Narendra Modi government’s decision to extend the lockdown is unimaginative, excessive and Tughlaqi. India needs to get back to work. Not restarting an economy that was already sputtering before the lockdown will push more people into poverty. It hurts lives and livelihoods, and exposes the absence of a revival strategy.
New Labour Party leader’s comment on Kashmir affirms India’s sovereignty, fixes Corbyn’s follies
British Labour Party’s new leader Sir Kier Starmer’s comments on Kashmir are a wise move to fix the adventurist follies of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. By calling Article 370’s dilution an Indian Parliament matter, he has affirmed India’s sovereignty and the political power of British Indians who voted against Labour.
This isn’t time to send migrants home. Revival of economic activity needs them to return to work
Special trains to ferry migrant workers to villages after over a month of lockdown is counter-intuitive. This should have been done in its first week. The government focus is now shifting to revival of economic activity. As curbs lift slowly, labourers should be preparing to return to work, not home.
Many had hoped that the general lockdown would be lifted on the 3rd, excluding the most affected hotspots. It is a fair assumption that the number of cases would be near 1,00,000 on 17th May. Normally a figure that would make a case for further extension. So the government has to knowingly take a bold step forward. What is happening to the economy and all but the well off is becoming manifest. Migrants travelling in concrete mixers. The government unable to pick up the tab for those who are moving by rail. It would not be over dramatic to say this is the government’s Battle of Britain moment. Also a time to unveil a series of economic reforms that, apart from anything else, will give investors the confidence that we are still in business.
True, but the jobs should be there. Demonetisation sank small businesses that did not revive. That the migrants will now be permitted to return to their villages, and by train, since buses would not have sufficed, is welcome. With a little forethought, this could have been provided for at the stage when lockdown was decreed.