeredallofus.FromtheTablighiJamaatIreceivedinmymailboxamissiveexplainingthereasonswhythepreachers’conventionhadgoneaheaddespiteWHOdeclaringapandemiconMarch11.Itwasameaninglessattemptatwhite-

washingagravecrimesinceMaulanaSaad’sspeeches,thatIhavelistenedtoca-refully,indicateintheclearesttermsthatheencouragedhisflocktokeepgoingtocongregationsinmosques.Heassuredbe-lieversthatiftheydiedatprayerinamos-quetheywouldgostraighttoparadiseandthose72virgins.ViewsofsimilarstupidityhavebeenexpressedbyMuslimpreach-ersfromGazatoLahore.And,thePMofPakistan.IthorrifiedmetohearImranKhansaythatwhatwouldsavePakistanisfromCOVID-19wastheirfaith.OurPrimeMinisterhassaidmore

thanoncethatourreligiousteachersmustguidepeopleintherightdirectionbutsoshouldhe.Inthesedaysofcurfewsanduncertaintyheneedstoleadfromthefront.InsteadofdeputinglowlyofficialsintheHealthMinistrytoholdadailybrief-ing,thisissomethingheshoulddohim-self. It issomethingthatmustalsostartbeingdonedailybyourchiefministers.ThereisnotmuchreassurancetheycangiveagainstthisunseenenemybutitmightinsomemeasuremakeordinaryIndiansconfidentthattherearepeopleattheverytopwhohavetakenchargeandthateverythingthatcanbedoneisbeingdonetoensurethatwewinthiswar.Turningoffourlightsat9pmtonightfornineminutesandlightingcandlesisagoodgestureofsolidaritybutthatisallthatitis.Agesture.

More thangesturesneeded now

FifthCOLUMNTAVLEENSINGHTwitter@tavleen_singh

INTHEmiddleof thecoronacrisis,FrenchPresidentEmmanuelMacronhasdecidedthathismosturgentneedistohaveanewPR person who can spread his famearoundtheglobe.Thecoronavirushasputtheleaders inarace.Whowill turnouttobethebest?Thecontestismorelikeagolftournamentwith no time limit.We arestill gettingscoreseachday—howmanytested, howmany positive, howmanydied, is the country in lockdown, socialdistancing or social isolation?Weare (atleastsixfeetapart fromeachother)wait-ing for theend.Without exception, every leader has

beencaughtunprepared.Chinatookdaysto realise and then publicly admit thatWuhan had coronavirus infection.President Xi Jinping caredmore for hisreputation than to admit a crisis. It maynot be over yet but until recently, Chinahad the highest positives and highestnumber of deaths. American PresidentDonaldTrumphas rescuedXi fromlook-ing bad. Trump believes that he knowsbest even as he changes hismind. So af-ter a lot of false optimism and blamingeveryone but himself, he is takingit seriously. Americamay still head theleagueinnumberofpositivesanddeaths.Weknowwhatworks. Testing. South

Korea showed it. German ChancellorAngelaMerkelalsomanagedtokeepinfec-

tionsanddeathslow.Whatthesetwohadwas an efficient health sector and adisci-plinedpublicservice.Theydon’tneedPR.The weakness of health infrastruc-

tures of many countries has beenexposed. Number of hospital beds percapita,numberofqualifiedhealthprofes-sionals, availability of testing equipmentarewhatcountsratherthanDowJonesorSensex. The precarious ways in whichpeoplemaketheirdaily living, theinade-quate housing and public facilities, thecontrastbetweenwhatgovernmentper-sonnel (elected and bureaucratic) enjoybywayofperksandpensionsandtherestof thecitizenstellsyouwhereallyourtaxmoneygoes.HowmanyhomelesscanfitintoaLutyensbungalow?

Roundtheworld, leadersare likerab-bits caught in the car headlights. BritishPrimeMinisterBorisJohnson,beingabio-grapher of (Winston) Churchill, fanciedhimself as a war leader when the crisisbroke. But he had no idea of what to donorcouldhetakeexpertadviceseriously.The Health Service has been starved offfundsforyearstoaffordtaxcutsforcorpo-rations.Days werelostwhileJohnsongothisacttogether.ItisBritishpeopleasusualwhoarecomingforward.Sevenlakhpeo-ple have volunteered to help the HealthService. Doctors and nurses have comeback fromretirement.As a late comer to this race, Indian

PrimeMinister NarendraModi has a lotto learn about what to avoid andwhat

works. India has a totally inadequatehealth infrastructure except for the veryexpensive private hospitals. The overallstructure of administration — the IronFrame — is corroded and not fit forpurpose, but impossible to reform asModi has found out. The BJP may havecrores of members as must the otherpolitical parties but they are uselessexcept for rabble rousing.Citizensmay turn out to be the best

bet forhelping ifModicancommunicatetothemtheirduty.Indiahadagreattradi-tion of voluntary social service beforeindependence. We need servants ofIndiaback.Vasudhaivakutumbakam(theworldis

one family)? Just Indiawoulddo.

Amid a pandemic, race for the ‘best’Out ofMYMINDMEGHNADDESAI

THE THING about being 167 years old isthat few things surprise you. Nomatterwhat comes your way, you’ve probablyexperienced it before,maybe evenmorethan once. Surviving a nationwide lock-downincluded.For thecountry’sRailwaysystem,de-

scribedwith the beaten-to-death cliché“Lifelineof India”,shuttingitselfdownin-definitely and directing its vastmachin-erytokeeponlytheessentialsrunningre-quired justa flippingbackof a fewpages.Take the small example of running

parcel trains. The Railways has startedsome20trainstoexclusivelycarryparcels— perishables, grocery items, e-com-merceconsignmentsetcwhichwouldor-dinarily go by trucks— tomajor centresof the country. In the age of a lockdown,facedwiththethreatofadeadlyvirus, it’sno easy task. Putting together theneces-sarystaffandthewholeparaphernaliatoloadandunloadandthensticktoasched-ulewouldunnerve thebest player in thebusiness. But for theRailways, it’s abit ofawalk in the park. Its experience of run-ning services despite constraints goesbacksomeseveraldecades.AroundthetimewhenIndiawaswak-

ingup to theneed for anetworkofmod-ernhighwaysandwasjustaboutpassingaHighwaysAct in1956, IndianRailways,in the late1950s, begandedicatedparceltrainscalledQuickTransit Service (QTS).Mainly taking essential commodities

of everyday use from the thenindustrial/business hub of Calcutta toothermajor centres such as Delhi, theseQTSs were major money spinners. Inthose days, when few government serv-ices were certain, the Railways guaran-teed timely delivery through QTS orrefundedasurcharge toclients.Pulledbysteamenginesthatrequired

servicinga fewtimesandeven replacingalong theway, the successful run of theQTS tapered off a decade or so later onlywhen Railways started faltering on itspromiseoftimelydelivery.Thencametheageof the “SuperGoods” trains.Theseweresimilarinconcept,“super-

fast” in speed, but had mixed success.They ran well into the early ’80s, eventhoughnotmuch invogue,getting inter-mittentlyinterruptedduringtheNaxalitemovement in the ’60s and ’70s and, ofcourse,duringthe famousRailwaystrikeof 1974.It was the 1974 total strike of the

Railways that first showed India whatlife was without trains —much like inMarch-April 2020.Mobilised by the young trade union

leaderGeorgeFernandes, thestrongrail-wayunionsof IndiaplayedhardballwithIndiraGandhi,no less.When the then Prime Minister

remainedunshakable to thedemand forfixedworkinghours for traindrivers andan across-the-board pay raise, a chakkajambecame inevitable.For around threeweeks inMay 1974,

notrainsran.Becausetherewasnoonetorun them — drivers, station masters,guards, trackstaff andmanyothers.In a single swoop, the government

locked up all union leaders. Railway lorehas it that when George Fernandeswaspicked up from Lucknow, Mrs GandhigaveanearfultoherRailwayMinisterLalitNarayan Mishra. “You want to make ahero out of Geroge?” she is said to havetoldhim.ButMrs Gandhi ensured one excep-

tion—much likeModi has in the face ofthecurrentoutbreak.Goodstrainscarry-ing essential industrial supplies such ascoal and others could not be included inthestrike.And,shemadetheunionsagreethat strike or not, at least one passengertrainshould runonthe trunkroutes.SotheKalkaMail ranfromHowrahto

Delhi, the Frontier Mail (now GoldenTempleMail)ranfromBombayandsoon.Thatwas thePM’sdecree.Oldtimers still recall how difficult it

was to ensure that. “Therewas virtually

no staff. Theywere on strike and angry.We had to scramble for resources everyday to put together that one service. Butthentheplaybookofrailwaymensays,nomatter what, if a train has to run, it willrun,” said Shri Prakash, a 1971-batchIndianRailwayTrafficService (IRTS)offi-cerwhoretiredasRailwayBoardMember(Traffic) in2009.There are other instances of the Rail-

wayssteppingupintryingcircumstances.How,during the1971warwithPakistan,railwaymenworked24hoursatastretchfor fivedaystoensure India’smilitaryca-pability remainedwell-supplied at theEastern andWestern fronts. The thou-sands of backroomboyswhoworked tomakethathappendon’tbrag,eventoday.Take the days of the BabriMasjid de-

molition, for instance.HowanunknowncubofficerofRailwaystookoutatrainfullof people from Ayodhya — a firebrandwoman leader of the BJP hitching a rideinthedriver’scabin—througharampag-ing sea of people, is a story only a few inthesystemknow.So in the age of an unprecedented

lockdown, to the thousands of peopleworking every day to ensure food itemsreachthegodowns,thepowerplantshavecoal,some20,000coachesturnintoisola-tionwardsandvehicleworkshopschurnouthandsanitisers andmasks, thenovelcoronaviruswill seem like, well, just an-other lemon.Andwhen you are 167 years old, you

knowwhat to do with the lemons lifegivesyou.

ACCORDINGTOWHO,205countries areaffected by coronavirus or COVID-19. Avirusisasubmicroscopicinfectiousagentthat replicates only inside the living cellsofanorganism.Virusescaninfectalltypesof life forms including bacteria. That’senoughabout viruses for thepurpose ofthiscolumn.COVID-19 is thenamegivenbyWHO

toaninfectiousdiseasecausedbythenewvirus. Itwas first noticed in a patient ascausedbya ‘new’virusbyaChinesedoc-tor,LiWenliang,inDecember2019.Hewashounded by theGovernment of China,made to signaconfession, caught the in-fection,anddiedonFebruary7,2020attheageof 33. (Theauthorities apologisedaf-ter his death.) Thenewvirus that hehadnoticedhasspreadrapidlythroughouttheworldinlessthan100days.COVID-19 cannot be stopped at the

bordersofacountry,itrespectsnonationalborders, and it does not discriminate ongrounds of religion, caste, race, sex, andplaceofbirth.Inaperversesense,thevirusrespects Articles 14 and 15 of theConstitutionof India.

