I don’t know where to begin, how or even if I should begin on this at all, but here I’m.

It is 12:24 pm now. The date is 11 November 2020.

Only an hour or so ago I left for the market on my sister’s ladybird bicycle to fetch some fish and a packet of curd for mum. On my way, I noticed the cycle’s tires had less air in them so I stopped at the cycle-repair shop on my way and got both tires filled with air. Paid him and left for the market. On the way I thought I should get the curd first and then fetch fish so I decided to cycle past the fish-market to the curd shop. Between fish market and the shop lies police station and there were two cops opposite to the station with their masks on — I mention this because I have seen them mostly without their masks before — so this needed saying. So I knew that they were on guard for people without masks. And I was one of them. My mask was lying in the cycle basket as is always when I’m cycling. I don’t see any point of wearing a mask while riding a bicycle or while running alone by the beach or just when I’m by myself. But I always make sure I wear a mask when I'm before a shop-front, at market or at any crowded place. My friends no how paranoid I'm about this and they joke about it all the time when I frown about their carelessness. In case of cycling and running it isn’t just the bare-bone logic but also how it is dangerous to wear masks while performing breathing-heavy activities. It can in fact be fatal to wear masks while cycling or running. With such sound reasoning behind me, I calmed myself and kept cycling without bothering about the policeman ahead. It is no mystery by now what must have happened at this point because if it was anything otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this post.

The policeman asked me to stop. He must be in his forties. I noticed he was wearing his mask properly covering both his nose and mouth — another anomaly hard to miss. I stopped. He directed me to the police station. I tried to ask why but he insisted, rather curtly without listening to anything that I had to say, that I walk with my cycle to the station entrance. I sensed trouble but I was still confident that policemen will understand and honour my reasoning. I know, going by the track record of police from across the country that’s a fallacy but still, I wanted to believe otherwise.

A lady inspector was sitting on a chair with a receipt book on a table before her who asked me to pay the fine. I reasoned I was riding a bicycle and that I immediately wore the mask when I was stopped. I wasn’t let to talk any further. Another policeman came and shouted that I have to wear it all the time. I tried to tell him how it is advisable not to wear masks while exercising or cycling, and also that it could prove fatal. Again, before I could finish, the policeman who first directed me to the station entrance called me inside to meet the PSI (Police Superintendent). I followed. We stood outside his room whose door was open. He was on his phone.

Some background here.

I have been to this police station couple of times in past. For my passport verification, I have visited this station some four or so times owing to “sir is out on duty, come another time”. But on two such occasions they made me stay there because I was then studying computer science and could also type in Kannada — I helped them in typing few of their papers. And when sir did arrive, the inspector handling my passport verification papers told me how before being on duty here in Karwar, their sir was in Bhatkal and people would pay him so and so amount for their passport verification. I was in no hurry to get my passport and to make matters worse, was high on idealism so just told him, ‘sir this is Karwar and not Bhatkal, I won’t pay anything to anyone for carrying out their duty.’ I also told reminded him how passport office pays police by each application to carry out this paperwork. So they weren't doing anything out of courtesy rather it was their duty. He said my application might not move smoothly to which I said that’s fine. I can wait. Then the PSI asked us not to travel abroad, serve India and Indian interests — the whole brain drain speech. I received my passport anyway after few weeks. Against all the fears that he had created in my head, I faced no further delays or issues in receiving my passport. But I’m aware of a friend who faced a great number of hurdles to get his passport done because he refused to pay bribe to police officers (not at this station but a different one under Karnataka state itself).

Next, I was at this station over an RTI application I had filed with District Commissioner. I had first visited the police station requesting an FIR to be written against a neighbor for obscenity and nuisance. This individual’s brother was a retired police officer (different station but under Karnataka state). They refused to file an FIR so I filed an RTI query with district commissioner who directed it to the station asking why it wasn’t filed. They did act after this but let the individual off real quickly. Things continued as they were for us.

Then I visited twice recently and once before this very PSI. I have seen him surrounded by people wearing masks while himself wearing none.

So all in all, I’ve been to this place and I’ve stood outside this very door. Not that they will remember any of these instances or me for many like me visit police station on daily basis. And anyway, I’m too poor and unimportant to be remembered by the cops. PSI has already started shouting at me but I’m not able to make out what he’s trying to convey by this shouting. I try to explain him with a calm voice that, sir I was riding a bicycle and it’s pretty hard to cycle wearing a mask. He shouts me down. I tell him that he is raising his voice unnecessarily and that he shouldn’t do so because I haven’t done anything to be talked this way. At no time am I allowed to complete my sentences. Please note that howsoever many times I must have visited this police station, I still get tensed and frightened around police officers or any gunmen for that matter, just like millions of others. Should we be frightened around them? Heck, not. They exist to help and serve us. They exist to make our lives better and worth living but news after news after news they have proved just otherwise. And even in my personal experiences and those of my near ones, they have just acted like cops from the newspapers. They enjoy unchecked and unaccounted power, and act with utmost impunity. How many citizens are in jails today because police have filed cases against them without basis in facts or evidence? And then citizens have to fight it out in courts — none of it comes easy or cheap. Who has such resources at their disposal or time to invest? We know of people who have spent 23 or so years in jails only to be cleared by courts of all charges and pronounce them innocent. They spend their prime years in jail because police frames them. Why? Simply because they can and they easily get away with all this. The PSI reminds me this when I tell him that law doesn’t say I should wear a mask while riding a bicycle. He shouts again — are you teaching me law now? I can show you what law is and can do! And the inspector standing beside him asks me if I want to go to courts. PSI says I have to wear mask whenever I step out of the house. To this, I tell him he can get me a vehicle if he wants me to wear a mask even while on the move. He shouts me down. This shouting and me trying to open my mouth to reason out continues for a while. He asks me to pay the fine and just leave. Inspector takes me outside to the table. I note what the receipt reads. It doesn’t talk about the mask anywhere. The receipt is regarding smoking cigarettes and tobacco-related offences. I ask them I’ll pay the fine if I was given a receipt that said ‘fined for not wearing mask while riding bicycle’. The lady inspector shouts now. I want to ask them why are they all shouting for everything but I don’t. At this point, someone asks the policeman who first directed me to the police station to take my cycle. He goes to it and checks if I had locked it. I quickly run towards it and ask him not to take away my bicycle. The inspector hits my chin with his elbow when I touch my bicycle. I’m guessing this wasn’t intentional but only he would know that. At this point, another inspector, young and if I’m right, from siddhi community comes and takes me back near the table. He signals the lady inspector and she vacates her seat which he occupies now. He points me to the handwritten text on the receipt which reads “Karnataka epidemic disease ordinance-2020”. Lady inspector mentions something about googling and I tell her that the ordinance/act doesn’t mention anywhere about wearing masks while cycling. At this point I have seen a Muslim youth being pulled into the station, I assume, for not wearing mask as well. He probably said “kya hai ye faltugiri” (what is this nonsense) to which policeman was telling him that he’ll show him the faltugiri. I’m slowly realizing the danger and threat to my life. How wrong everything could go from here. I just want to leave this place. I want to agree to a crime under “cigarette and tobacco products (ban on advertisements, sale, distribution and production) Act of 2003” which I did not commit. For a fleeting second, I think of Jayaraj and Beniks from Tamilnadu — I’m aware of the saintly treatment I’m receiving in comparison to theirs, I think of many confessions that police retrieve from ‘criminals’ — the entire train of thoughts is unsettling. My legs have started to shake at this point. I don’t want them to see my trembling legs so I try to lean on the pillar but I’m frightened lest they do not like my leaning on a pillar before them. For the last time, I ask them to write on receipt — fined for riding a bicycle without a mask — which they, of course, reject and shout at me again. The young inspector is furious even. No one by their demeanour or language is reassuring or approachable. You don’t want yourself to be at this place. You don’t want to visit this place. This is like walking into a cave filled with hungry hyenas. And so I pay the fine and walk out with receipt. I’m frustrated, angry but also relaxed a bit. My legs are still shaking though. I search for my cycle which I find parked at a different location than where I had left it. I take it and ride away — with the mask on. I can’t breathe easily from inside but I can breathe still. This is better than standing inside that cave of hyenas. I collect the curd packets from a shop and cycle my way back to the market with the mask on but am still looking over from my shoulders. I’m checking if anyone from the station is still following me or if they’re looking at me. I see no one.

