It’s been 5 years since the horrific lockdown announcing the onset of COVID pandemic in India to the public and it was in a manner that none would be missed. It had been more than 3 months since the world had started responding to the pandemic with travel and social contact restrictions in varying degrees. What we did surprised them all. Without any prior notice or indications the entire country was shut down for almost 6 months. Trains and flights grounded and markets, offices and institutions all closed. The population scared to doubt everyone else and the mainstream media ran propaganda communalising the pandemic best demonstrated by their hounding of the tablighi jamaat. Despite the prime minister’s assurances we witnessed a million marches as migrant workers trodded on foot to their villages thousands of kilometers away with infants in hand and no food or shelter. The country lacked capacity to test the population and locking everything seemed to be the easiest way. Instances like the running over of 16 people by an unexpected train sleeping on what seemed to be fallow tracks, or sights of workers huddled and sprayed with sterilizers reinforced fear and suspicion. Agriculture proved to be the savior, continued to feed the country and absorbed the labor surplus too. The government is yet to acknowledge this supreme failure though.
Supreme failure