POWERLESS LEADERSThemostpowerfulhumanonearth(so

they say) US President Donald Trumphelplessly watched as the number ofinfected persons in his country crossed213,600onApril3 (highest in theworld).Thenumber of deaths, itwas predicted,willbebetween100,000and240,000.The‘most powerfulmilitary in theworld’ isunable todoanything.Notall thewealth

commandedbytherichestcountryoftheworld seems tobeof anyuse. Thedollarhas appreciated, but a ‘strong’ dollar is aspowerlessasa‘weak’eurooryuan.Yet, several heads of government,

elected or usurpers, want to rule theircountries, notgovernwith theconsentoftheircitizens.AsBruceSpringsteensaidin‘Badlands’, ‘Andakingain’t satisfied ‘Til heruleseverything’.Howhollowtheiractionsandinstrumentsseemtoday?Diktats,life-long power, rubber-stampparliaments,cronycourts,pliantagencies,spies,andthemost widely misused tool, throwingpolitical opponents inprison formonthsoryearswithoutacharge,areallhollow.

OPPRESSOR &OPPRESSED

Youshouldremindtheoppressors:isit not ironic that the whole world hasturned intoaprisonand theoppressorsandtheoppressedfindthemselvesinthesameprison?Since you are lockeddown, here is a

game you can play. Download amap oftheworld on your laptop or phone. Askanyfamilymembertoidentifythecoun-tries one by one. And ask one question:doesthatcountrythrowpeople in jailwithoutacharge?Here is what you will find, and

these are only examples. Start withSouthAmerica.Venezuela: Thirty Opposition lead-

erswerestrippedof theirparliamentaryimmunitybyPresidentNicolasMaduro’s

puppet judiciary and are either in exileor jail.TurntoAfrica,andthepictureisworse.Ethiopia: Mr Abiy Ahmed became

primeministerin2018,madepeacewithEritreaandwontheNobelPrize.Through2019, the Internet was switched off.AnNGOhasdocumented64extra-judi-cialkillingsandatleast1,400casesofarbi-trarydetentions.Tanzania:PresidentJohnMagufulihas

arrestedOppositionMPsand journalists,shutmedia outlets and passed laws tomuzzledissidents.Europepresentsamixedpicture.There

are robust and celebrated democracies,therearealso:Hungary:PrimeMinisterViktorOrban

hasalignedtheexecutive, legislatureandjudiciary. His government forced theclosureofCentralEuropeanUniversityandimposed the first internet tax.OnMarch30, Mr Orban got passed emergencylegislationthatgiveshimtherighttorulebydecreeaslongashedeemsfit.Russia: President Vladimir Putin

pushedthroughaconstitutionalamend-ment that reset his term to zero. InMoscow,when thousands of protestersfilledthestreets,theauthoritiesrespondedwith batons, over 2,000were detained,dozenswerebeaten, andseveralhadcri-minal cases openedagainst them.Arrestof political opponents, violencebypoliceofficers,detentionofchildren,andthreatsto parents have become commonplace.There are over 200political prisoners inthecountry.Asia: Degrees of freedomvary from

country to country. Some cannot bedescribedasdemocracies.Thailand: The new government of

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-chaassumedpowerin2019.Therehavebeenphysical assaults on political activists,forced disappearances of human rightsdefenders, andthecriminal code’sprovi-sionsaredefactothreatstofreespeech.Cambodia:The2018pollswereheldin

aseverelyrepressiveenvironmentthatof-fered voters nomeaningful choice. Themain opposition party was banned,opposition leaderswere in jail or exiled,and independentmedia andcivil societyoutletswere curtailed. The ruling partywoneveryseatinbothhouses.

HUMANITY WILL WINBefore youdespair, ask yourself,why

iseverystrongleaderunableto‘arrest’thespreadofcoronavirus?Willhumanityul-timatelytriumphovertheepidemic?Thetallest livingTamil poet,MrVairamuthu,thinks so, and has penned a beautifulpoem on coronavirus (here is a freetranslationofapart):TinierthantheatomDeadlierthantheatombombEnterswithoutasoundDestroyswithoutawarManwillannihilateTheCoronatooHewillconquerthepandemicWhenhumanitywinsthiswaragainst

coronavirus,Ihopehumanitywillalsowinits freedomfromdictators and tyrants asalsofromthosewhoaspiretobeso.

Now, everyone is in prison

The most powerful human onearth (so they say) US

President Donald Trumphelplessly watched as the

number of infected persons inhis country crossed 213,600

on April 3 (highest in theworld). The number of

deaths, it was predicted, willbe between 100,000 and

240,000. The ‘most powerfulmilitary in the world’ is

unable to do anything. Not allthe wealth commanded by therichest country of the worldseems to be of any use. Thedollar has appreciated, but a‘strong’ dollar is as powerless

as a ‘weak’ euro or yuan

AcrossTHEAISLE

PCHIDAMBARAMWebsite:pchidambaram.inTwitter@Pchidambaram_IN

HistoryHEADLINEAVISHEKGDASTIDARavishek.dastidar@expressindia.com

Once upon a time, whentrains stopped in their tracks

TheRailwaysisrunningtrainstotransportparcels tovariouspartsofthecountry

THEMEASURES to handle the COVID-19pandemicproposedbytheWHOweredi-rectedateveryone.Itwasuptorespectivecountries to introduce regulatorymeas-urestoencouragephysicaldistancing.TheIndiangovernmentgotfartooexcitedandhastily implemented “social distancing”by force, leaving a heavy-handed policeto enforce an overnight curfew that leftthousandsstranded.Plus, social distancing in India comes

withanedge,of caste.Unsurprisingly, themoneyed,whether it’s here or in theUS,profited. In India, prices ofsanitiserssoared.InAmerica,theCongresspasseda$2tril-lionstimulusbill largelyres-cuing corporates. However,while it is important to takecare of the economy andhealthcareof acountry, let’snot lose sightof the culturalandpoliticalafter-effectsthatcoronaviruswill leave.One of the images that

cameout of India lastweekwasof agirl childof about6yearsofagewalkingwithherworldlypossessionstiedinasmall piece of cloth on her head. Parentstrekkedwithinfants,eventheelderly—alldevastatingevidenceof thegovernment’sinabilitytogovern.Perhaps,surroundedbycronies,thepremierisunawareofthishor-rorshow.Unlike China and South Korea, India

hadtheadvantageoftimeandlessonsfromothercountriestoprepare.But,evenasthepandemicwas building up, itwas caughtupinthemachinationsinMadhyaPradesh.Whatmakes the injustice tomigrant

workers evenmore acute is the fact thatmanyofthemareDalitsorAdivasis.Ofthe395million inter-statemigrants in India,62million are estimated tobeDalits and31millionAdivasis. Theymoved to citiesfromtheirhomespreciselyonaccountofcaste violence, atrocities, poverty or lossof ownershipover forestsand land.Post-COVID-19, they have been left again attheirmercyof violenceandexploitation.

The total lack of empathyof themid-dle class towards migrant workers isseated in theirplace in the labourhierar-chy, which is right at the bottom, withthemengaged in low-paying jobsasma-sons, helpers or cleaners. The womenworkatconstructionsiteslayingbricksorlabouring in farms, or as domestic helps.Many are reduced to begging on thestreetswith their children.While those belonging to the domi-

nant castes undertakemigration for up-wardmobility, theDalitsandAdivasisareunabletogainbenefitsasthesystemfur-ther disadvantages them in the urbanspatiality, according to a research pub-lished in 2019by SChandrashekhar andArupMitra.We need solid social welfare pro-

grammes.Acountrycan’tclaimanyvalueif it doesn’t protect its weakest sections.The recent exodus ofmigrantworkers istheoutcomeofaninefficientadministra-

tionand the insensitivityofpolicy advisors, includingthePrimeMinister,towardsthepoor,DalitsandAdivasis.Imagesofmanyof them

who returned to villageskeptquarantinedinabysmalquarters is reminiscent of“cordonsanitaire”or“puttingthe impure people inside abarbedwire, into a sort of acage”, as Ambedkar des-cribed in his magisterialtreatise The Untouchables.Thelatter live inpermanentsegregation.

Theramificationsof coronaviruswilloutlast the pandemic’s threat. Bigotsmay get scientific validation to adjudi-cate untouchability.The administration should make

immediatearrangements for the rehabi-litation of displacedmigrants and createopportunities for themtosurvive.Crisis testshumanity in itsworst form.

Notjustthepoor,eventheminoritieshavebeentargetedbythosetryingtogiveCOVID-19acommunalcolour.Let’shopethispan-demicunitesusbeyondthevestigesofcastedivides and class hatred. If we are able toovercomethepandemicbyburningdownthe regimeof caste,wewill have trulyde-featedcoronavirus.Afterall,thispandemichassuccessfullymadeusacross theworlduntouchablesofmoderntimes.

SurajYengde,authorofCasteMatters,curatesthefortnightly ‘Dalitality’column

The total lack ofempathy of themiddle classtowards migrants isseated in their placein the labourhierarchy, which isright at the bottom,with them engagedin low-paying jobs

DalitalitySURAJYENGDETwitter@Surajyengde

The caste factor insocial distancing

10THESUNDAYEXPRESS,APRIL5,2020

THEOUTBREAK TheWorld

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

BANGLADESH

GovtextendsshutdowntoApril11Dhaka: Bangladesh onSaturday extended thenationwide transportshutdown till April 11 asthe country recorded itsbiggest single-day in-creaseofCOVID-19caseswith nine new positivetests,takingthecountry'stotal to 70. The countryreported two moredeaths,takingthetotalfa-talitiestoeight,accordingtodata. Thetallyof infec-tions increase to 70 afterninemorepeople,includ-ingtwochildrenagedun-der10, testedpositive.Thisisthebiggestjumpinpositive tests over a 24-hour period sinceBangladesh announcedits first casesonMarch8

InDhaka.Reuters

PANDEMICWATCH

SINGAPORE

SixthCOVID-19deathreported,casestop1,100Singapore: Singapore onSaturdayreporteditssixthdeath from the coron-avirus as the confirmedcases rose to 1,114, thehealthministrysaid,adayafter PrimeMinister LeeHsien Loong announcedhome-based learning forschoolchildrenandclosureofmostworkplacestocurbthe spreadof thedisease.Lee, during a televisedspeech to Singaporeans,said hewasworried thatunless "we take furthersteps,thingswillgraduallygetworse or another bigclustermay push thingsovertheedge".

AUSTRALIA

SikhcommunitydeliversfoodtothoseinneedMelbourne:TheSikhcom-munity in Australia isworking tirelessly to de-liver freemeals and gro-ceriestopeoplestrugglingwith self-isolation and fi-nancialhardshipamidthecoronaviruscrisis.TheSikhVolunteersAustralia(SVA)hascalleduponfamiliesinVictoriatoreachouttothegroup for freemeal deliv-eries.Thegroup,whichhasover a dozen of deliveryvans and only 20 volun-teers, delivermore than800meals aday. "Theini-tiativewas started threeyears ago in South EastpartofMelbourneandwehave been serving freefood packs to those inneed..." SVA memberManpreet Singh said onSaturday.