I’m surrounded by fisher-women and loads and loads of fish in the market. But I can no more sense myself being here. I’m just going from line to line without looking at the fishes. They’re shouting at me, asking me to buy from them. Different kind of shouting. Their body language is warm and assuring. I still cannot warm up to their calls. I buy something reluctantly because I have come to buy fish. This was the fish I told mum I won’t buy today because we have been having it for many days now. I just want to cycle away from the police station. I’m feared now walking to the parking lot outside the market, worried whether my cycle would still be there. I have seen videos of police from Delhi and UP smashing vehicles of the general public in vengeance. That cycle means so much to me. I’m relaxed to see it still standing where I had parked it.

In a far-away parallel universe if anyone thinks policemen meant well, that they were only doing their duty to safeguard people’s lives and was only trying to contain the spread of virus and such, let me break that castle of lies. Just some weeks ago, on the day of Dussehra, the same police station permitted a Dussehra procession that saw a crowd of more than a thousand in gathering and in procession, all in shoulder-to-shoulder vicinity. All these people were allowed to do so without masks, and I say allowed because there were twenty or so policemen including the PSI with the crowd marching a length of two kilometres. Oh yes, many policemen including the PSI weren’t wearing their mask themselves — sorry, some of them were wearing it on their necks, their faces and noses, unlike today, were exposed. On that day, temple committee members were shouting at anyone who took their phone out to record this glorious procession. You can guess as much who must have directed them to do so. Conspicuously, there was a policeman with a camera recording everyone and everything. He would climb the adjoining walls etc to better capture everyone. Not just this, the temple was open and in full action on nine days of Navratri with daily puja, auction and everything. All these events attracted crowds and a police constable would be present inside the temple while these things were happening. So no, this extraction of fines from common citizens isn’t to stop the spread of the virus. This is to drive fear into our heart, make us submissive to the state and authority, and of course to loot common men’s already meagre resources.

Justice in India is a cruel joke. People spend decades in jails only to be acquitted by courts later on but who can return them their life back? And what happens to policemen who file these false cases? Nothing. They just go on to their next victim. When the state machinery isn’t accountable for their crimes, how can one say the law is equal for all? A Kerala journalist gets arrested by UP police while on his way to report on Hathras incident, people go to Supreme Court on this matter but court tells them to go to lower court but the same court cancels its vacation time to hear Arnab Goswami’s bail plea. Goswami, of course, deserves bail, heck, everyone deserves bail until they are pronounced guilty by courts. Like Arnab Goswami’s lawyer Harish Salve said, the rule is Bail, not Jail. But sadly, tribal rights activists, human rights activists, those that stood against this govt, scores of Muslims and Dalits are spending years and years in jail without even going to trial. Our courts, even the Supreme court shows no urgency for their liberty and life. Father Stan Swamy requested for sipper and straw to drink water as he suffers from Parkinson’s and his hands shake; what did the court do? It gave him the next date. Would heavens had fallen if he was allowed to have a sipper to drink water from? (Harish Salve in defence of Goswami’s bail said in court — Will heavens fall if the man is released on ad interim bail?)

Law enforcement is depressingly bizarre today. Police can pick up a random individual from the street or college and charge him for terrorism or bomb blast and make him spend 23 years in jail. They aren’t accountable for their shoddy, and on most occasions, utterly criminal jobs. Law enforcement should not be this easy. Right now state enjoys the obscene amount of power to charge anyone with anything and run wild with it without a shred of accountability. This obscenity called law is captured beautifully in Cardinal Richelieu’s quote —“If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.” It shouldn’t be this way. “I actually think that law enforcement should be difficult,” Moxie Marlinspike, founder of Signal and security expert said in an interview. He further added, “And I think it should actually be possible to break the law.” In a sound democracy, citizens should have more and more power over the state. But instead, we have the state accumulating more and more power over its citizens. And as that happens, we start to move away from democracy to autocracy. Each frivolous case by the state against its citizens is a brick in an under-construction castle to a despotic regime. The doom is arriving, it is on its way. And no, it isn’t arriving because I was taken to the police station for not wearing a mask while riding a bicycle but because many see no wrong in the police’s behaviour in these cases. And states derive their power from the silence of their citizens. We give them this power, this abundance of power to destroy and bulldoze our ant holes and lives.

Wear mask now, yes, even while riding bicycles and such. Else you will be shown what law is and what it can do.

This whole incident occurred at Chittakula Police station of Karwar, Karnataka Above cartoon is Suhail’s last cartoon posted to social media before Kashmir’s internet was shut down.

#politics #police #injustice #brutality #masks #coronavirus #pandemic #karnataka #India

