India legal 13 april 2020

NDIA EGALL STORIES THAT COUNT
I
April13, 2020
analreadyslowingeconomyhasbeendealtabodyblowbythepandemicas
productionandemploymentarehit, severelyaffectingtheunorganisedsector.An
in-depthanalysisbynotedeconomist ProfArunKumar
CrashLanding:Theaviationsectorisamongtheworsthitasfleetsaregrounded
andairlinecrewlaidofforsalariescut.Istherelightattheendofthetunnel?
MigrantLabour:TheSupremeCourtstepsintoissueordersintendedtohelp
migrantsandeasetheirfears.Isit working?
LOOMING CATASTROPHE
Section 144
and Police Excesses

4 April 13, 2020
HIS is not the first time that India has fa-
ced an apocalyptic epidemic. Among my
several experiences of having had to deal as
a journalist with galloping, life-threaten-
ing, fast-spreading infectious diseases—
among them the 1976 swine flu in America—was
India’s plague epidemic of 1994. The epicentre of the
scourge was Surat in Gujarat even though the origin
of the disease could not be traced. Within a few
weeks, the spread of disease and panic ended after
it claimed (officially) nearly 60 lives and was sus-
pected to have infected about 1,000 people in Delhi,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh
and Karnataka.
It caused havoc both in India and in the interna-
tional community. Tourism and businesses were
negatively affected, people fled cities, flights to India
were cancelled and planes from the country were
banned or fumigated at airports.
Looking back at that horror story, analysts con-
cluded that a combination of factors—woefully inad-
equate medical response and infrastructure capabili-
ties, ignoring the need for more social spending on
hygiene and basic health, the lack of sanitation and
access to clean water and soap—had exacerbated the
crisis and should jolt the government into providing
the Indian masses with the fundamentals that
undergird their right to a life of dignity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has at least
focussed national attention on this basic tenet as a
priority in his national agenda through his “Swachh
Bharat” exhortations, but alas, as anybody who has
travelled across India will tell you, his pleas have
found few or no takers.
It is tragic, absolutely pathetic that in today’s
Swachh Bharat, India’s homeless and urban poor
who live in thousands of slums across major cities
and towns, maintaining good hygiene can be
nearly impossible.
About 160 million—more than the population of
Russia—of India’s 1.3 billion people don’t have
access to clean water. UNICEF said last week that
almost 20 percent of urban Indians do not have
facilities with water and soap at home.
In 1994, after the “Surat Plague” I alluded to, this
nation’s pathetic civic amenities and disregard for
hygiene and sanitation in an article “Emperors of
Garbage” was published in The New York Times. I
reproduce it here from an old clipping of that piece.
It looks as if nothing has changed. Nothing has been
learned:
“If there is any truly apocalyptic society on earth,
it is here, it is here, it is here.
“India plunges from one cataclysm to another
with dizzying rapidity and at a terrible human cost.
And realizes, always too late, that the fault lies not in
our stars but smack bang within ourselves. Nothing
learned, everything forgotten. The pneumonic
plague that coursed through a limb of western India
in October and sent shivers down the national spine
is an example not only of how we are gluttons for
punishment as retribution for our sins of omission
and commission, but also a reminder of how cumu-
lative neglect exacerbates and makes doubly calami-
tous the after-effects of elemental paroxysms.
“A healthy rain in the nation’s capital turns into a
flood. Children are sucked mercilessly into the vor-
tex of storm drains that have not been cleaned for
the entire season, and adults sizzle to death in water
electrified by exposed power lines. Cholera and hep-
atitis, meningitis and conjunctivitis, malaria and
filaria. It’s as if a medieval curse is upon us. But the
hex is self-inflicted. Because we are the practitioners
of filth. The emperors of garbage.
“The self-exculpatory explanations for the mias-
ma—pest resistance to insecticides, germ immunity
to antibiotics—obfuscate the real issues. The reality
is whether politicians and administrators care about
how people live.
“Epidemics of kala azar, an insect-borne disease,
rage as life-saving drugs are sold on the black mar-
ket. Water-borne diseases kill because the state has
failed in its most basic mission—the provision of
clean, cheaply chlorinated water. Shortage of funds
is no excuse. The money has flowed in from five-year
plans and international agencies. But between venal
politicians and bureaucrats and the depredations of
contractors this nation has created not underground
sewage lines, toilet facilities, waste-treatment plants
and incinerators but monuments to excrescence.”
EMPERORS OF GARBAGE
T
Letter from the Editor
Twitter: @indialegalmedia
Website: www.indialegallive.com
Contact: editor@indialegallive.com
Inderjit Badhwar