AGENCIESAPRIL4

THE UNITED States recordednearly1,500deathsfromCOVID-19betweenThursdayandFriday,according to the Johns HopkinsUniversitytracker,theworst24-hourdeathtollgloballysincethepandemicbegan.With 1,480 deaths counted

between 8.30 pm (0030 GMT)Thursday and the same timeFriday, according to the univer-sity's continuouslyupdated fig-ures, thetotalnumberofpeoplewhohavedied since the start ofthe pandemic in the UnitedStates isnow7,406.PresidentDonaldTrumphas

recommended Americans tocovertheir faceswithscarvesorhomemade clothmasks whilegoingoutsidetocurbthespreadof the coronavirus though hewouldnotwearonehimself.Citing the US Centre for

Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), Trump urged people towear facecoverings like scarvesor homemade clothmasks, andto keep medical-grade masksavailableforthehealthworkers.“TheCDCisadvisingtheuseof

non-medical cloth face coveringasanadditionalvoluntarypublichealthmeasure,” Trump told re-portersduringapressbriefingattheWhiteHouseonFriday."TheCDCisnotrecommend-

ing the use of medical-grade orsurgical-grade masks. Thoseneeds to be used for medicalpeopleworking to save lives ofAmericans,"hesaid.However,Trumpsaidhewill

not follow that guidance. "I justdon't want towear onemyself,it'sarecommendation,"hesaid."SomehowsittingintheOval

Office behind that beautifulResoluteDesk,thegreatResoluteDesk,Ithinkwearingafacemaskas I greet presidents, dictators,kings, queens, I don't know, Idon't see it formyself,"hesaid.

ALANFEUERNEWYORK,APRIL4

NEWYORK,theincreasinglybat-tered epicentre of the nation’scoronavirusoutbreak,onFridayreported its highest number ofdeaths in a single day, prompt-ing state officials to beg the restof the United States for assis-tanceandtoenactanemergencyorderdesignedtostaveoffmed-ical catastrophe.Inthe24hoursthrough12am

onFriday,562people—oroneal-mosteverytwo-and-a-halfmin-utes—diedfromthevirusinNewYork State, bringing the totaldeathtolltonearly3,000,doublewhat itwas only three days be-fore. In the same period, 1,427newly sickenedpatients pouredintothehospitals—anotherone-day high—although the rate ofincrease in hospitalizationsseemed to stabilise, suggestingsocial-distancingmeasuresmayhavestartedworking.Despitetheglimmerofhope,

thenewstatisticswereastarkre-minder of the gale-forcestrength of the crisis that is

threatening New York, wheremore than 102,000 people —nearly as many as in Italy andSpain, thehardest-hitEuropeancountries — have now testedpositive for the virus. The situa-tion, as it has been for weeks,wasparticularlydireinNewYorkCity,wheresomehospitalshavereported running out of bodybags and others have begun toplan for the unthinkableprospectof rationingcare.“It is hard to put fully into

wordswhatweare all grapplingwith as we navigate our waythrough this pandemic,”Vicki L.LoPachin, chiefmedical officerofMountSinaiHealthSystem,wroteinanemail to the staff onFriday.“Wearehealingsomanyandcom-fortingthosewecan’tsave—onepreciouslifeatatime.” NYT

OTHERTOPGLOBAL STORIES

ADITIKHANNALONDON,APRIL4

KEIR STARMER, the formershadow Brexit Secretary, onSaturdayemergedasthewinnerof a three-way race to replaceJeremy Corbyn as the Leader oftheUK'sOppositionLabourparty.The57-year-oldwaselected

after he defeated RebeccaLong-Bailey and Indian-originMPLisaNandy,whowereadis-tant second and third respec-tively in apostal ballot of partymembers, trade unionists andregistered supporters.In his video victory mes-

sage, Sir Keir Starmer said his

task was to "lead this greatparty into anewera,with con-fidence andhope"."Wewillshineatorchoncrit-

icalissuesandwhereweseemis-takesorfalteringgovernmentorthingsnothappening asquicklyas they should we'll challengethat and call that out," saidStarmer,theMPforHolbornandSt Pancras in London, who hadfoughtona“unity”platform.PTI

SAYING THANK YOUAchildnext toamural intributetotheNHSinPontefract,Britain,onSaturday. Britain isunlikely to lift its stringentlockdownrulesuntil theendofMay,agovernmentadvisersaidonSaturdayas thedeathtoll roseby708 in24hours. Reuters

REUTERSMADRID,APRIL4

THE DAILY pace of new coron-avirus infections and deaths inSpainslowedagainonSaturdayasPrimeMinisterPedroSanchezwas expected to announce anew extension to lockdownmeasures that have confinedmost Spaniards to their homesfor threeweeks.The total death toll rose to

11,744-theworld’ssecondhigh-est-onSaturdayfrom10,935theday before, the HealthMinistrysaid, representing a 7% increase

in total deaths after a 9% rise onFriday. That is less than half the

paceof thearound20%increaseregisteredaweekago.A total of 809 people died

fromthediseaseoverthepast24hours, down from Friday’s 932and Thursday’s daily record of950, the figures showed.Meanwhile,thetotalnumber

of registered infections rose to124,736 on Saturday from117,710 on Friday, when Spainovertook Italy in the total num-berof infectionsforthefirsttime.Some of Madrid’s most fa-

mous tourist sites, such as theRoyalPalaceandLasVentasbull-ring, stood eerily quiet onSaturday, as Spaniards readied

themselvesforafourthweekliv-ing under one of Europe’sstrictest lockdowns.Only employees in essential

sectorssuchashealtharefreetotravel to and from work.Restaurants, bars and shops areshuttered,andsocialgatheringsarebanned.In a press conference on

Friday,HealthMinisterSalvadorIllasaidpremierSanchezwouldcalloppositionleadersfollowingameetingofhiscoronavirustaskforce on Saturday to let themknowhisdecisiononextendingthe lockdown from the currentenddateofApril 13.

PRESSTRUSTOFINDIAISLAMABAD,APRIL4

A PAKISTANI lawmaker has ap-pealed to the United Nations toform a commission to probe ifcoronavirus is aman-madeor anaturally grown virus and alsotrace its origin, according to amedia report.Former interiorminister and

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)SenatorRehmanMalik,inalettertoUNSecretaryGeneralAntonioGuterres,suggestedtheproposedcommissiononCOVID-19underUN Convention on BiologicalWeapons, 1975might compriseof virologists, scientists, profes-sors,researchers,analystsandex-perts inmicrobiology and virol-ogy, theDawnNewsreported.“Many claims, speculations,

conspiracytheoriesandmisinfor-mation about the disease havefoundtheirwayintotheinterna-tionalprintandelectronicmedia,blurringdistinctionbetweenrealandfakenews,”hesaid.Hesaidthathewasnotblam-

ing any government or a grouporlevellinganyallegationoren-dorsing any media report.However, he added, he haddrawnGuterres’attentiontoap-prehensionsbeingshownbytheinternationalmedia.

AMYQIN&CAOLIAPRIL4

LIUPEI’ENheldthesmallwoodenboxthatcontainedhisfather’sre-mains.Only twomonthsago,hehad helplessly clutched his fa-ther’s frail hand as the elderlymantookhis lastbreath,andthepainwasstill raw.Hewept.But therewas little time, or

space,forLiutogrieve.Hesaidof-ficials inWuhanhad insisted onaccompanyinghimtothefuneralhome and were waiting anx-iouslynearby.Later,theyfollowedhimtothecemeterywhere theywatchedhimbury his father, hesaid. Liu sawone of hisminderstaking photos of the funeral,whichwasover in20minutes.“Myfatherdevotedhiswhole

lifetoservingthecountryandtheparty,” Liu, 44,whoworks in fi-nance,saidbyphone.“Onlytobesurveilledafterhisdeath.”Formonths, the residents of

Wuhanhadbeentoldtheycouldnot pick up the ashes of their

lovedoneswhohaddiedduringtheheightofChina’scoronavirusoutbreak.Nowthattheauthori-ties say the epidemic is undercontrol,officialsarepushingtherelativestoburythedeadquicklyand quietly, and they are sup-pressingonlinediscussionof fa-talities as doubts emerge aboutthe truesizeof the toll.As China tries to control the

narrative, the police inWuhan,wherethepandemicbegan,havebeen dispatched to break upgroups on WeChat, a popularmessagingapp,setupbytherel-atives of coronavirus victims.Government censors havescrubbed images circulating onsocialmediashowingrelativesinthecityliningupatfuneralhomestocollectashes.Officialshaveas-signedminders to relatives likeLiu, to follow themas they pickburial plots, claim their lovedones’ remains and bury them,grievingfamilymemberssay.“Where is the dignity after

death?”Liuasked.“Whereisthehumanity?” NYT

Americansshouldwear facemaskswhileoutside, recommendsTrump—thensayshewon’t

Workersobservesilence inHunan onSaturdayasChinaholdsmourningfor thosewhodiedofCOVID-19.Reuters

ASSOCIATEDPRESSPARIS,APRIL4

AMANwieldingaknifeattackedresidentsventuringouttoshopina townunder lockdownsouthofthe French city of LyonSaturday,killingtwopeopleandwoundingothers,prosecutorssaid.Theanti-terrorismprosecu-

tor's office told The AssociatedPress theattacktookplaceat11a.m. in a commercial street inRomans-sur-Isere. The allegedattackerwas arrestedbypolicenearby. Prosecutors did notidentify him. They said he hadno documents but claimed to

be Sudanese and to have beenborn in1987.Prosecutorssaidotherpeople

were also injured but couldn'tconfirmmediareportsthattherewere seven other casualties, ofwhomoneisincriticalcondition.Theyalsodidnotconfirmreportsthatthemanhadshouted“Allahuakbar”(Godisgreat)ashecarriedouttheattack.Theofficesaiditisevaluating

whether the attack was moti-vatedbyterrorism,butthatithasnot launched any formal pro-ceedings to treat it as such.Like the rest of France, the

town's residents are on coron-avirus-linked lockdown.

US reports highest 1-day toll of 1,480New York statepleads for aid asdeath count soars

U.S., RUSSIA SPAROVERDELIVERYOFRELIEFMATERIAL

ANODDnewfront intheUS-RussianrivalryhasemergedasaRussianmilitarycargoplanebearinga loadofurgentlyneededmedical supplieslandedat JFKairport

RUSSIACAST it asmagnanimousaidsupplytoastrugglingcountry.Trumpreferredtotheshipmentas“aid,”andsaid itwas“averyniceoffer” fromPutin

THEUSStateDepartmentinsistedthat thedeliverywasamerecommercialtransaction: that theUShadpaidRussia for thesupplies itneeded,albeitatadiscount,andthatitwasn’tagift

China pushes forquiet burials amiddeath toll questions

Probe if virusmanmade, traceorigin: Pakistanlawmaker to UN

InPeshawar,Saturday. AP

Spain’s daily toll falls for 2nd day in row

Neighbourschat fromtheirbalconies inMadrid. Reuters

France: Knifeman kills2 in attack on passersby

Trump fires intelofficial with keyimpeachment roleWashington: President DonaldTrump has announced he wasfiring a senior intelligence offi-cialwhohadacentralroleinthecomplaint last August thatsparkedhis impeachment trial.In a letter to the Senate

Intelligence Committee onFriday, Trump said he had lostconfidenceinMichaelAtkinson.Atkinsonreviewedandtrans-

mitted an anonymouswhistle-blower'scomplaintinAugustthatalleged Trumphad sought per-sonalpoliticalfavorsfromUkrainein violation of US law. The com-plaint became the basis forTrump's impeachment,which includeda trial for removal in theSenateinJanuary. AFP

UK: Keir Starmer emergesnew leader of Labour party

KeirStarmer

Reuters

Aprotest tocall for thereleaseofdetainedimmigrants inColorado,citingthepandemic. AP

WHILEGLOBALbodieshavesofaradviseduseofmasksbyor-dinary citizens only in caseswhen they are sick or coughing.Some in the Trump administrationwere reportedly uncom-fortablewithchangingthis.Theycalledforthedirectivetoap-plyonlytotheworst-hitareas.Othersfeltwearingmaskswouldlead topeopleneglecting social distancing,which is still seenasthemosteffectivemeasure.WithexpertsfeelingthatTrumpundercut theCDCadvisorybysayinghewouldnotwearone,it isunclear if themovewillyieldthedesired impact.