It is six months since the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 was published by Chinese scientists and was available to the world. What has India done since that January should find no excuse in the otherwise legitimate accusation that China did not inform about the novel virus to the world in time or it kept WHO in dark. It is true that China erred and it is also true that there are reasons to scrutinize WHO. But what have we done since it indeed released the information about the virus? For instance, while some countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Japan had cases of probable infection long before China released the vital information, India registered its first case only in late January, long after China had published genome sequence of the virus and WHO had informed the world about such an outbreak. So unlike those countries, and they have it under control now and cases are breaking new records in India, we cannot blame the outbreak on Chinese malfeasance. Whatever situation we are in today is our own making. While this bit of truth is hard to digest, especially to a large population that has personally attached their egos with the present government, the refusal to acknowledge would move us into a further abyss, further down the rabbit hole. In that regard, everyone must prepare a mental plan of things they would have done when they came to know of a novel virus on the horizon six months ago. Ravish Kumar of NDTV did a detailed show on coronavirus on February 18 where he asked, 'Is India prepared to tackle Coronavirus?'. Kerala already had some plan-of-action in place even before India saw its first case. Given all this, what all things would you have done since January to save your nation and its citizens from this new virus? Would you have for instance organized a massive rally for Trump in February in Ahmedabad? Would you have waited for toppling of a opposition led government in Madhya Pradesh to announce a nationwide lockdown? A day after Shivraj Singh Chouhan government was sworn in, Modi announced a national lockdown on 24 March. Just go and look at the crowded images of politicians from Madhya Pradesh during that time. And just read what has come to happen to that state vis-a-vis coronavirus now. Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh has himself tested positive. Cases in Ahmedabad have skyrocketed with its percentage of death highest in the country at one point. And reports are just in about Home Minister Amit Shah testing positive. Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa has also tested positive along with his daughter. A cabinet minister in UP has succumbed to the virus. But Bhumi-Pujan celebration at Ayodhya in UP would go on as planned with none other than PM Modi as its chief guest. This isn't about politics. The signals these events sent (and will send) still remain. What was (and is) govt saying through these events? That India is a warm country and virus won't affect us? It would get killed itself from the sunstroke? That our people do yoga, we use haldi (turmeric) in our foods which will fight the virus? I'm not making up these things. These were some of the things said on our news channels by panellists. Our people heard them over and over again. And they saw their politicians, most powerful people in their nation, hugging and waving hands in the middle of massive crowds – they had every reason to believe the bunkum coming from the idiot box. The idiocy was legitimized by political manoeuvring. They were then made to believe how mass thali-banging would get the virus killed, how mass diya-lighting would destroy the virus. Oh! that was to boost health and essential workers morale? Then why are we not banging thalis now? By July 13 around 123 healthcare staff including 108 doctors have succumbed to coronavirus. They need morale-boosting more than ever now. Why is the big boss, erm Prime Minister Modi, not announcing such tasks now? Because, my friend, morale-boosting is not the aim of such tasks. The aim was (and is) to create images, get you to do things so as to make you feel something was being done, to calm your nerves and instil in you the idea that your government was doing something. Did that something get doctors and essential workers, their PPE kits and other safety equipment? No. Some did not even receive their salaries. Rajdeep Sardesai for many weeks continued his good fight to get stipends to Davangere junior doctors. In Gujarat, the state government inaugurated fake ventilators which were purchased and the state hospital that used them had its death rate close to (or more than) 50%. Pondicherry cancelled its order for the ventilators after news broke out. This did not stop Narendra Modi govt from procuring 5,000 ventilators from this Rajkot-based firm despite Ahmedabad’s largest COVID-19 hospital doctors, where an initial batch of 'ventilators' was installed, saying that they were not up to the mark. You wonder why such blatant negligence from Modi govt in risking people's lives. The reason lies in the close connection of this firm's current and former promoters being close to BJP, leading up to that controversial gift of an expensive suit to Prime Minister Modi. Gujarat government, in fact, acted on and isolated the journalists that broke this news. In whose interest was the news and in whose interest was govt action? Not much hard to guess, isn't it? Then our central government went on a 'made in India' march. This was again a distraction scheme. We need 'made in India', no doubt about it. But it won't happen in a day or month or even a year. It takes a thorough long-term plan. And 'made in India' does not translate into sub-standard goods. For instance, in Mumbai, the made-in-India ventilators turned out to be 'fake'. PMCARES ventilator maker too built fake ventilators – they fudged their software to hide poor performance. So we are buying coffins from people's donations. Take all offence you want, this is no time to sugarcoat words. Amit Shah or Yediyurappa's life won't be put on risk by these sub-standard ventilators, their life won't be endangered this way, it is only the poor, aam-junta that will face the brunt of this murderous system.

Too much gloomy news. Is there anything we can do now?

It is quite late now. Today, while India stands third in the total number of corona cases, the number of positives and deaths in 24 hours are highest in India. Six crucial months have just gone by and we still don't have a promising system in place through which we can see a timeline when we would be out of this danger like many countries have. According to official figures, 39,000 have already lost their life due to coronavirus in India. But there still remains a large population which is still breathing and until that is the case, there would still be room for improvement and hope.

There are some things that we can still do to be in better shape next month than we would be with our current approach and pace. But first, we need to understand when the virus infects a person and when they test positive. Both of these events do not occur on the same day. You don't start coughing and feeling breathless on day one of your infection. In fact, a lot of those who get infected don't even show symptoms of infection. So you might right now be sitting with someone who is not coughing but might still have coronavirus in their system. Or you might yourself be infected and yet look healthy from outside. Then there's the question of proportion of viral material. I might have viral material inside of me but my test might still turn negative. According to one report, it takes nearly five days since getting infected to accumulate enough viral material for one's test to come positive. But during these five days, the said person is capable of infecting others; which means two things. First, the testing numbers we get every day are not today's. They don't show who was infected today or even yesterday. Those numbers are of people infected at least five days ago. Second, and this is important to be understood, those who were found positive today have been spreading infection since at least last five days. Also, we are assuming here that we test individuals as soon as their viral material reaches required levels for their tests to be effective which is far far away from reality. All of this means one thing and one thing only, it is most important to identify the infected as soon as possible, isolate them and treat them. A day later and we risk infecting more people. If you assume one person can infect a minimum five people a day then that's not just five infected people. These five people will, in turn, infect others before enough viral material accumulates inside of them for effectively getting tested. That is assuming they will get tested positive on day five. In India, unlike say South Korea or the US, we don't have voluntary testing booths where you can walk in and get yourself tested. Our testing is still centrally managed – a govt body decides who should be tested and who should not. This needs to change, to begin with. And then we have to test more and more. Currently, India doesn't even appear in the top ten countries in terms of tests per million. And no, this is not because of resource crunch because we are testing far less than our own daily capacity. In essence, we are letting infected persons roam and spread the disease until it becomes impossible to ignore and be forced to test and isolate them, and when we start doing it, the numbers in the area would already be swelled so much that nearest COVID hospital would run out of its capacity. This isn't pulp fiction but our reality. And this is continuing because we aren't asking better from our representatives.

How can we change this and change it fast?

I get the “We cannot test everyone because India has such a large population” excuse. Yes, it is excuse now because it has been six months since the virus arrived on our shores. And our population has been this large like forever. It is not something that happened while we were under lockdown. Anyways, all said and done, what can we do now? First, there is absolutely no need to test everyone. You have to test a certain minimum percentage of the population in each pocket. Each village, each society, chawl, each by-lane – take your pick. Pick random persons in the market and test them on a random day, of course, with their informed consent. Otherwise, do what Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray suggested – test one person each in every household. What would happen with this information is, we would get a real picture of where the virus is and where it has not yet reached. This will help us with better monitoring. The current, red zone – green zone strategy is (and was) completely flawed. Not just because it is done at district level which Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan rightly criticized but many were declared green zone where not a single person was tested positive. For example, when my district was declared a green zone (meaning there existed not a single person infected with coronavirus), not a single person in my city was tested. If zero tests were done in India until today, whole of India would be a green zone. That doesn't mean the non-existence of the virus but abundance of collective stupidity. So, we need to take testing to all parts of India. This strategy should be combined with pooled testing. Now, what is pooled testing?

The gold standard for diagnosing infection is a sample obtained by a nasopharyngeal swab followed by the identification of viral RNA through a polymerase chain reaction (or P.C.R.) test. The swab is uncomfortable, the test is slow, and the supplies to perform it are in short supply. In pooled testing, laboratories combine samples taken from several people and test the multiple specimens together for the presence of genetic material from the novel coronavirus. If a batch tests negative for COVID-19, all those patients are cleared. If a batch tests positive, the specimens must be retested individually or in smaller groups. Such tests could be used to quickly clear groups of people who are not likely carriers, such as students returning to school, or individuals in areas with relatively low active COVID-19 infection levels. This can hugely improvise our testing rates. Until the vaccine arrives, testing, tracing and isolating remains the master strategy to deal with the pandemic. In case we decide to adopt pool testing we also need to be cautious of its limits. If the disease is prevalent in a community – more than around 10 per cent, according to the AACC – pooled testing stops being useful because so many follow-up tests are likely to be required. Pooled tests may also result in an increase in false negatives because combined samples are diluted, making it more difficult to pick up the virus material, according to the FDA. Quest, however, says that in clinical data it presented to regulators for its method of pooled testing, it would not have found a false negative in more than 3,000 total specimens. So all in all, pooled testing would help us identify infected faster and with lesser resources.

