The title says it all, doesn't it? This was written on 14 Apr 20, within one month of the lock out at the national level.

1. LIFE IN TIMES OF A LOCKOUT
P M Ravindran, raviforjustice@gmail.com
Well, for one who had been daddy sitting for almost 7 years, the lock down is only another
name for staying at home. (Not that my dad was sick, or bed ridden. On the other hand,
well into his 80s, he was far too active for his age. In a way, even for my age. And that was
why I had to be around, to ensure that he did not suffer any fall or such mishap.) After his
demise, the only change that had occurred in my routine was an outing for about an hour in
the evenings to visit relations or some senior citizens in the neighborhood.
It was the compulsion that came with the lockdown that made it unpalatable for the first
few days. This was so, although it was amply clear that the only way of prevention was to
keep social distance. In other words, be with yourself and your family, staying in the same
house.
As days dragged on the main obsession was with news on the spread of the virus and the
number of casualties- both, who were infected and those who had succumbed.
In Kerala the Chief Minster himself would give out the figures, ensuring that separate
figures were mentioned of those who had come with infections from abroad. Piqued by this
categorization, an NRI posted a message on social media that the CM should be more
circumspect and bear in mind the conditions under which Malayalees were toiling out there
to keep their relations here and the State itself economically better off.
The CM had probably taken on the briefing part himself after his Health Minster, who had
been doing the briefing earlier, had kept blaming the Center for not doing enough scanning
and segregation at the airports.
When lock down was announced apart from essential services, in Kerala, all other
government offices were to work with 50 percent attendance every day, with the staff
rotating each day. And it was to be a five-day week too.
The Central government offices too were required to work with minimum essential staff.
But almost a week before the PM announced a three-week national lock down, the apex
court had reduced the number of benches from 15 to 6. And when the national lockdown
was announced it was reduced to a bench for considering urgent matters.
We all know that it is only the courts that had been working as per schedules prepared by
them, including crowd management (if at all we could call it management) through the
number of cases listed for the day. So, there was no rationale in courts doing with
namesake benches to deal with ‘urgent’ matters.
How these benches would work also would make one raise one’s eyebrows.
In the apex court, the bench would be in one court room and the advocates in another. The
hearing would be conducted through video conferencing.
The Kerala High Court’s designated bench would hold sittings on a few notified days only.
It has been reported that all the cases that had been listed for hearing during the lock down
days are being adjourned to Jul 2020, after the summer vacation.

2. Thankfully, the Supreme Court Bar Association has requested the court to do away with the
summer vacation to make up for the lost working days of the court.
The enforcement of the lock down has also invited criticism from some quarters for the way
police personnel had resorted to extra-legal methods to punish those who violated the lock
down laws. For once, there is a need to condone this because wisdom through the ages tell
us that those who are not taught at home to behave will have to learn it at the hands of the
public (read police, here).
More importantly the great job done by these public servants, working for more than 12 to
15 hours at a stretch, in delivering food to the needy and assisting the health workers to
track and quarantine those who had come into contact with suspected infected persons
were a treat to the eyes. There have been reports of these teams facing stiff resistance in
some pockets, including being attacked and pelted with stones.
The most heart wrenching scenes during the lockout were of migrant laborers, along with
families, trekking back to their native places, hundreds of kilometers away, from Delhi and
other cities. The grit amidst helplessness had to be seen to be believed. Some body rightly
commented on social media that these poor people never resorted to hurling stones at
policemen and security personnel or abusing them. Even their character was emulative
when they would only accept the minimum that they needed from those offering food,
water and fruits on their way.
The Prime Minister, while announcing the lock down, had clearly requested that the daily
wage earners should be looked after by the employers till the situation got back to normal.
If only those employers had resorted to paying the advance of their wages for a month and
held them back wherever they were, and opted to recover the advance in instalments
subsequently, a lot of hardship could have been avoided.
But unlike the migrant laborers, those who congregated at a Nizamuddin mosque created
havoc with the national effort to contain the pandemic through social distancing and lock
down. Reports indicate that participants of this congregation have been responsible for
almost 60 percent of the spurt in cases reported thereafter. Not to mention the herculean
task in tracking those who had come into contact with them and quarantining them.
Another alarming report has been of consignments from China being contaminated. It was
reported that a few persons of a company in Mysuru, Karnataka who had handled some
consignments from China had tested positive. And a couple of European countries too had
reported that even the medical stores received from China were found contaminated.
There is this truism that the true worth of a person can be righty gauged only when he is in
difficult times. It appears to be true of nations too. One report informed us that a plane
loaded with masks, ventilators etc for a European nation was diverted to America because
of a higher, cash down payment offered. The only thing missing is the clarity on the role of
the US administration in the incidence.
The pandemic has exposed the underbelly of the international organizations like UNO and
WHO. Particularly with China heading the UN Security Council on a rotational basis, effort to
rake up the issue in the UN has not only failed but WHO is also alleged to be complicit in
spreading the virus by relaying too much on the information fed by China only.

3. The way events have shaped, if somebody believes that it was the trial of a biological
weapon gone awry, he cannot be blamed. Now China has also banned research into the
origin of this outbreak from Wuhan.
Amidst all these dark clouds, the silver lining is the growth of India as a role model to deal
with crises. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to his fellow countrymen to thank the
Covid warriors by lighting a lamp or candle for 9 minutes at 9 PM on 5th April was not only
received with great aplomb by Indians, in India, it was welcomed equally well by people in
Australia, UK, US of A and many more countries, large and small.
There have been reports also of Japan setting up a fund to persuade its companies in China
to shift, back to Japan or anywhere else. The chances of many of them shifting to India are
good. Such moves can be expected from many of the European and American
establishments also.
And, yes, some body has rightly pointed out that India is now a pharmacy for the world. The
demand of Hydroxychloroquine by the US of A, for which the President of the US had made
a direct request to our Prime Minister, is indeed gratifying.
Unfortunately, there were unwarranted controversies raked up by the media who reported
that Trump had threatened India with retaliation and Modi succumbed to it.
But then, media apart, there are many in this country whose only agenda seems to be
belittling the nation and it elected leader, Narendra Damodardas Modi. This Covid season
seems to establish not only Narendra Modi as a world leader but also this nation as a
wonder, defeating a pandemic stoically amidst a lot of poverty.
The predictions from Nostradamus to Einstein are being recollected, of India’s rise to
leadership among world’s nations. Something we can all be proud of and help to cheer us in
these days of gloom.
14 Apr 2020