Effectofredrawingofficialguidelinesmaybelimited

AGENCEFRANCE-PRESSEKABUL,APRIL4

AFGHAN FORCES have arrestedthe leader of the country'sIslamic State group affiliate andthemastermind behind the at-tackonagurudwara lastmonththat killed 25worshippers, au-thorities saidSaturday.TheNational Directorate of

Security(NDS)saidinastatementthat AslamFarooqi, also knownasAbdullahOrakzai,hadbeenar-rested alongwith 19 othermenina"complexoperation".Speaking on condition of

anonymity, an NDS official told

AFPFarooqiwasthemastermindbehindanIS-claimedattackonaSikhtemple inKabul lastmonththatkilledat least25people.KnownasIslamicStateinthe

Khorasan (IS-K), the Afghan ISbranchhasbeenonitsbackfootinrecent months. In November,Afghan officials said IS-K hadbeen completely defeated inNangarhar,oneofthekeyeasternprovinceswheretheyfirstsoughttoestablishastrongholdin2015.In the years since, they have

claimed responsibility for astring of horrific bombingsacrossAfghanistan.Initsstatement,theNDSsaid

Farooqi had admitted to havinglinkswith"regional intelligenceagencies"— a clear reference toPakistan, which AfghanistanroutinelyblamesforsupportingjihadistsandhelpingtheTaliban.

Afghan forces arrest IS leaderbehind attack on gurudwara

At least25peoplewerekilled intheattack.Reuters/File

T H E S U N D A Y E X P R E S S M A G A Z I N EAPRIL 5, 2020 | WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM | PAGE 11

eye ARTSETC

A Humane HeartParvati Sharma on a writer’s

role in an anxious world

Manjula Padmanabhan

NO TIME for tears! Roshanscoldedherself,evenashereyeswelledup. Shepulledthe knot of her long blackhair tight behindher headand called to her eight-

year-old son, “Tuktuk!”Hervoicewasmuf-fled by hermask. “The vanwill be here anyminute.”TheylivedinGardenEstate,whichwas the closest point to the MillenniumMedicalCentre,fartothesouthofNewDelhi.Sheguessedthey’dbethelasttobecollectedontheearlymorning run.Shesnatchedupthehousekeysandhur-

riedtowardsthefrontdoor,pausingbywhatusedtobetheguestroom.“Ash?”shecalledtoherhusband.“We’regoingnow.”Shewasabout to add, “It’s alright, don’t come out”,buthedid, anyway.His facewas grey, unshaven. He hadn’t

changedout of his pyjamas indays.Hemether gaze and whispered, “What you andTuktuk are doing is ...God’s work.” Then hisvoicecrackedandheturnedaway,weeping.Theroomwasindarkness.ButRoshancouldsee, on the floor behind him, the goldenmoundofmarigoldsstill laidoutonawhitesheet,intheshapeofasmallbody.Therewas,of course, nothing beneath the flowers.Mourning familieswerenotallowedevenalastgoodbye.SheandTuktukrushedoutoftheflat.The

young boy looked like an astronaut, in hisshinywhite suit, gloves andboots.His curlyblackhair framedtheblueface-mask. Ithadtranslucentbreathingtubescurlingoutfromthe nostrils. Roshanwore regular clothes:black slacks, pearl-grey turtleneck jumper,blackpuffyjacket. Itwasearlyintheyearandtheairwas icy.Theyrandownthreefloors.Sureenough,

thewhitetransporthadjustdrawnup,withtheflashingredlightonitsroof.Theyscram-bledinthroughthereardoor.Theywerethelast to be collected. Four other parents andtheir childrenwerealreadystrapped in.The vehicle raced through the broad,

empty avenues of Gurgaonwith the sirenwhooping. The sky was black, encrustedwithstars.Thetoweringbuildingsoneithersideweredark and lifeless, all the residentsand offices having closed after successivelockdowns. There was no traffic: the sirenwasmeant to alert checkpoints along theway that a transport was coming throughandmustnotbehalted.The Centrewas believed to be themostadvancedmedicalfacilityevercreated.Itwasvisible fromafar,blazing likeapermanentdawnoverthehori-zon. The structure, when itcame into view, resembled aglittering honeycombmadeof plate-glass. The vancleared through the check-

pointswithouttriggeringanyalarms.Thenitplunged into thedepths likeawhitebee re-turning tobase.Tuktuk had been silent all theway. But

when the two of them got out and werewalking towards the ZeeZeeHub alongsidedozens of others, he clutched Roshan’sglovedhandwithhisownsmallerone.“Mumma?”hewhispered,intothe

microphone inhishelmet.She wore earbuds and a discrete

mouth-mic.“Whatisit,sweetie?”“Whathappensif Ican’t?”Sheknewwhathemeant.

“Sweetie, you’ll be fine,”she said, hoping shesoundedsincere.“Yes,but—”Therewasnotimetostop.Around

them, walking with the same air ofsteelypurposewereotherparentsandchildren.AllthechildrenweredressedjustlikeTuktuk.Thereweregirls,withtheir hair in long plaits or ponytails.Some boys had shaven heads.Somehadturbans.Roshan said, “Whatever

happens, there’snodangertoyou.Nodangeratall.”“But—”Ahead of them, they could

hear a wordless murmuring.Therewasalsoanundercurrentofbings, chirpsandbooms.The corridorwidened gradually, so that

thetransitiontotheenormousundergroundHubwasnottooabrupt.Asthemurmursanddingsgrewlouder, tall figureswearingdeepbluehelmetsandmatchinguniformsbeganto appear. They called themselves ZeeZeeHosts. Their faces were hidden, yet theyseemedtobesmilingwiththeirwholebod-ies, as they greeted the youngwarriors andtheirparents.Then the first ZeeZee stations came into

view.RoshanheardTuktukgaspinamazement.Eachone looked like ahugebubblemadeoffrostedglass.Manywerelit fromwithin.Theyglowedand flashed inmulti-colours, accom-paniedbymuffledsoundeffects.“Hello!” said someone. One of the

blue-uniformed figures. She bent forward,addressing Tuktuk first, then Roshan.

“You’re…”atinypauseasherhelmetscan-ner read information from the boy’s facemask,“...Tuktuk!Yourfirsttime?Welcome!I’mMimi. Followme?”Allaroundthem,otherparentsandtheir

children were trotting obediently behindtheir individual hosts. Tuktuk clutched hismother’shandeventighter.Roshanclutchedback. But she no longer felt anxious. Theplacehadanunexpectedly festive air.Mimiledthemthroughthemazeofoccupiedsta-tionsuntil she came to ahalt beside adark-enedone.“Here,” she said. “This one’s for first-

timers.” Thedoor slidbackather touchandshestoodaside, letting theother two in.

As soon as the door slid shut behind allthree,theinteriorlitup. Itrevealedacockpitbristlingwith twinkling instruments insidea child-sized spaceship. The details were acleverly designed video projection curvingaround the raised and padded comman-

der’s throne. The only physicalequipmentwas,infact,thethrone.Thecubiclefilledwiththethrum-

ming sound of a space-craft idling in space, asthestar-strewnblack-ness of the cosmossurrounded themonall sides.Roshan suppressed a

smilebehindherglovedhand.“Assoonas I strapyou inhere,

Commander Tuktuk,” Mimi wassaying, “your ship will power up.Okaywith that?”Roshan couldn’t see her son’sface,butsheknewthathissmallroundmouthwouldbeopenand his eyes widewithwonder and delight.“Yes,” he said now,

his voice sounding clearly in herears. “Yes!Ofcourse!”Hejumpedupandintohisseatasreadilyasifhe’d spent his entire young lifedoingnothingelse.

Forthenext20minutes,Mimiguidedthe boy through the rudiments of com-

mandingafully-weaponisedspacevehicle,equippedtodestroyenemyfighters.Hewasso eager to begin his first solomission thathe refused the offer of a chocolate slurpee.Leaning forward in his seat, he called out,“Secure all decks!” in clear, piping tones.Mimi had taught him the start sequence.“Raise shields…ENGAGE!”The engines roared to life and, immedi-

ately, the field of vision began to fill withspeckles of light speeding towards him.“Incoming!”criedTuktuk.“Enemyfighters!”Mimistraightenedup.TurningtoRoshan,

shegesturedtowardstherearof thecubicle.Therewasanarrowbenchthere,justenoughfortwo.Shedrewdownatransparentparti-tion to reduce theaudio. Thenshe removedher helmet. She wore a face-mask under-neath.“Onemorewarriorlaunched,Ithink!”

shesaid,hereyes smiling.Roshansmiledback.“Hedidn’teventurn

to look atme!” They both laughed. “So: tellme. How does this work?What connectsthese littlewarriors to theviruses?”Mimisaid,“It’sasimulationlinkedtopa-

tients, via themedical centre’s HyperNet.”She directed Roshan’s attention back to thedisplay. “See those enemy fighters? They’remake-believe.Butonceyoursonhitsenoughof those practice enemies precisely, he’ll beconnected by remote links to an actual pa-tient, in themedicalwingupstairs.Tuktuk’smovementswill be scaled down to themi-croscopic level until they can act on instru-ments too tiny to be seen. They’reminutemachines thatwe’ve constructed andposi-tionedinsidethepatient’slungs.Likeminus-culemissiles.Eachmissilecarriesmoleculesof virus-busting fluid—”“Wait! There are no drugs against this

virus!”exclaimedRoshan.Mimi nodded. “That’s right. No drugs.

We’re usingmolecules of soap.” She smiledagain.“Thevirushasathinoutershellof fattytissue. Soap breaks up the tissue. That’swhyhandwashingissoimportant:it really does disable the virus.Without its outer coating, thevirus loses the tiny prickles itusestohookontohumancells!”No hooks, no infection, no

death. “We need effective vac-cines. But until then, this is thebest we can do,” saidMimi. “It’s ex-tremely desperate! Using children aswar-riors, for goodness’ sake!What’smoredes-perate than that?”Roshanwatched Tuktuk, now swaying

androckinginhisseatasdozensofspikyob-jects camewhirling and twisting towardshim.Boom!Gotone.Andanother—BOOM!Pom.DING!Whee—“Kids!” said Mimi. “For them, it’s just

videogames.Eachvirusisworthathousandpoints. They compete against one anotherandearnmoneyas theygo—10,000pointsisonerupee.Theycankeepat it forhours—oh! See the little glowing blob? That’s therealthing—arealcoronavirus.He’sbeenas-signedapatient!”Bothwomen leaned forward in excite-

ment. Tuktuk swung the electron beam ofhis ship’s primary canon thisway and that,sending out shattering blasts of green lightuntil,withanabruptboom,hehittheblob.Itburst open. Thousands of wriggling frag-ments shot into thevoid, fadedanddied.“Zee-Zee-Zee!” shrieked the virus as it

collapsed. “Zee-Zee-Zee!”Roshan felt a radiant joy awakenwithin

herself.Yes, she thought.Wewillwin thiswar.