Pooled testing isn't the only way forward. Some companies are even making rapid antigen tests that can easily be done outside a lab. These tests look for certain proteins in the virus instead of genetic material. The problem is that they can miss more infections than a P.C.R. test. But they take only about 15 minutes to get a result, and if you run them in batch mode, you could most likely do more than 50 an hour. It’s not hard to imagine settings, like schools or sports teams, where such tests might be incredibly useful.

That's not all.

This is not war and healthcare workers are not front-line soldiers. Their deaths shouldn't go unnoticed like deaths in wars go. All of this was avoidable. In six months we should have gathered so much information that by now we should have been able to predict the pockets where cases could come and where they were highly unlikely. This would have helped us better and would have made lockdowns unnecessary thereby saving huge economical wealth that is lost now. But we don't have that crucial information. In fact, if we don't test aggressively, we would never reach that point of intelligence. So far, we are following the virus. We wait until it infects someone and that someone infects some others. We are not proactive enough. Our strategies are ad-hoc. We don't have any long-term plan of action. There is no collaboration with centre and states or states to states. States are fighting battles alone and their resources are drying up. Forget releasing funds, central govt has refused to dispatch the GST dues it owes to the states. All this information should reach the general public. They should know what is happening. In the battle of perceptions, Modi has so far managed his upper hand thanks to the disposal of TV media at his command. He can any day decide to address the public and TV will make sure his message is amplified. Will he ever tell you he has not released the money he owes to the state governments? Never. So how can you make an informed decision in such a scenario? You can't until you put efforts to equip yourself with more diverse information. And that is required. What would you do when hospitals refuse your infected kin, what would you do when the hospital refuses to discharge the dead body of your relative because you can't pay Rs. 5 lakh (treatment cost)? These things have happened in Delhi, in the national capital. Do you know that according to a serological survey, one in four persons in Delhi is infected by the virus? No, they did not make it to the statistics of 19 lakh which is current COVID count in India. They never will. If that's the number for Delhi, what do you think is that number for entire India? We would never know in the absence of testing.

You know there is one easy solution to keeping our numbers below 25 lakh. Stop testing anyone right away. We will anyhow get the test results of people tested so far and that will get us close to 25-25 but not above that mark. How good is that solution? Let everyone infect everyone. Let's control the count. That's what is more important right? That is what we have been doing so far.

This is a fight between two races. It's anyone's evolutionary instinct to replicate and infect as many as it could. Coronavirus is no exception to the rule. And in this race to survival, we need to equip ourselves with more and more information so as to know and fight better. India needs to study countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Norway etc who have found success in controlling and containing the virus on how to not just fight the virus but also about how to support its economy and the most vulnerable population. All this should have happened long ago but better late than never.

That's all for now.

All said and done, we all still need to rely on social distancing, hand washing and ubiquitous masking. With testing, just as with masks, more is sometimes better than perfect.

#coronavirus #covid19 #India #vaccine #testing #pooledtesting #NarendraModi #Kerala #Mumbai #DonaldTrump

Monsoons evaded Maharashtra in 1992. In a country where even today agriculture is largely dependent on rains, this naturally made people distraught then. In this helplessness, blankness, in this void came Maharashtra governor's appeal other rather a dictate. On a particular day at 11 am, people were to collectively pray. Authorities jumped in to enforce the governor's appeal. Directions were announced left, right and centre. And pray people did. Newspapers were awash with pictures of people praying for relief from imminent danger, ordinary people to district collectors to workers. Everyone obliged. If WhatsApp University existed then, I'm sure it's double degree holders would churn out theories of how collective prayer would kindle the kundalini and force gods of rain to bring showers upon them. And we will all be sharing these forwards because why not?!

Fast forward to 2020 and coronavirus. Modi came on national television, and like the big boss from that horrible show, gave task after task to his subjects and his subjects duly complied. First, they came into the balcony and beat their thalis at 11 am, then they came out to light days at 9 pm, all the while generating theories after theories of how these actions will beat corona black and blue. None of those has of course born fruit, they never were meant to be anyway. India stands with the top five worst affected countries as of today. 

In both cases, there were discussions about why this was wrong. But in 2020, nobody invoked the constitution or shouted superstition like it was done in 1992. Sadly, Narendra Dabholkar who spearheaded opposition against such a dictate by then governor is no more with us; he was murdered by right-wing for speaking against superstitions while on his morning walk. In 1992, the reason for drought was not the absence of rains alone. Maharashtra uses its water with zero planning and in extremely unscientific ways. Do I need to mention multiple sugar mills and water-guzzling sugarcane crop that's grown everywhere even today in Maharashtra? The disaster was not natural but man-made. So solutions were to be man-made too. But of course, praying at 11 am and thereby giving an impression of something was done was far easy and way convenient than exploring and implementing real solutions. 2020 is no different. Our government failed to prepare itself when it had examples of successful and failed countries to follow by. India was not the first country to be affected by a coronavirus. At every step of the way, we had countries which had faced worse and also those that recovered from it. We deliberately choose to look away and not learn. And when the time was up and the storm was at the door, the emperor suggested, for his subjects to turn to superstition. And we did. Not for a moment did we pause and asked why? Or how was this going to help in any way? We did not question the first and so we were given the next task. This sequence of events did not start with thali-banging though. The dice of subservience was thrown way back in 2016. Demonetisation was the pilot for many of these things. The way we embraced and defended demonetisation had signalled to the highest offices what kind of brains their subjects had.

One of the fundamental duties listed by the Indian Constitution includes the exhortation to cultivate a scientific temper. The Constitution upholds scientific temper as a guiding principle for society and the new education policy calls for the inculcation of scientific thinking. Was there any scientific or rational reasoning behind 11 am praying in 1992? Or now with thali and diya? You bet not. Then why does the state, people in government, who are all required to uphold scientific temper, discarded it and asked its citizens to embrace unscientific garbage? The answer isn't too hard if one used their rational brains. Because it is easier to ask citizens to pray, bang thalis or light diyas. What are the alternatives? In 1992, then the state was required to institute an expert committee to study water usage patterns, suggest changes and implement those changes. We have so many committee reports now. And successive govt bodies have failed to implement them. Of course, in Maharashtra, there is all-powerful sugar-mills lobby and dealing with it requires an amount of political will. Then to get farmers on-board, make them stop what they are growing and help them switch to different crops requires thorough planning and grit as well. But those are the required solutions. No amount of praying, no god will help Maharashtra save itself from becoming a desert if it did not act on the ground. Less said about coronavirus and how thali-banging has helped to contain the virus the better. Our graph is only climbing up. There is no flattening of the curve happening soon except if we start fudging the data which we have already started doing here and there.

Governments won't change by themselves. It is easy for them to control a population that is god-fearing and superstitious. It is us that need to change and cultivate scientific temper and rationality. That is the only way which will enable us to question our governments, their nonsense, and thereby progress this strange democracy further. Right now, sadly, we are sliding into an abyss with no bottom.

P. S. Thali-banging and diya-lighting apart from being superstitious had political capital riding on them too. They were also aimed at strengthening the unquestioning relationship between the leader and the governed. #coronavirus #science #scientifictemper #atheism #superstition #rationality #india #narendramodi #politics #covid19 #constitution

Misinformation and our inability to think a level down the surface are going to kill us before the virus does. Karwar which recently treated 11 coronavirus patients and discharged them successfully is about to see it manifest before its eyes. Misplaced fear and paranoia spread through news channels and Whatsapp University are consuming us. Would they devour us completely before we wake up remains an open-ended question. Karwar has zero Covid-19 positives. The 11 patients it treated were not from Karwar but many km away from it. If that makes you applause Karwar for its altruism then you must hold your hands some meters apart.

