Most important is to redress the political and administrative fault-lines that have emerged after the announcement of the lockdown. People live in states and lockdown orders were to be carried out by the state governments. They did not have time to prepare themselves for the lockdown, however, they performed well with the help of majority of the people who had by that time become alert about the need of remaining in safety of their home. Even the government of India was not prepared to tackle the situation. Union government had to remodify their orders as the faultlines emerged. Both the state and the Union governments went wrong on many counts by omitting and committing mistakes, because they lacked proper coordination and proper plan in advance, though they had enough time from January end when the first case of corona infection had emerged in the country. The chaos witnessed after the order of lockdown was its consequence. The lesion is that our governments both in the states and the centre need greater coordination and effective planning.

Administrate faultline emerged due to our governments went wrong in their assessment of the need of the people, particularly the daily wage earners and the have nots. They could not maintain the smooth supply of even food and shelter during the initial days of the lockdown period which resulted into chaos in the form of migration efforts of a large number of people from the towns where they were working to their hometowns and villages. The situation became worst in Delhi and Maharashtra. Since all means of public transport were absent from the roads many of them tried to return home by travel on foot, in which around two dozens were lost their lives. It stopped only when borders of other states were sealed by the order of the Union government. Obviously, there was no effective rescue or evacuation plan for the needy people. Lately, the state governments have done considerable work to make food supply chain smooth, and made temporary shelters for others for whom it is not possible to remain in safety of their home. Needless to say, most of them are homeless or have no means of survival. This is a tough task, because it is very difficult to reach such people. Most of them are from unorganized sector. If governments fail to reach them, we will not be able to win the corona war. A sense of security and safety found among the middle class and the rich may prove wrong if we fail to protect the poor.

The social fault-line has emerged due to the over enthusiasts who are privileged in resources and are continuously behaving in inhuman ways. The subjection of migrant workers returning home to have a chemical bath in Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, and soap spray in Kerala are such examples of inhumanity. It goes without saying that the middle class and the rich are fully supporting the lockdown while the people stricken in poverty and unprivileged are facing the real hardship. The discriminations faced by the poor and the daily wage earners have put their survival at stake. There must be human ways to deal with the situation arising out of disruption of food supply chain. It must be noted that a body with strong immune system is necessary to defeat corona. Starvation or non-supply of essentials such as vegetables and fruits may weaken the physical strength of the people which may be counterproductive for our war against corona.

Another fault-line has emerged that relates to the farmers and their livestock. In the war against corona, the country seem to have forgotten that there are over 191 million cattle in the country out of which over 140 are cows. Due to ban on all means of transport, there has been acute shortage of food and medicine for them. Milk supply has also been disrupted. Casualties to the livestock are yet to be known, but reports are coming from all over the country that cattle are being fed a little and many of them are compelled to go without food. It may create several other problems if remains unaddressed.

A grave fault-line has emerged in economic and fiscal front. Since health is a state subject, the Union government seems to have put the onus of fighting the corona and the aftereffect of the lockdown to the states. The centre has taken many economic and fiscal measures to fight the impact of corona on the country, but is yet to take sufficient steps the help the states who are actually fighting not only to check the spread of the disease but also in treatment of the patients. We must not ignore the fact that most of our state governments are financially in very bad shape, and therefore cannot successfully fight the war without help from outside. The government of India is yet to announce state specific packages to deal with the emerging situations. Let us be united in the war against corona at this point of time and put off the blame game started by the statements of our Cabinet Secretary who said that corona menace is escalating due to failure of the state and similar reverberating statements of our Home Minister. If our states went wrong on certain counts, the Centre had also went wrong on various counts including transparency and sudden actions without proper planning.

The last, but not the least, we must enhance our efforts in identifying and testing all the corona suspected cases which are still at very low level. Though the level of spread of the disease is at the stage of local and limited community transmission, we are still more likely to enter the stage of community transmission. Let us be more scientific and reduce our foolish religiosity in organizing congregations as we have seen in Delhi that resulted in spread of the disease. Social distancing and testing every suspected infection is the key to winning the war. (IPA Service)