ManjulaPadmanabhanisanauthor,playwrightandcartoonist.HernovelThe IslandofLostGirls is

set inabrutal futureworld.She lives intheUS,withahomeinNewDelhi

As history and contagion literature have shown, even thedarkest of nights is followed by day. In this short

speculative story, a video gamer is determined to changethe course of a pestilence

ZeeZeeWarriors

The engines roared to lifeand, immediately, the field ofvision began to fill withspeckles of light speedingtowards him. ‘Incoming!’cried Tuktuk. ‘Enemy

fighters!’

CORONAVIRUS has made usawareofthefragilityofourlives.Wearelearningthatdespitethedeadendsanddetours,weneedtomoveforward.Aswenavigate

thisuncharteredterritory,onethingthatcanguide us through theworst storms, rough-estterrainsanddarkesttimesisourCourage.Courage is an acronym I use to highlightsevencorepracticeswewillneedinthisun-precedented journey. Because as Americannovelist Anais Nin put it, “Life shrinks or ex-pands inproportion toone’s courage.”

C: Change the channelOneofthebiggestchallengesthattheco-

ronapanicisposingisthatitismakingusfeelhelpless and hopeless. It is shrieking andcrowding our minds with the worst-casescenarios.Nowonderwearefeelingfrazzled,exhausted and on edge. Corona’s voice ofdoomistoughtotuneout. Ithasalreadyter-rorised our economy, taken thousands oflives, and now it is ready to tyrannise ourminds. Notmuch of a surprise consideringall the horror stories we are feeding ourminds all the time. It is becoming a fertilegroundforfeartobreed.Imagineifwestoodup to fear-mongeringpropagandaand tookactivestepstodoallthingsthatgiveuspeaceand joy. Throughmy co-researchwith chil-dren, we have developed a simple trick tostop corona panic in its tracks:Alert to thevoiceof coronapanicchurningawayitssto-riesofdoomandgloom,Breatheout(imag-ine you are a dragon blowing a feather on

your hand) and get up and Change thechannel (from coronaworry to joy channelthrough dancing, art, music, gardening,knitting, cooking, yogaetc.).

O: Owning our lightJKRowlingdescribed “dementors” as —

“get toonearaDementor andeverygood feel-ing, everyhappymemorywillbesuckedoutofyou”.Coronapanicisdoingpreciselythattoallof us. As our jobs becomeuncertain, our fu-turebleak,wegrapplewithinsecurities,self-doubtsandinadequacies,“WillIbeabletogoto college?” “Will I lose my job?” All thedreamsandaspirations for the futuremightseemmeaningless.A23-year-oldyoungmanwhohad invested a lot of time and effort inmakingfilmstoldmedespondently,“Iusedtobe passionate aboutworkingwith childrenwithdisability,but it seemssofutilenow.”That iswhat corona panic does— it dis-

tracts us fromwhat trulymatters to us bypumping in a lot of obsessive paranoia.Therefore,itbecomesallthemoreimportantto hold on to what you value themost nomatterwhat the corona panic tries to con-vinceyouof.

U: Us against coronaCorona panic has a devious knack of

splittingpeopleupthrough“othering”.Therecent spate of vicious racism directed atpeople from the Northeast is a typical ex-ample of this. There is no “us and them”here,weare all in this together. “Humanityneedstomakeachoice.Willwetraveldownthe route of disunity, or will we adopt thepath of global solidarity? If we choose dis-unity, this will not only prolong the crisis,but will probably result in evenworse ca-tastrophes in the future.” These words byhistorianYuvalNoahHarari really resonatewithalotofusaswegrapplewiththeinter-continental journey of the virus sweepingacrossborders. I loved theway thiswasex-plainedsosimplybya13-year-oldwhotoldme: “If each team player plays for himself,thentheteamwill lose. It isourmatchwithcorona too, andwe are losing until we be-comestrong teamplayers.”

R: RemaincompassionateBeing quarantined is a privilege. That is

somethingthat isbecomingobvioustoallofus. From the comfort of our homes,we talkaboutthejoyofslowingdown,savouringmo-mentswithourfamilies,loiteringthroughtheday aimlessly and posting pictures of grati-tude. However, the trauma to themargin-alisedandthemostvulnerable issomethingwewillonlygettounderstandinthemonthsandyearstocome.Activistsaroundtheworldaretalkingabouttheriseindomesticviolenceandabuseduringthelockdowns.Think:thereare 18million street children in our countryalone.Where do they go,who takes care oftheirmeals, who looks out for themwhenadultswhoaresupposedtoprotectthembe-comepredators? It is also heartening to seeeffortsbeingmadebysomanyorganisationsto stepup.Wehave tomake compassiongoviral in the comingmonths so that togetherweweather the storm and build our inter-connected livesback.

A: A day at a timeThe lockdown has disrupted our daily

rhythm, especially for young people in theagegroupof15to21.There isnothingmuchtodo,nowhere togoandnobody tomeet.A19-year-olddescribeditasa“weirdsenseofvacuum”,asentimentechoedbymanyoth-ers. This void can spiral intodepressionandother mental health problems if leftunchecked. Inmy co-research I have foundthat what helps people is finding at leastthreeanchorsthroughthedaywhichbringsin stillness (yoga,meditation, walks), culti-vatingjoyousmomentsandconnectionwithpeoplewe love.

G: Growing our tribe“Weareallinthistogether,”ispoppingup

everywhereandpeoplearerebuildinguniquebridgesinuniqueways.Forgottenfriends,rel-atives are being remembered and connec-tions are beingmade. As a 21-year-old ex-plained tome, “Structures of individualismandneoliberalismhavetogivewaytostruc-turesofempathy.” It remindedmeofAletterto the UK from Italy by thewriter FrancescaMelnadri,“Oldresentmentsandfalling-outswillseemirrelevant.Youwillcallpeopleyouhadswornnevertotalktoeveragain,soastoaskthem: ‘Howareyoudoing?’’

E: Enduring adversityVictor E Frankl, Jewish psychiatrist and

Holocaust survivor, expressed it beautifullyinhisbrilliantbook,Man’sSearchforMeaning,“Everything can be taken from a (wo)manbut one thing: the last of human freedoms—tochooseone’sattitudeinanygivensetofcircumstances, tochooseone’sway.” Fear isinevitable in the present time but, courageand fear can go hand in hand. AndrewSolomon, author of Far from The Tree, talksabout howcrucial it is for us to takeour ad-versity and forge somemeaning out of it.Thinkofonepersonyouadmiredeeply,whochangedtheworld for thebetter. It couldbeNelsonMandela, Mother Teresa,MahatmaGandhi,DalaiLama.Inalltheseamazingpeo-ple’s lives, adversity has been a catalyst forthemto findmeaning in their life andbringaboutthechange.AsSolomonsoeloquentlyexplains it, “If you banish the dragons, youbanishtheheroes.”Hatsoff toall theheroesacross theworldwhohavebeenslaying thecoronadragon.Courage is not a trait or a quality; it is a

practice—tokeepmovingforward,tochooseone’sattitude,tobecompassionatewithoutdiscrimination, tonot letadversitytodefineusandliveourlivesasclosetowhatwevaluethemost.Nomatterwhat.

DrSheljaSen istherapist,writerandco-founderofChildrenFirst,

achild&adolescentmentalhealth institute.Writetoshelja.sen@childrenfirstindia.com

RECOMMENDEDREADING

Books by (from left)Jay Griffiths, Richard

Dawkins and TaraWestover can help

counter unscientificbeliefs and arguments

Viral TrapThe surfeit of news on coronamust not make us oblivious tothose fading into the darkness

IWOKEUPtheotherdaywithastrange feeling that Iamlosingmymemory.As Iwasgoing throughthemorning ritualsof scrolling throughnews feedsandsocialmediaupdates, I felt that I couldnot re-

member theworldbeforecorona—BC, if youwill. Itwasastrange feeling. I amalmost certain that threeweeksago,before thepandemicwasannounced,before theshutdownswere implemented,before socialdistancingandphysical isolationbecamethebywords, theremusthavebeenother things thatwereonmymindand inmyinformationstreams.Tryas Imight, I couldonlycomeupwithvaguerecollectionsaboutevents,people,places, andplans thatmusthaveoccupiedmyattention.Thefeelingofpreternaturalamnesiawascomple-

mentedthroughtherhythmsof theday.At“work”, I satatmydesk inadress-shirtandpyjamas,makinganat-tempttomakeonlythecamera-visiblepartsofmework-presentable.Wejokedhowwehaveforgottentowearworkclothes.Thevirushadrenderedussartoriallycata-tonic.Thenewsfeedwasmakingmesickbecausethenewschannelswereconcentratingonthestateofbefud-dledbuffoonery inglobalgovernanceof thispandemic.So, I shiftedtootherchannels,only to findthat they, too,weretalkingabouteverything inthecontextof corona:dating,mating,eating,meeting, cooking,creating,house-keepingandpet-keeping,all in thetimesof corona.Unabletotakethiscontagiousonslaught, Imovedto

NetflixtowatcharealityTVshow,buthadtostopmid-waythroughthefirstepisodebecauseeverytimeIsawpeopletouch,hug,orsitclosetoeachother,myspideysensestingled.Mynewfoundpathologyof touchandspacecouldnottoleratethesepeopleexistinginapre-co-ronaworld,vegetatinginoneanother’sgermyexudation.It isunderstandable thatwithsuchaglobal threat to

ourspecies, a lotof ourattention isbeingtakenbytheemergingcalisthenicsof epidemiologyasnewepicen-tresof contagionemerge.However,oursingle-handedfocusandviral informationstreamof thevirushastrappedus.Whenourphysicaluniverseshrank,at leastfor thosewhocouldafford it, thereassurancewasthatdigitalaccesswill liberateus fromour isolation. Instead,wefoundandarepractisingdigital shrinkage,whereourentire informationaluniverse isbeingshapedandcon-centratedonjust thisonefactor thatbindsandrestricts

us.Beforewegot infectedandimmobilisedbythisvirus,wehadalreadybeenboundandbaggedbythe informa-tioncirclesof thevirus—whereendlessWhatsAppgroupsandnever-endingnewscycleskeepus immersedonly inthisone landscape, ignoringtheothercritical, cu-rious,andcreativethingsthatmakeushuman.Thereare twoalarmingconsequencesof this infor-

mationsaturationof thecoronacrisis.One, it takes itstoll onourcollectivewell-being,wherewegetaddictedto theupdateswhichgiveusaconstant streamof trafficwithoutgivingusanynewinformation. It intensifiesourfeelingsof being trapped, amplifyingour isolationas theonlydefiningconditionso thatwe let itdeepenoursenseof precariousnessanddangerevenwhen it isnotmateriallywarranted. Thiswouldaccount forpeople,whocanafford towork fromhome, flooding the inter-webwithmemes,darkhumour,politicalpontificationandsocial commentary, about their toughnegotiationswith reformulating their lives.Thesecond,moresinister consequenceof this infor-

mational cloistering is thatweturn the focusof ourexis-tenceonlyonourselves.Nowthatweall experienceathreat that isonly reflected inall our informationalprac-tices,weget soensconced inourover-exaggerated in-conveniences thatwe forget to recognise thosewhoaregoing tosuffer themost in this changingworldorder.Our filterbubblesaregoing toensure thatweworryaboutwherewewill findour favouritebrandof olivesorcansof pet food, andstockpileongroceries,whilemil-lionsaregoing tobe left to fend for their rights to lifeandsecurity.Wewillmeme indarknessof thedarkness,notpayingattention to thosewhoshall fade into it.While themediaattentioncycleswill continue to

forcecoronastoriesdownour throat, it isup tous tode-velopanewinformationhygieneroutine,wherewedonot let this landscapeof alarmandbreakingnews im-mobiliseouremotional andsocial landscapes. Just aswepractise socialdistancingandhandhygiene in thephysi-calworld,weneedtodevelopnewroutinesof informa-tionaldistancing fromthecorona-centric storiesandof-ferourhelpinghands to thosewhodonothave theprivilegesandprotections thatyouand I, andeverybodyelse reading this column, can take forgranted.