Uttara Kannada district in total, by the time of writing this, has recorded 39 cases of COVID-19 positives of which 11 were earlier treated and discharged from INHS Patanjali Hospital in Karwar which is an Indian Navy hospital meant for its staff. It admitted this initial batch of positives on request of Uttara Kannada District Commissioner Dr K Harish Kumar. The rest 28 were tested positive in the last four days and are now being treated at District Hospital situated in Karwar itself. The Patanjali hospital allegedly refused to admit this new batch of patients resulting into their being admitted into the civilian hospital of Karwar. But why Karwar? Uttara Kannada district is made up of twelve talukas (or units); of which Karwar and Bhatkal are but just two units. All the 39 cases mentioned above are from Bhatkal alone which is situated 139 km away from Karwar. This might make you think of Karwar as some special place in the district which is both true and false. There is one particular reason why patients are being ferried to Karwar from far-away Bhatkal. A reason which section of people from Karwar and surrounding area seems to forget, and instead are now gearing up to resist the movement of COVID-19 positives from Bhatkal to Karwar, which along with other units (talukas) have registered zero positives of their own. They fear that this movement of patients would result in the spread of disease to other parts of the district.

Three Goa's would fit into one Uttar Kannada. It's no small district by its size and Karwar which shares its boundary with Goa is Uttara Kannada district's administrative centre that houses many important government offices including district commissioner's office, Zilla panchayat office, Indian Navy and the district hospital which has special equipment, labs and also special surgeons unlike any other public hospital in the district. The upside of this is, most in Karwar for even their minor ailments get to visit this hospital and get their medication for free or on very low prices. Most have got their surgeries done free-of-cost too. Although there is catch there - most of the surgeons (and other doctors) from the civil hospital (the name by which it is mostly known here) also have their private practices in Karwar. Some even have very specialized and big hospitals of their own which all charge high prices. Those who have these private hospitals happen to prescribe special tests for their patients when they visit them in the civil hospital with explicit instructions on where those tests are to be conducted. The coordinates of which always seem to lead to their private centre. And in case you get operated, the surgery that should have been free gets charged albeit you are asked to pay, a proportion of the price of the same operation if it was done in a private hospital, by visiting their private centre. Otherwise, they don't write the discharge date due to which everyone ends up paying them the charges (hello corruption). Doctors are courteous though. They charge different prices based upon your economic condition. But despite all these small ills, having a district hospital in Karwar has been a boon for local people of Karwar. Many don't realize how much money they are saving by not visiting private hospitals which just for consultation alone charge around Rs. 500 (200 if it's a small clinic) - it's free for BPL families in the district hospital and Rs. 5 for others (was Rs. 2 before). X-rays, blood tests, etc are done free-of-cost in district hospital too - all of whose cost would push someone into a level down in poverty ladder if done from a private one.

Location wise INHS Patanjali is situated in the outskirts of city limits while the civil hospital is at the centre of the city surrounded by all the crowded places including residential complexes. On top of it, people who work in the district hospital come (and go) from all parts of Karwar. Some even travel into nearby talukas of Ankola and Kumta. Two of the cleaning staff from the civil hospital, for instance, travel to and fro on the road before my house. At least once in a day, I greet them. My mum probably greets both of them every day. And this seems to have rattled people. They were initially agitated with Patanjali admitting patients from far-away Bhatkal but they made peace with it when it dawned on them that staff and doctors of Patanjali mostly stayed inside the compound of Indian Navy. A relative of mine, an old lady whose husband worked in Navy, a pensioner who gets ration and medicine at subsidised prices at Navy stalls have stopped visiting the same since they admitted Covid-19 patients. Same must have been the attitude of others. 

If district administration had isolated district hospital and its staff like Patanjali, perhaps by housing its staff, doctors, nurses and other support workers in lodges and hotels, then people would have had fewer reasons to fear. It is the sight of seeing two women walking by, before your own eyes in hospital dress that agitates and animates them. I hear everyday people saying “these women must be stopped” just after they walk by. Both women are dropped to the hospital in the morning by their sons. One of them used to go on a local boat here. Other seafarers objected to his presence and so from yesterday, he has been stopped from going on the boat. Whatever he used to earn from that source is stopped now. People whenever pushed to the wall, here they are thanks to misinformation and paranoia from news channels and Whatsapp, try to find easy targets. People do not like inaction when they face danger. Doing nothing in dire situations rattle people. They want to do something. It doesn't matter if what they are doing is adding to the misery or cutting from it. They simply want to do something, anything. So I hear, some want to gather before district commissioner's office to protest. I'm a huge fan of citizen's protests but I cannot approve of this nonsense now. The most successful and important deterrent to spreading of the virus is social distancing (rather physical distancing is the apt-term) and frequent hand-washing. These protests would only violate the first weapon we have against the virus's evolutionary goal. And why are they planning to protest? To not have patients from Bhatkal in District Hospital situated in Karwar. Because this increases their chance of catching the virus. But do they realize by protesting (arranging such a social gathering) they are only increasing their chances of getting the virus? Probability of their catching virus in a protest is higher than their catching same from safe indoors of their houses even when district hospital continues to treat Covid-19 patients from Bhatkal. Ever since the lockdown restrictions have been lifted partially, people have started to crowd markets. Some are even travelling with their small kids with them. In these times every one of us has a responsibility to reduce unwanted movements. Are kids required to be brought to market? Some are travelling to their sister's places and they're in turn coming to their houses. I see this every now and then. All these movements are dangerous and can aid into spreading of the virus.

Why does this happen? This paranoia, fear and irresponsible behaviour, are all caused by mass-scale misinformation spread by the news channels and Whatsapp University clubbed with the absence of credible information and easily available resources from the government that would explain the virus, how it spreads, how it does not and what happens when you catch the virus. I have written in past here and here about these topics so I won't dwell on them any further. There are two things I would suggest to the District Commissioner. One, to make it public knowledge the steps taken inside District Hospital to avert any tragedy of spreading the infection. What steps doctors, nurses and other staff (cleaning and likes) are taking in protecting themselves and their family members. I would suggest if this is not already being done, that hospital staff who are treating the Covid-19 patients be isolated and work in batches like Victoria Hospital in Bangalore does - which is Karnataka's largest public hospital and also the main hospital set up to treat Covid-19 infected in Karnataka. They work in batches. The batch that treats Covid-19 stays and sleeps in the hospital itself for a week and then they are isolated for 14 days in specific hotels. Karwar can follow this method or come up with a better solution. Indian Railways had converted their train coaches into COVID-19 treating wards with seats turned into isolation wards with ventilators and other medical equipment. Bhatkal and Karwar are both connected via train route. Can we not have these patients treated on a train? It is possible if administration so desires. To sum, the first step is to release more information along-with making sure that doctors and staff are isolated from the general public. The second suggestion to district commissioner is conditional in case protests are to happen or a delegation comes seeking a ban on bringing patients from Bhatkal. Explain to them why patients from Bhatkal are being brought here. They are not brought here to Karwar but to District Hospital in particular which incidentally for good or bad happens to be situated in Karwar. By saying no to patients from Bhatkal, which happens to be part of the Uttara Kannada district, protesters are saying no to the district hospital in Karwar. Ask them if they do not want district hospital in Karwar. Would they like it to be situated in, say Sirsi, which is anyhow the demand of Kageri and Anant Kumar Hegde, two popular politicians hailing from Sirsi. In that case, patients from Bhatkal would have been taken to Sirsi and not Karwar.

