On Monday’s front pages, cheerful snapshots of Sunday’s ‘diya jalaao’ are a stark contrast to the grim headlines about the rising coronavirus death toll in India and the surge in cases.
And, in an unusual move, The Indian Express and The New Indian Express feature pieces by ex-RBI governors Urjit Patel and Raghuram Rajan, respectively, on their front pages, for expert opinion on the situation.
Newspapers also note India’s changing stance on supplying anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine to US, following PM Modi and US President Trump’s phone conversation.
Pink papers note that states are asking the Centre for financial lifelines and seeking compensation for declining GST revenues.
Most ominously of all, Mumbai Mirror, Mint and Business Standard call Mumbai’s Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, a “ticking time bomb” with regard to the potential spread of Covid-19.
The lead story, ‘Toll surges past 100 with 27 deaths reported in 24 hours’, says, “India’s death toll from the Covid-19 outbreak surged past 100 to 124 with 27 more patients succumbing to the infection — according to official state-wise reports — the highest number so far, with Maharashtra alone reporting 13 deaths on Sunday.”
Sunday’s 9 minutes at 9 pm diya ceremony is commemorated by the daily with a photograph of a family lighting candles, captioned, ‘That Diwali Feeling in April’.
In heartening news, the government has heeded the call for more tests — ‘Testing numbers to double to 20,000 in 3 days’. According to TOI, “The government plans to double after every three days the number of samples tested through RT-PCR process — considered mandatory for accurate results — by government laboratories… Currently, labs under the ICMR are testing over 10,000 samples a day. This is expected to reach 20,000 in three days.”
And, “India is ‘considering’ a request by US President Donald Trump to relax the ban on export of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug, which, as Trump has claimed, can help treat Covid-19 patients”.
And some people just don’t know how to be responsible: In ‘8 Malaysians who were at Tablighi meet detained at Delhi airport’, says the eight Malaysians were trying to board a flight home, when they were nabbed by the authorities.
A two-column piece by ex-RBI Governor Urjit Patel (‘Managing COVID: A task well-begun’) on India’s policy response to the Covid-19 outbreak features on the front page. He calls for more testing and discusses India’s “bipolar economic policy” as well as the banking challenge (See ThePrint’s ThoughtShot for more details).
Another report notes a shocking incident where, despite calls for social distancing, 200 people gathered outside the residence of Nagpur BJP MLA Dadarao Keche in Wardha (‘In midst of lockdown, 200 celebrate BJP MLA’s birthday’).
Another report gives you an idea of the enormity of the challenges ahead: ‘Govt estimates…’ says that according to sources, the Centre has “calculated that the country will require about 27 million N95 masks, 15 million PPEs, 1.6million diagnostic kits, and 50,000 ventilators in next two months”.
The second lead story, ‘States propose various scenarios of ‘unlockdown’’ says that officials in multiple states offered some pointers about how a staggered return to normal activity could work after April 15. “Officials in three states — Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Haryana — said they were in favour of first relaxing curbs in districts that are at present free of infections”. Punjab will most probably continue with the lockdown in most parts while in Uttar Pradesh, “agricultural and allied industries are likely to be allowed to resume”, it says.
Hindu is also the only mainstream newspaper to mention in its headline that ‘PM lights lamp…’ on Sunday, as “People across the country switched off lights… and lit lamps at their doors…”
The other important story here is from Lucknow, where the chief minister had an important announcement: ‘U.P lockdown to end in phases: Adityanath’. He said that the complete lockdown will end on 15 April but the easing of restrictions will be in “phases’’. The paper reports that he said the virus needs to be fully defeated by November-December.
The Kolkata daily still manages to be witty with its headlines in dire times — `Trump seeks tablets India has quarantined’. The report says, “Trump’s request during a phone call to Modi was made on the same day India tightened rules banning the export of hydroxychloroquine. The export ban, without exceptions, came after the Union health ministry changed the national treatment guidelines to include a regimen of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat Covid-19 patients.”
The paper goes from witty to gloomy with the story, ‘Dreze and Rajan see dark clouds, list options’. Telegraph reports, “The Indian macroeconomic situation is bleak and, economically, the country is facing possibly its greatest emergency since Independence, renowned economists Jean Dreze and Raghuram Rajan have said. In a blog, Rajan said the country needed to plan for the post-lockdown phase…. Dreze, the Belgian-born Indian economist, told PTI in an interview on Sunday: ‘The situation is bleak and all set to get worse, if local or national lockdowns of varying intensity continue for some time…. Even otherwise, the worldwide recession is likely to have adverse effects on the Indian economy’.”
NIE also carries a report on former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan’s blog, which was posted on his LinkedIn page. In ‘Learn from past mistakes, plan for life after lockdown’, Rajan writes: “Once India wins the battle against COVID-19, there will be a bigger war waiting — fixing the large-scale disruption caused by the unprecedented shutdown”.
The paper’s anchor story ‘Early trends on fatality show the spread is uneven’ analyses the deaths due to Covid-19 in India. It notes, “At 16.6 per cent, the percentage of people who lost their lives due to the infection is the highest in Himachal Pradesh followed by Gujarat at 9.5 per cent”. On the other hand, Rajasthan has over 200 cases but no fatality while Kerala and Maharashtra have the highest number of cases but the fatality rate is well under 1 per cent. Experts say that this may be due to different steps taken by different states, with some testing and treating more.
Appeals for a “lifeline” are also coming from start-ups, as noted in ‘Startups Demand Liquidity Lifeline to Stay Afloat’.
The paper calls Mumbai’s Dharavi, one of the largest slums in Asia, a “ticking time bomb”. In a similar report to Mumbai Mirror (‘Dharavi sets off alarm bells’), the paper says another case was detected in the area, taking the total to 5.
Like Mumbai Mirror and Mint, the paper notes the situation in Dharavi in its anchor story. In ‘Dharavi holds its breath as coronavirus cases spill over’, it identifies overcrowding, the presence of large families and unsanitary conditions as many reasons why the “teeming shantytown” is at a major risk.