NishantShahNishantShahisaprofessorofnewmediaandtheco-founderofTheCentre forInternet&Society,Bengaluru

DIGITALNATIVE

S P O T L I G H T12EYE , THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE

APRIL 5, 2020

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We will meme in darkness of thedarkness, not paying attention to

those who shall fade into it● ● ●

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NOWTHATMother Nature has thewholeworldbythethroat,it’stimewetookanothergoodhardlookatourrelationshipwithher–andhowwe’ve reacted to thismonumentalcrisis. Judgingbysomeof theWhatsAppfor-wardsdoingtheroundsinIndia,itseemsthemagnitudeof thecrisishasbeencompletelyovershadowed by themagnitude of the ig-norance of our “educated” class.While thepoor Italians and Spaniards went out intotheirbalconiestocheerandsingfortheirbe-leagueredmedicalworkers,we, in India,didso to “spiritually cleanse” the countryof thevirus!Apparently, the chantedprayers (andclatteringpotsandpans)of1.3billionIndians,“matched the resonant frequency of the di-urnalmultipathpropagationovertheIndiansubcontinent.”Further,“scientists” saythatitwould definitely have created a ducting ef-fect in the lower troposphere,whichwouldeither trap the virus in a “continental duct”

orwould have columned the virus towardsthestratosphere”.Andheypresto, inaweek,all theviruseswouldbeductedaway!To counter this astonishing “scientific”

balderdash,here’sabrief listofbooksIwouldstrongly recommend. First, a goodmind-clearingdoseofRichardDawkins.Youcouldstart off with his book, TheMagic of Reality(2011). It’s beenwritten for young readersbutthatmakes iteveneasier tounderstand.Dawkinstakesvariousquestions—whowasthefirstperson?Whyaretheresomanydif-ferent kinds of animals?What are thingsmadeof?—andanswersthemintwoways:first,hementionssomeofthetraditionalex-planations that have been given by peopleall over the world and counterpoints thiswith the scientific explanation of the phe-nomenon. Sincewe’re dealingwith natureinthiscolumn,readthechapteronevolutionto start with— it has beenwonderfully ex-plained andDawkins’s diamond-hard logicis impeccable. Youmay be loath to believethat our ancestorswere fish, or centipedesor even chimpanzees —butDawkins has aclearandsimplewayofshowingusthatthisis, indeed, the case. Hopefully the bookshouldgosomewayin“ducting”thewooli-ness inourheads into thestratosphere!The second book I’d recommend is Jay

Griffiths’Wild (2006). Griffiths is a Britishjournalistwhospentyearsamongtribalandnative people around theworld. She drankpsychotropicpotionswiththeshamansoftheSouthAmerican rainforests, interactedwithcannibalsinNewGuinea(amongstthekind-estpeoplesheencountered)andthe Inuitofthe icypolarregions,amongstothers.Now, Ido have reservations about the practices of

“medicinemen”and“witchdoctors”,buttheoverarching themeof this book is that all ofthesetribeslivedasapartofandintunewithnature—anddidnot treat her as theirmainadversary, to be trampled upon, cut down,drowned,conquered,andexploited.Andthat,nomatterhow“civilized”wepretendweare,deepdown, thewildspirit remains.Anothermajor takeaway from this book

is the fact thatwhat the bat or pangolin hasdonetousisexactlywhattheEuropeandidtonativetribesallovertheworld:subjectthemto viruses (and addictions) that theyhadnoimmunityagainst,sotheydiedindroves,en-abling them to take over their lands or en-slavethem.Today,afuriousMotherNatureisshowinguswhatgoesaroundcomesaroundandwe’re not enjoying it. Apart from this,Griffiths is an incandescent, kaleidoscopicwriter whowrites with her heart and ab-solutelydoesn’tholdback.The third book I’d recommend is Tara

Westover’s Educated (2018). TaraWestoverwasbroughtup inaMormonfamilyandherparentsbelievedinandlivedaccordingtorigidtraditionalwaysandcustoms.Herfatherhada pathological suspicion of authority— and

refusedtosendhischildrentoschooloravailofmodernmedicalfacilities.Heconvertedhishouse into a virtual bunker and stockpiledeverything— food, guns, petrol, traditionalmedicines— in vast quantities. Everythingthathappened,goodorbad,wasbecausetheLordwilled it, so andnothing could bedonetochangethat.Familiar, isn’t it?But,ah,youmaysay,maybethat’swhat’s

needednow:aharkingbacktotheold,“nat-ural”ways. Not really, because there are se-riousillnessesthose“traditional”medicinescannot cure — andwhich, in this case, putherandher family— inseriousdanger. Thisbook is also a revelation as towhat a lackofproper education can lead to: and that hasbeen displayed so prominently today bymessages on social media.We are literate,maybe, educated, certainlynot.If reading is not for you, here’s another

way of getting “educated”. Everymorning,gooutintoyourbalconyorgardenandstandand stare. There’s a lot to discover: everyplant has aminiature ecosystemhummingaround it: translucent crab spiderswaitinginambush,butterfliespaying fleetingvisits,hoverfliesstandingstill inmidair.Also,peo-ple everywhere have suddenly discoveredbirdsonglikeneverbefore.Eveninbigcities,youcanpickupthesongsandcallsofatleast20species in just fiveminutes.Ah,but I’ll letyou in on a small secret. The birds haven’tcome from the hinterland in great flocks toentertainusinthistimeofcrisis!They’veal-waysbeenthere,singing,squawkingandar-guing.Wejustneverheardthemoverthein-cessant roar of traffic and the ill-temperedblaring of horns. And, yes, of course, thedisharmoniousbeatingof potsandpans!

Curriculum for a CrisisA list of books to school even the most educated on the ways of the natural world

RanjitLalRanjit Lalisanauthor,environmentalistandbirdwatcher

DOWNINJUNGLELAND

IMAGINEby Shelja Sen

It takes courage tolive with adversity

I don’t believe inGod, but I’mafraidofHim.—GabrielGarcíaMárquez, Love in theTimeof Cholera

In thedark times,will therealsobe singing?Yes, therewill alsobe singing.About thedark times.

—BertoltBrecht

1.

Faint indigo tints in thegreysof yourhairevokememory—Krishna’s love forRadha,

itsperennial longevity, its sustainedmythology,itsblue-bathed lore—suchare life’s enduring

parallels. Fourteenyears—yetmyheart flutters,infatuated like first love.Myhands fidgety,

palmssweaty,pulse too fast topick—Iamnotallowedto touchyour face.

Cyber-flurriesof emoji-love fail toassuagefearsof coronacriticality. I don’t believe inGod.

2.

In thousands,migrantworkersmarchhome—hungry footstepsonemptyhighways

accentuate irony— ‘socialdistancing’,aprivilegeonlypowerful canafford.

Cretins spraybleachonunprotectedpoor, clap,bangplates, ringbells, blowconches to rid

thevoodoo—karuna’s karmic score, infected.Mood-swings insanitisedquarantine—self-

isolation, imposed—uncontainedvirus, viral.Whenshallwesingourdream’sepiphanies?

3.

Cityweather fluctuatespromiscuously,mappingmybipolar temperature-graph—

tropic’s air-conditionerchill,winter’sunseasonalhailstorm, sky’spink-bluespring.

Blue-greywillmoult intosalt-and-pepper,ash-grey tosilver-white, then toaged-white.

My lungsheave, ingratiatingmetallic-cracklesstruggle toescape the filigreedwindpipes—

Ipersist inmyprayers. I’mafraidofHim.Hope,heed,heal—oursong, inpresent tense.

SudeepSen isapoet, translator,literaryeditorandphotographer

We need to keep moving forward, to becompassionate without discrimination and tonot let adversity define us. No matter what

by Sudeep Sen

Love in the Timeof Corona

A R T S e t c 13EYE , THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE

APRIL 5, 2020

A HumaneHeartA writer’s role in an anxiety-ridden world

Parvati Sharma

BEINGAwriter ishalf asmuchthe“being”asthewriting. I rememberat14, spendingmore time imaginingmyself an ink-stainedJo inherattic, ora salty JosephConradonthehighseasat24, thanproducingactual stories.

Likeall clichés, these two,of solitudeandadventureasessential to literature, are founded in truth.Youdoneedto think inorder towrite; andyoudoneedexperience towriteabout.Ontheotherhand, I realisedover theyearsthat it’sperfectlypossible towrite inacrowdedoffice—thinkinghappens inyourhead, afterall, nobodyneedsanemptyhillside for it—andthatadventuresdon’thaveto involve tossingwaves. Friendship isasmuchanexpe-rienceas love; readingabout thepast canbeas thrillingasdiving into thepresent.Still, if itweren’t for thatadolescentcravingfora

writer’s life, Iwouldn’twriteatall.At14and40, the ideaof anatticofmyownanda leadingrole inaHistoricalMomentheldanirresistible,propellingromance.Butwhatdid Iknow?NowI’m42, theworld ishushedandeverymoment ishistory—andIcan’twriteaword.Staying in ishardlyconducivetoproductivethought,af-terall,whengoingout isprohibited; theurgencyof ahis-toricalmoment isalso itsanxiety.As Iwrite this,22migrantworkershavediedtryingto

gethomeacrossnorth India,almostasmany—29—havesuccumbedtothedreadedvirusacross thecountry;andagovernmentorderhasdecreedthatstadiumsbe-come—nothospitals—jails.TheAmericanpresidentwants toendhiscountry’s lockdownbecausethestockmarket’sunhappy. InColumbia,deathsquadsareusingtheopportunity tokillhomeboundactivists;andHungaryhasbecometheEU’s firstcorona-inspireddicta-torship.Aglobalpandemicontheonehand,govern-mentsrevealingtheirmostmalevolentaspectsontheother–thefearhassuckedthewritingrightoutofme.Norcan I readwithmuchconcentration,but Ihave

beenstaring inglazedmanneratDanielDefoe’sAJournalof thePlagueYear (1722),hisaccountof theGreatPlagueof Londonin1665.Somebitscatchmyeye, forexample:“I couldnotprevailuponmyunsatisfiedcuriosity tostaywithinentirelymyself...”It is tempting,astheworldthreatenstocollapse