Deccan Herald on March 28 had said - Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner Dr K Harish Kumar announced on Saturday that a COVID-19 unit would come up at a cost of Rs 1 crore on the premises of the Karwar Institute of Medical Sciences within a week (before April 3). The 150-bed unit would have an isolation centre and an oxygen supply facility. There will be 50 quarantine beds and 25 isolation beds. The ICU will be a 10-bed facility, the DC said.

If this has indeed been done then DC must release a bird's eyeview of the new structure showing the separation if any of the old and new one.

Images as above where DC is standing beside the doctor, both without any gloves or other safety kit along with some curious bystanders on left does not imbibe confidence. This is exactly what needs to be addressed and acted upon on immediate footing. We can’t afford carelessness and laziness at this moment. District Commissioner and other administrative units must think about all the pieces of this corona puzzle including repercussions of the steps they take. If he and others think District Hospital cannot handle COVID-19 patients efficiently if they think the staff cannot ensure safety and precaution so as not to spread the virus where it does not exist then he must request Indian Railways to send their special train that can treat these patients away from the crowded city centre that is District Hospital.

In the end, we need more and more information that is real and factual which will evade fears, paranoia and fight misinformation. The only way to stop rumours spread from WhatsApp University is to provide credible and frequent information from official channels which will shorten the spread and kill the rumours.

P.S. Karwar has zero COVID-19 positives because Karwar has done close to zero tests. If you don’t test anyone, you will always have zero cases of infection on paper. Karwar might be sitting on 100 cases and those 100 might be spreading the infection to other hundreds, or it might genuinely have zero cases. None of this can be stated assertively in the absence of testing.

#covid19 #coronavirus #India #karwar #karnataka #misinformation #fakenews #science #doctors #healthcare

16 मज़दूर औरंगाबाद में ट्रैन की पटरी के नीचे कुचल के मर गए है। शायद आप तक यह खबर पहुंच भी गई है। आपको शायद बताया जा रहा है कि यह हादसा था। हादसा क्या होता है? हादसा वह होता है जहां किसीको पता नहीं रहता कि वह होनेवाला है। रवीश कुमार अपने चैनल पर हफ्तों से बता रहे थे/है कि पुलिस अपने गंतव्य की तरफ चलनेवाले मज़दूर वर्ग के लोगों को रास्तो से कैसे हटा रही है और पुलिस से बचने के लिए मज़दूर कैसे रेल्वे की पटरियों पर चल रहे है। वे कह रहे थे कि यह कितना भयावह और ख़तरनाक है। वे पुछ रहे थे कि जैसे हमने भारत के बाहर से भारतीयों को फ़्लाइट पर लाया वैसे मजदूरों की घर जाने की व्यवस्था क्यों नहीं की जा रही है... आप शायद रवीश को सुन नहीं रहे थे, आप शायद व्यस्त थे सुधीर चौधरी जैसे गोदी मीडिया को सुनने में जो पैदल चलते मज़दूर और शराब के लिए लाइन लगाने वाले लोगों में फर्क़ तक नहीं कर पाते – कैसे करेंगे वो भी – उनके ऐसी स्टुडियों से सब कीड़े-मकोड़े बाहर उनको एक ही तरह के दिखते है। और आप उनकी बातों में मस्त है। आपने अपने विवेक और बुद्धि का त्याग तो सरकार के चरण कमलों में कब का कर दिया है... मुबारक हो आपको। आपके और आपके सरकार के अंधेपन ने 16 मज़दूरों की जान ली है। शर्म आपको अब भी नहीं आयेगी और सरकार इतनी जल्दी अपनी नींद से उठने वाली है नहीं – मज़दूरों को कारवाँ यूँही ऐसे मौत से खेलते चलने वाला है।

मदद तो आप कर नहीं सकते, पर अनदेखा तो मत कीजिए। जानता हूँ आप मजदूरों की कहानियों से बोर हो गए है। कब से बेचारे चल रहे थे, शायद उन्होंने सोचा होगा कि चलो कुछ पटरियों के नीचे सोकर जान देते है – शायद तब लोग हमारे बारे में सतर्क होंगे। वो आपके भव्य और अद्भुत अनदेखा करने की क्षमता से अभी वाकिफ़ नहीं हुए है। और क्या बात है कि आप मज़दूरों की कहानियों को पढ़ नहीं रहे हैं, देख नहीं रहे हैं? ऐसी क्या विपदा आयी है आप पर? आप तो अपने घर पर ही हो ना? महान हो आप और आपकी दो रुपये की देशभक्ति जो थालियां बजाने और दिये जलाने तो बाहर आ जाती है पर सरकार से मज़दूरों के लिए मदद मांगने नहीं। आप जानते नहीं है शायद पर आपके न्यूज चैनल आपको जिंदा लाश में तब्दील कर रहे है। कई हो भी गए है। रामायण बार-बार देखने से आपके पाप धुलने वाले नहीं हैं!

गोदी मिडिया से अब तो सावधान हो जाइए... और कितने लाशों पर अपना नाम लिखेंगे आप?

#coronavirus #Hindi #India #migrants #railways #trains #deaths

There are 6,653 cases of COVID-19 in India as of 9 April 11:45 PM. And this is despite India testing the least. And our government is broadcasting these comparative low numbers as some sort of success. Think of this. If India had not tested anyone at all then India would have had zero SARS-CoV-2 positive cases. And the gullible public would have bought even that as the success of their God Modi. People are yet to realise or do not want to indulge in a thought that goes against great leader's image how the 'low number of recorded cases across the country might be a result of the government's strict guidelines on who can be tested.' The number of cases in India right now is dreary low compared to the world at large but even these numbers are not being managed respectfully. Doctors in India are facing a shortage of PPEs so much so that according to a Reuters report, PPE shortages are forcing some doctors to use raincoats and motorbike helmets. If doctors are facing this, it is not hard to think the kind of risk hospital staff, ambulance drivers and others in the health sector are up against. Least said about the number of beds and doctor to people ratio the better.

China alerted the world of a new virus outbreak way back in December 2019. The first case of coronavirus was reported in India at the end of January 2020. Rahul Gandhi, yes that 'joker' and 'fool' alerted the government of India about the coronavirus threat on February 12. News channels and even Health Minister of India (himself a doctor by profession) made fun of Mr Gandhi and even threatened him.

According to the All India Drug Action Network, the need for coveralls, for instance, could rise to 500,000 per day. “Indian manufacturers were urging the government to stock up materials since early February, and to impose anti-profiteering measures. Yet by the time an order was received, the price of the components required to make ply masks had gone up “from 250 per kg to 3,000 per kg,” Sanjiiiv Relhan, the chairman of the Preventive Wear Manufacturer Association of India, told local media.

Somewhere late in February Prime Minister Narendra Modi arranged a huge Trump rally in a Gujarat stadium with packed crowds. Just before this, there were state elections in Delhi which despite all possible efforts by BJP's war machinery, including Modi and Amit Shah, BJP had to face a humiliating defeat. Among many of its candidates who lost was Kapil Mishra who later incited a mob (by threatening anti-CAA protesters with Delhi police in the background) leading to state-sponsored pogrom aided by Delhi police and of course, Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah, who by not speaking a word for three days bought rioters their essential time to burn the capital.

