New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown in India to curb the spread of Covid-19 till 3 May. This comes after several reports have shown that the lockdown has worked.
R-Naught or R0 measures the number of people a coronavirus patient can infect and recent data indicates that India’s infection rate has fallen to 1.55 on 11 April from 1.83 on 6 April. This implies that the restrictions imposed under the three-week lockdown could be helping.
The number of Covid-19 positive cases has crossed 10,000 in India, but without the lockdown, it could have been worse. India could have had more than 53,000 positive cases.
Also read: R0 data shows India’s coronavirus infection rate has slowed, gives lockdown a thumbs up
Political chaos fuels Covid-19 crisis in Madhya Pradesh
The political crisis in Madhya Pradesh has worsened the coronavirus situation in the state. Covid-19 positive cases have crossed 600 in Madhya Pradesh and Indore has been hit the worst by the disease. More than 30 people have died in Indore of the virus while Bhopal, its capital, is also getting affected by the disease now.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s government is running with a one-man cabinet. The government had formed after members of the Congress left the party and joined the BJP. Those members lost their MLA designation when they left their party and now the BJP needs to get them re-elected in order to make them cabinet members.
By-elections cannot happen due to Covid-19 and this means Chouhan is likely to continue running as his cabinet alone. He is likely to break the record of Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa who spent 24 days as chief minister without a cabinet.
The governance in the state has worsened the Covid-19 situation. It was forgotten till Kamal Nath’s government was toppled. Now, many IAS officers in the health department are also under quarantine. Almost half of Bhopal’s Covid-19 cases are from the health department, including the Principal Secretary Health Pallavi Jain Govil. She was praised by Chouhan, but now she has been replaced. There is essentially a bureaucratic and leadership failure in the state.
Also read: Bhopal’s health dept, led by its IAS secy, becomes new corona hotspot, half city’s cases linked
Nihangs
Nihangs have been in the news lately after some of their members cut off a policeman’s hand in Punjab. Fortunately, the hand was fixed by surgeons. However, the news has changed the perception of Nihangs across the country. People are assuming that the Nihangs are some notorious organisation supported by Pakistan. This isn’t the case, they aren’t involved in any organised crime and are generally not involved in any violence at all.
Nihangs believe that the tenth Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh recruited them in the 17th century. Now, they roam around on horses with traditional weaponry. They wear turbans many times bigger than the size of their heads and they take great pride in it.
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