aroundus, tocollapse, inturn,uponourselves.Tospendmorehours inbed.Tobecomeobsessiveaboutdisinfect-ingdoorknobsandstockingthefridge,whenthenewsbe-comestoomuch,tokeepthedangersof theworldatbay.ButDefoe is awriter. It’s thebarhe stocks—“I

boughtmalt, andbrewedasmuchbeer as all the casks Ihadwouldhold”—andheventures into theworld. It’s a“very, very, verydreadful”world, not just becauseof theplaguebut alsobecauseofmadness andcrime,mis-

managementand fear; andevery timeDefoegoesouthe returns “[t]errified…andresolve togooutnomore”.Yethedoes.Thus,wanderingthestreetsof London,hewritesof

beingtransfixedbythesightof therich leavingthecity,“asightwhichIcouldnotbut lookonfrommorningtonight”;hewritesof the“[m]aid-servants... andmen-ser-vants”goingto fortune-tellers toask if theywouldbeabandonedbytheiremployers, “Ohsir...whatwillbe-comeofme?Willmymistresskeepme,orwill sheturnmeoff?”Hewritesof thetears inhiseyesat thestoryof aboatmanworkingdayandnight for thewifeandchildrenhecannolongermeet; theyare infected.Hewriteswithblackhumourof asleepingpiperalmostburied inamassgrave,andwithangerof thecity’s terriblecare for its sickanditspoor—“as if theyhadhadnowarning,noexpec-tation,noapprehensions,andconsequently the leastprovision imaginablewasmade...”Defoedoesn’t lethisspiritbecontractedbyfearnor

doeshe lethimself beoverwhelmedbytheexigenciesoftheself.He isasconcernedabouthisbrother’shat factory—wherehefindstheneighbourhoodwomenhelpingthemselves to itsunguardedware—ashe isabout theconsequencesof ageneral lockdowninacitybuiltondaily labour: “I say, letanymanconsiderwhatmustbethemiserableconditionof this townif,onasudden...labourshouldcease,andwages forworkbenomore.”Able toengagewiththepresentandspeaktothefuture,Defoe is the idealwriter.And—of course—heis fiction.Defoewasachild in

1665;his“journal” isanovel, thoughpossiblybasedonarelative’sexperienceof theGreatPlague.Andthewriterhisnarratorrepresents, jottingdownthesocio-politicalhorrorsof thedaywhileswigginghomemadeale—thatmaybeasmuchafantasyasanyIharboured inmyado-lescence.AssomeoneexclaimedonTwitter recently, “Apandemic isnotawritingretreat”.Maybe it isn’tpossibletowritewhenyou’re lockedupandafraidofwhattheworld isbecoming.ButDefoe’s ideaof thewriter—curious, courageous,

empathetic—his ideaof thewriter’s lifeasawriter’sduty—unable tostayentirelywithinoneself, question-ing theworldas if responsible for it—thisoffers some-thing toaspire to,morecompelling, even, than thesoli-tarygeniuswithabagfulof sailors’ tales.

ParvatiSharmaisaDelhi-basedwriter

Sushant Singh

INHERmuch-acclaimed 2017 book,Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 andHow it Changed the World, LauraSpinney recounted the story of a for-gottenpandemic,which left between

50 and100million people deadworldwide.The Paris-basedwriter and science journal-ist’swork,which showshow the pandemicwas shapedby the interactionof a virus andthehumans it encountered,has special rele-vancetodayinthetimeofCOVID-19.Excerptsfromaninterview:

Whywasthe1918flupandemiccalledtheSpanishFlu?WasitdirectlylinkedtotheIndiansoldiersintheGreatWar?The story of themisnaming of the 1918

pandemiciswell-known.WorldWarIwasonin1918, and thebelligerentnations censoredtheirpress,notwantingtodamagetheirpop-ulations’morale.Spain,however,wasneutralinthatwar,andwhenthefirstcasesof fluoc-curred there, they were widely reported.Incidentally, itwas called the ‘Naples Soldier’in Spain, after a catchy tune thatwas beingplayedinlocalmusichallsatthetime.Thedis-easehadalreadybeenintheUnitedStatesfortwomonths,andinFranceforseveralweeksatleast.Thatinformationwas,however,keptoutoftheirnewspapers.Sotheworldcametoseethedisease as comingout of Spain. Thiswasalso encouraged by propagandists in othercountries,whomitsuitedtoshifttheblame.TherewasnoparticularlinktoIndiansol-

diers, though, of course, theywere affectedandtheyprobablyunwittinglyhelpedspreadit too, as they travelled. It, however, clearlyshapedthepandemicandthe Indianexperi-enceof it.

Didthe1918pandemicalterthecourseofIndia’sindependencemovementinasignificantway?I think you can argue from the historical

evidence that it did—and I amnot the onlyonetohavedoneso.Thedevastationwroughtbythediseaseexacerbatedsocial tensions inIndia,contributingtoaneruptionofviolenceandsignificantlystrengtheningtheindepend-encemovement. By 1918,MahatmaGandhiwas being seen as a future leader of the na-tion, but he lacked grassroots support. Thatspring,inGujarat,hehadorganisedtwosatya-grahas,butthesewerefollowedbythousandsofpeople,nothundredsof thousands.Whentheflureturnedthatautumn,hefell ill,alongwith othermembers of the independencemovementwhosharedhisashram.ArmisticeinWorldWarIwassignedinNovember1918,but theRowlatt Act followed in India,whichimposedthemartial law.That ledtoacall fora satyagraha by a very weak Gandhi, and,eventually,theJallianwalaBaghtragedy.What

followed in1920wasaspecial sessionof theCongressinCalcutta,whereGandhipromisedself-rulewithinayearifCongressfollowedhissatyagrahamodel all over India. By 1921,thanks innosmallpart to the freedomfight-erswhoprovided relief tomillions of Indianduring the flu, Gandhi had securedmassivegrassrootssupport.

WastheartandliteratureofthetimeinIndiareflectiveofthepandemicandthetragedy?Again, I thinkyoucanarguethatthepan-

demichadanimpactonIndianliterature.Forexample,Munshi Premchandwho becamethe self-styled “chronicler of village life”around 1918, and the poet (SuryakantTripathi)Niralawhowroteaboutthetragedyinhismemoir,ALifeMisspent (1939).Thisar-gument is necessarily speculative, since thewriters are no longer here for us to questionthem,butthisdoesposesomeinterestingre-searchquestionsforfuturehistorians.

Despitebeingsuchanimmensetragedy,whywasthe1918pandemicerasedso

quicklyfrompublicmemoryinIndia?Dowarsattractmoreattentionthandisease?There aremany reasons, but in India’s

case, I think, a contributing factorwas that,for a very long time, Indiansdidnothaveanaccurate sense of the scale of their loss. Thedead had simply not been counted.EconomistSiddharthChandra’sworkin2012(Theevolutionofpandemicinfluenza:evidencefrom India, 1918–19, published in BMCInfectiousDiseases)estimatedthat18millionwasareasonableestimateforthedeathtollinIndiaasawhole,which is roughly6percentof thepopulationof theundividedsubconti-nentatthattime.And,Idothinkthatwarsat-tractmuchmoreattentionfromwritersthanepidemicsorpandemics.

Theworldhasfacedmanyepidemicsmorerecently,suchasEbolain2014-16andH1N1in2009.Inwhatwayshasthehumanresponsenotchanged?We tend to swing frompanic,when the

pandemic strikes to forgetting and compla-cencywhenitpasses.Welearnfromeachnewoutbreak,but,perhaps,notenough.

‘We learn from each newoutbreak, but not enough’

Writer Laura Spinney on the impact of the 1918 Spanish Flu on India andthe mostly unchanging response to each new epidemic

HORRORS REVISITED(Above) A Spanish Flu victim in St Louis, USA; Spinney

LAKSHMANREKHABY PRIYA KURIYAN

PriyaKuriyan isaBengaluru-based illustrator,animatorandcomic-bookartist

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Staying in is hardly conducive toproductive thought, after all, when

going out is prohibited● ● ●

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WIKIMEDIACOMMONS

COURTESY:LAURASPINNEY.COM

TUSHARBHADURI

OVERHIS long international career, SardarSinghoftenlefthockeyloversgaspingwithhisskillswiththestick.Hisperipheralvision,sixthsenseaboutwhereateammatewouldbe,theblindpass, anduncanny tackling ability en-suredhewaspartofnumerousAll-StarXIs.However, hockey is a teamsport and the

midfielder par excellence hadprecious fewmomentswhenhe tasted triumphaspart ofthe national team. India, during his playingdays,wouldoftenpromisemuchbeforefalter-ing in crunch situations, be it conceding last-minutegoalsorsquanderinggilt-edgedscor-ingopportunities.

Honourable exceptionHowever, the2014 IncheonAsianGames

was one occasionwhen everything fell intoplaceandIndianotonlysecureditsthirdgoldmedalbutalsoadirectberth for the2016RioOlympics.“Itwasourfirstgoldin16yearsandisone

ofthehappiestmemoriesofmycareer,”Sardarlooksback.“Itwastheresultofcompleteunityof purpose inour batch. Everyone’s thinkingwasthesame.”

Laying the foundationHockey Indiahasoftenbeen flayed for its

hire-and-fire policy of coaches. Hardly anyhead coach, especially foreigner, stays in thejobforasignificantlengthof time,whichalsobreedsconfusionamongplayers.ButthearrivalofAustralianTerryWalsh,a

silvermedallistatthe1976MontrealOlympicswith successful coaching stints in theNetherlandsandhishomecountry,wasastepintherightdirection, feelsSardar, thecaptainatthattime.“WehadRoelantOltmansasthehighper-

formancedirectorandwithTerry’sarrival,we

hadagreat combinationof coaches. I alwaysbelieve thatwhosoever is selected toplay forthe country already knows hockey. Onlyproperdirectionisneeded,”hesays.

PreparationJUNE-JULY,2014Thehockey competition in Incheonwas

scheduledfromSeptember20-October2.ThetrainingcampbeforethetournamentwasheldatNewDelhi’sMajorDhyanChandNationalStadium, andSardar remembers the toil theplayerswentthrough.“Itwas peak summer inNorth India and

the stadiumhadbig stands on every side sotherewasverylittleaircirculation.Itwasa40-day campand several friendshipsdevelopedthere.Butthetrainingsessionsweresointensethatweoftenfeltthatwewouldcollapse.“When Walsh joined us, we were in

Bhopal.Hedecidedtolayspecialemphasisonfitness.Wehad to complete 400msprints ingroupswithin aparticular time, andused tobeleftgaspingattheend.ThecoachalsomadeusswimattheTalkatoraStadiumpool.”It’snotthatthetechnicalskillsofthegame

were ignored. “Wehaddaysearmarked for aparticularaspect.Forexample,onefullsessionwasdedicatedtotheslapshot,”Sardarrecalls.Nodetailwas left to chanceand the team

reachedIncheon10-12daysbeforethecompe-tition.“Wehadsevenoreighttrainingsessionsat the venue and acclimatised properly.Wewerefullofconfidencewhenthetournamentbegan.”

Early setbackSEPTEMBER25,2014IndiawereinthesamepoolasPakistanand

itwas always going to be the key clash. SriLankaandOmanweresweptasideeasilybe-forethecontestagainsttheneighbours.After a goalless first half, Pakistanwent

ahead throughMuhammadUmar Bhutta.