As late as March 5, Health Minister of India Dr Harshvardhan was taking potshots at Rahul Gandhi saying Mr Gandhi “obviously 'knows' better than WHO which is saying there is no need to panic” and how “India DOES have a robust healthcare system which is being appreciated globally. Rahul Gandhi do you know what's happening around the world?” Globally, it was havoc. We by now had news from Italy, South Korea, Spain, and of course China. Everything pointed at danger. And yet we chose to look the other way. 

The first two weeks were devoted to toppling the Congress government in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and installing a BJP government in its place. On March 11 the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a pandemic. Two days later, on March 13, the health ministry said that corona “is not a health emergency” - Arundhati Roy

After all this, the Indian govt started to act on Coronavirus outbreak. But the way India dealt with the outbreak is different from how the rest of the world is fighting. Prime Minister at the time of writing this, addressed the nation thrice. Once to ask his flock of sheep (that is an entire citizenry which has left its brain in freezers) to bang their plates from balconies, next to announce a 21-day lockdown which was as sudden as demonetisation was leading to huge reverse migration of migrant labourers from metros to their villages. Some of them walked for days as there was no transport provided to them, unlike free airlines that brought NRIs from coronavirus affected countries into India. Then came the financial package which had as many holes as the number of wounds it tried to patch. And finally, Prime Minister again showed up to ask citizens to switch off their lights for 9 minutes at 9 pm and light candles and oil lamps which they dutifully did. Some even went on to light firecrackers causing fire-incidents which resulted in the burning of their houses, some arranged rallies with burning torches reminding people of American ultra-right. News channels on the night of 9-pm-9-minutes went absolute bonkers. We were told how collective lighting of lamps will kill the demon of coronavirus, how Modi is leading from the front and other wonderful things that will come from this exercise. What news channels haven't told them is, and Prime Minister knowingly forgets to address in his Kim-Jong style appearances is, by not testing enough we are only letting the virus spread more because, in absence of tests, people who are affected but not showing symptoms keep roaming around, meeting people and spreading infection, our doctors and hospital staff are catching virus too because they don't have adequate PPEs. There are already hospitals that themselves have become hotspots for viruses, some even have to close themselves because one of the doctor from hospital tested positive. Remember, we already have fewer hospitals. The only reason why we have fewer positives is that because we are testing less. If you only tested say, hundred people, you will at maximum get a hundred positives. So the comparison of US and Italy's lakhs of positives with Indias thousands is flawed. India is not fighting to contain the virus but fighting, rather briskly and at huge risk, to contain the numbers to save the image of its version of Kim-Jong-Un. We must understand, the virus does not care for any of this, it does not care how you stood in balconies clapping for your docs, it does not care you lit candles, it only cares how fast and efficiently it can spread, which is, its natural and evolutionary instinct.

India is not fighting to contain the virus but fighting, rather briskly and at huge risk, to contain the numbers to save the image of its version of Kim-Jong-Un. We must understand, the virus does not care for any of this, it does not care how you stood in balconies clapping for your docs, it does not care you lit candles, it only cares how fast and efficiently it can spread, which is, its natural and evolutionary instinct.

Prime Minister also hosted video conferences, one with state leaders - much required. And one with media bosses asking them to focus on positives and not indulge in the negatives. You must read the Caravan report to understand how they all followed this guideline. And then Mr Modi spoke with sportspersons. He is yet to speak with doctors, other medical professionals, scientists and other people who are fighting this pandemic from the front. We shall wait for that.

Many doctors, nurses and other medical staff who are at the forefront of the country's fight against the Covid-19 pandemic have reportedly contracted the virus. Health workers say lack of “proper” protective gear has exposed them to the perils of their profession and made them susceptible to the viral attack. - TOI

If that's what government has been doing, what are Indians busy at? 

Indians are known to abide by the word of their god leader, so as expected they came out other day and banged their plates. Next, they switched off their lights and lit candles/diyas for complete 9 minutes. Do these things get doctors and health workers what they need? Absolutely no. Then what do they do? They instil a sense of purpose into docile public who have been locked behind their doors. We all want to participate, we all like being useful, and in this exercise, when you are banging plate or lighting a candle, you know who has asked you to do it, you associate your action with Mr Modi - what does that do - it gives each one who's banging plates a feeling that Modi is working. When you look from your balcony and see people doing something in unison, when you open your TV and hear anchors say 'look what Modi has got people to do', you instantly connect. Add to it Modi's electric persona. We all like attention and Mr Modi's attention? What can be more orgasmic? Have you walked into a village and watched how they speak about Modi - it's like they have seen some kind of God. Watching Modi speak to them via these addresses to the nation is like watching Ramayana on Doordarshan in its heydays when streets used to all go empty. People are happy that they are following Modi's orders, they are so happy to be told to do something by their dear leader.

This is the second national gimmick, the first one was to bang pots and pans before the lockdown. This comes after the horrendous experience of lakhs of migrant labourers who were forced to walk back home, in the absence of food or wages in the cities. The images of the migrant workers resulted in a PR disaster for Narendra Modi, who has been busy using coronavirus crisis for his PR - such as unnecessarily setting up a fund called PM CARES when there was already a fund for people to contribute to. At 9pm on 5 April, when people light a lamp, Narendra Modi will be demonstrating that he's still the popular leader people have faith and trust in. After all, they are following his commands. This will help him overcome the damage to his image caused by the migrant labour fiasco. In short, this is a political show of strength. What it won't do, is that it won't tell us why the export of protective gear for doctors were allowed till as recently as 19 March, or why the government did nothing all of January and February to prepare for what was coming, by scaling up the resources for testing, isolation centres, ventilators and other medical infrastructure. – Shivam Vij

Contrast all this with Manmohan Singh who silently fought Swine flu (H1N1) influenza. 2009 outbreak of Swine flu, like COVID-19 now, was declared a pandemic by WHO. Soon after the outbreak of flu in the US and Mexico, the government of India started screening of people coming from affected countries at airports leading to the detection of first positive on 13th May at Hyderabad airport. In a year since that first detection, 1035 people lost their lives. There was lockdown in some areas too which was by and large detested then. The outbreak was contained successfully and silently. Manmohan Singh did not appear on our TV screens, the doctor didn't ask his citizens to bang plates or light candles. His lockdown did not result in a reverse migration of migrant population. Nobody remembers Dr Singh now for he did not assign his citizens daily tasks so they could remember Singh as someone who worked - his work was invisible from public eyes. He worked because that's what he was elected for, that's what Prime Ministers are supposed to do. There is no greatness in a Prime Minister fighting for his nation. That's the very job he has been voted to perform. There is nothing extraordinary in auto driver riding his auto, policeman doing policing, software developers coding, armymen patrolling the borders or Prime Minister fighting a pandemic - that is exactly what their work demands from them. If an auto driver refuses to ride his auto to a specific place, if a policeman refuses to register a FIR, if an army man ties a civilian onto his jeep and parades him on-road or a Prime Minister who pronounces decisions on TV without ample thought and preparations resulting into hazardous migration and collapse of the economy then that should concern us all for they are not supposed to do such things. That's against their job description. The banging of plates and clapping was copied from France and Italy where it was organic. Their leaders did not ask them to do all these activities. Their people did them on their own, by their own free will. They didn't bang plates thinking collective sound of it will somehow discourage the virus in its mission - they weren't driven by any such pseudoscience. They purely did so to appreciate the doctors who were passing by. We need to pay more attention to our actions. We are now ruled by decree. And I know words have meanings, to rule and to govern are two different things. Democracies are governed but India, the largest democracy, is no more governed. It is ruled, by decree.