Nikkin Thimmaiahnetted the equaliser butMuhammadWaqas scoredwhat turnedouttobethewinneraminute later. “Itwasacaseof a fewsmallmistakes thatdecidedtheout-come,”thecaptainremembers.“Weweredis-appointed,butnotdisheartened.Weknewwewere still in the tournament.Wehada teambondingsessionlateintheeveningandlookedforwardtothenextgame.”Whathelpedmatterswasthatitwasquite

anexperiencedbunchof players. “Guys likeGurbaj Singh, Dharamvir Singh andDanishMujtabahada lotof gamesbehindthemandknewwhatneededtobedone,”Sardarsays.India needed to beat China in their last

groupgametomakesureofasemi-finalspotand after another barren first half, VRRaghunathandBirendraLakrastruckinquicksuccessiontosettlematters.

TakingdownthehostsSEPTEMBER30,2014Byfinishingsecondinthegroup,Indiahad

madematterstougherforthemselvesastheyhadtotakeonhostsSouthKoreainthesemi-finals. The East Asians had advancedwith aperfectpoolrecord,scoring25goalsandcon-cedingjustone.“Playing against the home country is al-

ways tough,with thewhole crowdbehind

them.Marginaldecisionsalsousuallywentintheir favour as therewerenovideo referralsthere.Weconcededapenalty cornerwhen Iknewtheballhadstruckmyhandandnotthefoot. Butwewere determined to keep ourshapeanddisciplineandavoidanycards.OurfocuswasrewardedaswekepttheKoreansatbay andAkashdeep (Singh) scored the onlygoalof thematch,”Sardarreminisces.

‘Just another game’OCTOBER2,2014On themorning of a big final against the

archrivals,oneexpectsplayerstobesuper-ex-citedwithbutterflies in the stomach. But themidfieldgeneralofyesteryearsprovidesadif-ferentperspective.“Wewerenotemotionalornervous,butcalm.Weknewwehaddoneourhomeworkandwereexpectedtobeinthefi-nal.Thepreparationwaslikewhatwehadbe-foreanyothergame.“Ourplanwastoplaywithenergyfromthe

start andexecuteour strategy, so evenwhenPakistan took an early lead (throughMuhammad Rizwan senior in the thirdminute),wedidn’tpanic.Itoldmyplayersthattherewasa lot of time left andweneeded toplaywithdisciplineandsticktotheplan.“Pakistanifansarealwaysveryabusiveand

itwasnodifferentinthismatch.Butweknewitwouldhappenandweredeterminednottoreact,” Sardar gives a glimpse into the team’smindset.Before thehalf-hourmark,Kothajit Singh

hadrestoredparity.Therewerenomoregoalsinthematch,butnodearthofactioneither.Theskippermadeaspecialmentionabouthiscus-todian,who came to India’s rescue onmorethanoneoccasion.“(PR)Sreejeshwasourrock.His body language toowas such that it un-nervedadvancingattackers.”

ShootoutdeciderHead coachWalshwasprepared for this

scenarioaswell.“Hehaddecidedontheplay-ers to be entrusted in thehigh-pressure sce-nario.Ihada50-50recordintrainingsessions,andwasleftout,”Sardarrecalls.WhenAkashdeep converted the first at-

tempt from the 25-yard line and AbdulHaseemKhandidn’t,itputtheIndiansinfront.EventhoughManpreetSinghmissedthethirdattempt, Sreejesh again rose to the occasionagainst Bhutta. All it needed now wasDharamvir to find the target, andheput thefinishingtouchesonIndia’scampaign.“Itwasaveryproudmomentformeasthe

captain,”Sardarlooksback.“Itwasparticularlysignificant as therewere a fewyoungsters inthe teamplaying their firstAsianGamesandtheyhadatasteofvictory,”headds.Askaboutthecelebrationafterthefinaland

he replieswryly: “You know these foreigncoaches.Theyareveryprofessionalanddon’tallowyoutoletyourhairdowntoomuch.Weweregivenabitoffreetime,hadateamget-to-getherbeforewehadtopackourbagsandpre-pareforthereturnhome.”

AlchemyIndian hockey teams over the past few

decadeshave seldompulled in the samedi-rection,andithasoftenpulledthemdown.The2014AsianGamessquadwasateamineverysense.Whatwas the secret? “All theplayersbonded verywell,” Sardar reflects. “At theGames village, 8-10 players shared a largeroom. Therewas discipline and strict rulesaboutmobile usage. Nobody used to stayawake late as a good sleep was crucial.Recoveryandproperdietwerelookedinto.”“Also,wheneverwewent out, even to a

restaurant, thewhole squadwent together.Whentheotherteamssawusmovingtogetherevenofftheground,itexudedadifferentkindof feeling,” Sardar feels. And to think that theAussie architect of India’s golden hourwasgonealittleoveramonthlater.

India was supposed to start its four-month countdown to theOlympics thismoment. But forced into an unprecedented, grim lockdown as theworld battles the Covid-19 outbreak, sport is staring at unfathomable despair. Indian athletes though have given the country reasons to rejoice in

the past.The Indian Express looks back at a bunch of thesememories.

Aftercountless falsedawnsandyearsof a fracturedhockeyteamputtingupsub-parperformances,Indiapulledtogetherasaunitat theAsianGames in2014toreclaimcontinentalgloryafter16 longyearsbeatingarchrivals

Pakistan.SardarSingh, the talismaniccaptainand India's finestmidfielderof theera, looksback

THOSEMONTHSTHOSEMINUTES

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014‘Itwasacaseofafewsmallmistakes

thatdecidedtheoutcome.’

OCTOBER 2‘Wewerenotemotionalornervous,

butcalm.’

Invinciblesof Incheon

■ ■ ■

“It was our first gold in 16years and is one of the

happiest memories of mycareer. It was the result of

complete unity of purpose inour batch.”

Vol. XVIII No. 55 Printed for the proprietors, The Indian Express (P) Ltd byMs Vaidehi Thakar at The Indian Express Press, Plot No. EL-208, TTC Industrial Area,Mahape, NaviMumbai - 400710 and published from 1st floor, Express Towers, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400021. Editorial & Administrative Offices: ExpressTowers, Nariman Point,Mumbai - 400021. Phone: 22022627/67440000. Fax: 022-22835726. Chairman of the Board: Viveck Goenka, Chief Editor: Raj Kamal Jha, Editor: Unni Rajen Shanker, Editor (Mumbai): Nirupama Subramanian.* (*Responsible for selection of News under the PRB Act) Additional air surcharge of `1

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14THESUNDAYEXPRESS,APRIL5,2020

SPORTWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

KP WANTS ‘CONDENSED’ IPLKevin Pietersen has proposed a'condensed' IPL without fans, saying he'truly believes' the tournament should takeplace. He added it could be held at threevenues that will be safe for players.

Virus fallout: FIFA postpones women’s U-17 World Cup in IndiaPRESSTRUSTOFINDIANEWDELHI, APRIL4

THE FIFAUnder-17Women'sWorld Cup tobe held in India in November was onSaturdaypostponedby football's governingbody due to theworsening COVID-19 pan-demicacross theglobe.Thewomen'sagegroupshowpiecewasto

beheldatfivevenuesinthecountry—Kolkata,Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad andNaviMumbai— fromNovember 2-21. Thetournamentwas to be competed among 16teams,withhostsIndiabeingautomaticqual-ifiers. ItwastobeIndia'smaidenappearanceintheU-17Women'sWorldCup.The decision was taken by the FIFA-

Confederationsworking groupwhichwasrecentlyestablishedbytheBureauoftheFIFACouncil to address the consequences of theCOVID-19pandemic.Theworkinggrouprec-ommended the Bureau of FIFA Council to"postpone the FIFA Under-20 Women'sWorldCupPanama/CostaRica2020 -origi-nallyscheduledforAugust/September2020-andtheFIFAUnder-17Women'sWorldCupIndia 2020 - originally scheduled forNovember 2020." "Newdateswill be iden-tified," FIFAsaid inastatement.Itwasalsodecided"tocreateasub-work-

ing group on the women's internationalmatch calendar to consider potentialchanges to the calendar and dates of post-ponedFIFA final tournaments".TheAll IndiaFootballFederationsaidthe

postponementwasonexpected lines."Justlikeothersportseventswhichwere

postponed due to this dreaded disease, it(postponement of U-17World Cup)was tohappen.We have to accept the decision,"AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das told PTI."Thequalifying events in Europe andAfricaand other confederations are yet to be heldandso thedecisionwasonexpected lines."Hesaidthetournamentwillmostlikelybe

held next year. Theworking group of theworldbodywhichtookthedecisionincludesthe FIFA administration and SecretaryGeneralsandtopexecutives fromallconfed-erations. Itunanimouslyapprovedaseriesofrecommendationsfollowingitsfirstmeeting,whichwas organised via conference late onFriday.While the tournament itself is fivemonths away,only the qualifying event forAsia has been held so far fromwhich JapanandNorthKoreahavemadethecut.Five remaining qualifying events -- that

of Africa, Europe, Oceania, South America,andCentral,NorthAmericaandCaribbean--havenotbeenheldduetotheglobalhealthcrisiswhichhasaffectedmorethanamillion

people. Over 50,000 deaths have beencausedby thedeadlyoutbreakso far.The official schedule of the tournament

was announced in February and NaviMumbai was to host the final. The LocalOrganising Committee (LOC) said it sup-ported the decision though it was lookingforward to host the tournament inNovemberas scheduled."Weagree that this has beenmadewith

thehighest regard for public health, and theparticipatingteams,hostcities,staffandvisit-ingfans,andkeepsthebestinterestsofevery-oneinmind,"theLOCsaidinastatement.

All internationalgamesdeferredReuters: Theworking groupalso recom-

mended the postponement of all interna-tionalmatches due to beplayed in June -- aformality as Euro 2020, the Copa America

and themonth'sWorld Cup qualifiers havealreadybeencalledoff due to theCOVID-19pandemic. The recommendations still havetobeapprovedbytheFIFABureau,areducedversionof itsdecision-makingCouncil."FIFAalso reiterates thathealthmust al-

waysbethefirstpriorityandthemaincrite-ria in any decision-making process, espe-cially in thesechallenging times," saidFIFA.The group proposed discussions with

continental confederations to finalise a re-visedschedulefor2022WorldCupqualifiers,aftermatches thismonth and in Junewerepostponed. The age limit for the TokyoOlympicsmen's football tournament couldbe raised so that playerswhowere eligiblein2020willnotmissoutfollowingthepost-ponementof theGamesuntil the followingyear, FIFAsaidonFriday.Olympic football is usually restricted to

under-23 teams for themen's tournament,withthreeoverageplayersallowedperteam.However, aworking group set up by globalsoccer'sgoverningbodyFIFArecommendedon Friday that the competition should re-mainopen toplayers bornonor after Jan. 1,1997, as originally planned, FIFA said in astatement. This would effectively raise theage limit by one year, as requested by bothSouth Korea and Australia. There is no agelimit for thewomen's tournament.

India’sunder-17women’s teamwasset tomaketheirdebut intheWorldCup,whichwastobeheld fromNovember2to21this year. File

Whilethetournament itself isfivemonthsaway,onlythequalifyingevent forAsiahasbeenheldsofar fromwhichJapanandNorthKoreahavemadethecut.