What is sadder, sadder than our rulers and people full of unscientific nonsense, are those driven by hate. Across the world, the virus is bringing people closer to each other. Exes are texting their old partners, old friends are catching up on conference calls, all in all, the entire world seems to forget its differences and is helping each other. China has sent help to Italy, Cuba against which European powers for long had sanctions is sending its doctors and help to fight the virus. Not just people but even global powers have come together in fighting this pandemic. They understand how the virus does not understand national boundaries, how it does not care which god we pray to or if we visit a temple or mosque or church. But India, the largest democracy, so to call, is busy fighting multiple fights along with the virus that's fast-spreading.

Before the lockdown was in place, there were reports from multiple supermarkets in cities, of everyday people of mainland India calling everyday people of north-eastern-India as 'corona'. One of my friend from the US who was in Delhi was also called corona by some locals there. He is Vietnamese-American. If racism was not enough, we are now down to bigotry. There was a gathering in Delhi's Nizamuddin area by a Muslim group attended by some Muslim foreigners, some of them later tested positive. The event took place on March 13, long before Modi came on tv to announce the lockdown but Delhi govt had already issued an advisory against the gathering of people. As cases of infected started to rise across India and their links to those who attended the Delhi event started to surface, TV media lost its shit. The media that until then had difficulty reporting on an unfamiliar virus got its mojo back. They had finally got what they were good at broadcasting. An event at a Muslim place of worship, attended by men wearing skull caps and having a strong Muslim name which they all made sure they explained to their audience. They didn't just explain what happened but also portrayed as if Muslims had come together to spread the virus across length and breadth of India. To help the narrative, WhatsApp was full of old and out-of-context videos of Muslim men spreading the disease. There were men with white caps licking their spoons and utensils (to spread the virus), a fruit vendor licking his fruits. All this resulting in Hindus advising fellow Hindus to not talk and meet with Muslims, not to buy from Muslims, the same old demand of their social and economic boycott.

What happened at Nizamuddin should not have happened. Delhi Police has released a video claiming they warned organisers against organising such a gathering. They should not have gathered. But did they know they had someone infected among them? No. Would they have congregated knowing someone infected was about to participate as well? Absolutely no. Everyone loves their life. Everyone wants to live. Then why did they congregate despite there being enough talk about the virus and social distancing? Why did people, and by reports, around 40,000 continued to visit Tirupati-Tirumala shrine days after Nizamuddin gathering of March 13? People were flocking Shirdi too. Chief Minister of UP, Ajay Singh Bisht aka Yogi Adityanath visited Ram Lalla temple of Ayodhya in a group too. I'm sure Mr Bisht cares about his life and so do those who went to Tirupati. State ministers of Telangana participated in Ram Navami celebrations which were held after Nizamuddin gathering outrage on tv and social media. Did the ministers not know about the virus? Have they not heard about social distancing? They had. Did they care less about their life? Absolutely negative. Then why did all these people (and scores of others that I did not mention) venture out? What are we missing here?

When Kanika Kapoor episode had broken out, our tv channels ostracized her, there was a whole campaign to vilify her. She was called with worse epithets. None of us seems to understand and especially our media, that nobody, no one is interested or desiring to catch the virus. And those that get affected, whose tests reveal they are positive, even if they desire to spread it to others, they cannot do so for they are immediately sent into quarantine. Tests are only conducted if govt believes they need to be tested, and they only believe if they have suspicion and those that it suspects already spend a day or two before tests being done. They don't even get to visit their homes before moving into quarantine. People from Nizamuddin gathering who were tested positive, the primary contacts from who it spread, they entered India via our secure airports. Were they not checked? They were. We tested them for temperature. Those fancy machines which authorities hold onto your head like guns, the ones you’ve seen on news channels and those that WhatsApp University had made people believe are COVID-19 testing machines, sad to break it down to you, they are not. They are similar to our old thermometers. These people were allowed to leave the airport because they didn't have symptoms and our procedure says no-symptoms-no-corona-no-test. If we had kept everyone who came from affected countries in isolation or just anyone who came in was kept in 14 days isolation, then we wouldn't have Nizamuddin incident and if we were keeping those who travelled into India since at least February into mandatory govt monitored quarantine centres, much of the outbreak as it stands today would not exist. Right now, we are taking over hotels and turning them into isolation centres. Right now, we need so many isolation rooms. Then, we would have required less. But anyway, this is not to say people who gathered at Nizamuddin didn't do any wrong. They did. And so did those that gathered at a funeral in Morena.

A man in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district, who had a foreign-travel history, has tested positive for coronavirus — days after he organised a funeral feast for 1,500 people. Eleven of his family members have also tested positive for the deadly virus. The man, identified as Suresh, works as a waiter in Dubai. He came to Morena on March 17. The function took place on March 20. As many as 26,000 people have been put under quarantine. - WION news

Nizamuddin event occurred on March 13. Above one long after that. I don't see any difference between these two except that one is a Muslim event and another Hindu event. You know how media portrayed one event while another didn't even make it to tv news. What we also forget, and our news channels deliberately miss, is how Maharashtra govt and its police did not permit Tablighi Jamaat to hold a similar event in Mumbai. Delhi police and other authorities have a lot to answer too.

Manisha Pande and Meghnad doing a great job of TV Newsance

This still leaves out the primary question - Why were these people continuing to gather despite being warned? Everyone knows there exists a virus that originated somewhere in China and is infecting people across the world. Everyone also knows about celebrities and TV channels advising everyone to frequently wash their hands and also maintain social distance from people around. And yet, we have people placing theirs and others life in danger by carelessly loitering around like this. But again, why? Did Suresh want to spread the virus? He came from Dubai. Was he paid by some Sheikh in Dubai to spread the virus and destroy India? Damn no. They were all careless because they did not understand or were never made to understand what a virus outbreak means. How does a virus spread, what does this virus do, what is the difference between this virus and other viruses, how different is this flu caused by SARS-Cov-2 from other cases of flu? How does washing hands help? Why should we maintain social distancing? No one has cared to explain any of this. We are expecting people to blindly follow all these orders like any other government laws. We have empowered police to enforce these 'laws'. And they have gone on to beat people mercilessly not even sparing doctors going to their duties. We want to keep people safe not by informing them but by showing them fear. That is not how it works. People are treating lockdown like seatbelt signs. People in villages come out on the main road in the evening because that's when the police come for their rounds. They wait for the police to show up so they could run to into their homes. On some days when police don't show up, you can see the disappointment on their faces. Do you think these people don't watch tv? They do. They are not following because they still don't think it's necessary. Fifty years ago, people would not run to the doctor if someone was bitten by a snake but now they do. What has changed? Awareness. They now know treating snake bites with leaves from the forest is taking chance with life. Instead, Science and doctors have more proven medicines. We need to explain to the public what this virus is, how it started, how they are so many viruses around us, what is special about this virus and how washing hands and keeping distance from people help. Only and only then will we see voluntary action. We need people's support and cooperation, not their subservience. We have not lost our brains completely yet. Tomorrow, if Modi asked people to hold live electric wires in each hand because it definitely will kill the coronavirus, which sure it will, but they won't. We still have not given up on our thinking, not yet. There is still some thinking that we do. We just need to be mindful of our just-light-the-diya-what-worse-will-happen attitude. We need more and more of science and reasoning among us. More and more of science. Less and less of taking orders without questions.

Here's some reading list:

From Bats to Human Lungs, the Evolution of a Coronavirus

How Does the Coronavirus Behave Inside a Patient?

Show Me the Science - Why Wash Your Hands?

In case you also needed science behind hand-washing.

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