6 April 13, 2020
ContentsVOLUME XIII ISSUE22
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An already slowing economy in India has been dealt a body blow by the novel
coronavirus outbreak as production and employment are hit, severely affecting
the unorganised sector which employs 94 percent of the workforce
Looming Catastrophe
LEAD
10
The aviation sector will be hardest hit by the pandemic, with experts
predicting a $3.3-$3.6 billion loss to India domestically in the first quarter of
2021 and a reduction of 5.75 lakh jobs
Crash Landings 14
The Supreme Court has asked the centre to take care of migrant labour and
provide them shelter, food, water and medicines and calm their fears
A Ray of Hope 18

| INDIA LEGAL | April 13, 2020 7
Followuson
Facebook.com/indialegalmedia
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Contact:editor@indialegallive.com
Cover Design: AMITAVA SEN
Cover Photo: UNI
REGULARS
Ringside............................8
Courts ...............................9
Media Watch ..................42
Watch the
Truth Unfold 40
The United States is shutting down and
Americans are struggling to cope with
life in the time of the coronavirus. The
world’s richest and most powerful
country has never looked more helpless
Closed States
of America
20
Battle Royale
The late Rajmata Gayatri
Devi’s grandchildren plan to
approach the apex court
against an NCLAT order that
rejected their claim to the Jai
Mahal Palace in Jaipur
38
New Insurance Umbrella
Following directions from the Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority, various insurance companies have
reached out to Covid-19 patients
GLOBALTRENDS
The UK’s move to live stream
divorce proceedings will bring a
realistic understanding of court
hearings and promote
transparency for quality litigation
SPOTLIGHT
36
The enormous suffering and chaos unleashed by the sudden exodus
of migrant workers from cities to their native places could have been
averted if civil-military cooperation procedures had been followed
Migrant Crisis and Civil Defence 26
HEALTH
22Draconian Measures
Locking down a nation of 1.3 billion which had less than four
hours to prepare for it has resulted in a humongous human
crisis. Other methods could have secured better results
COLUMN
Can lessons to fight the coronavirus be garnered from the
epic battle in the Mahabharata? Can war strategies fortify us
today to defeat this vicious enemy?
Winning the Mahabharata 28
30Mother Nature Breathes Again
As the world comes to a halt during the lockdown, good air quality
and clear skies are there for all to see. With air pollution killing 1.2
million Indians annually, this is a gain worth protecting and fighting for
ENVIRONMENT
32Boost Your Health
Even as WHO has started a large global trial, Solidarity, to evaluate
potential treatments against Covid-19, India’s alternative health
systems have a host of suggestions to boost respiratory health
MYSPACE
Trapped and Far
From Home
With classes cancelled and travel restrictions in
place, thousands of students are stranded in
campuses, dorms or airports around the world.
A personal account from one of them stranded
in Germany
37
OPINION

8 April 13, 2020
Amitava Sen
RINGSIDE

Courts
The Supreme Court
refused to stay a
Kerala High court order
that asked the centre to
intervene and remove
the blockades on the
Kasaragod-Mangalore
national highway that
connects Kerala with
Karnataka. It was a set-
back of sorts for Karna-
taka which had approa-
ched the apex court
after the Kerala High
Court ordered that steps
be taken to open the
road for ferrying people
with emergency medical
care and essential
goods amid the coron-
avirus pandemic.
Seven people had
died in the last few days
following Karnataka’s
decision to close the
highway in view of the
high incidence of the
coronavirus pandemic in
Kerala’s northern dis-
trict. “We may reiterate
that we expect the cen-
tral government to act
expeditiously in this
matter, taking note of the
human lives that are at
stake,” a HC bench of
Justices AK Jayasan-
karan Nambiar and
Shaji P Chaly ordered
via video conferencing.
In the apex court,
Justices L Nageswara
Rao and Deepak Gupta
said that essential serv-
ices’ vehicles should be
allowed to use the high-
way and suggested that
a special committee that
also includes the chief
secretaries of the two
states and the Union
health secretary be for-
med to resolve the iss-
ue. The matter will next
be heard on April 7.
SC refuses to
stay Kerala
HC order
The Supreme Court turned down an
appeal by a hit-and-run convict ag-
ainst a five-year jail term awarded to him
by the Gujarat High Court and asked him
to surrender in jail.
When the counsel for Vismay Shah,
the hit-and-run driver who killed two
youths in Ahmedabad when his speeding
BMW knocked them down, told the Court
that the families of the two victims had no
grievances as they had been paid Rs 1.5
crore each, the bench comprising Jus-
tices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah
replied: “You can’t buy justice with mo-
ney.” The apex court then dismissed
Shah’s Special Leave Petition that chal-
lenged the decision of the High Court
upholding the Ahmedabad trial court ver-
dict which held that Shah had caused the
death of two students who were travelling
in an autorickshaw due to his rash and
negligent driving. The two were the only
children of their parents.
The accident took place in 2013, and
two years later, the trial court had fined
Shah Rs 31,000 with five years in jail, in
2015. The High Court imposed an addi-
tional fine of Rs 2 lakh on him.
Meanwhile, Shah had entered into a
compromise with the victims’ families
who did not press their demand for
harsher punishment.
Money can’t buy you justice:
Supreme Court to killer driver
All judges of the Supreme
Court have donated Rs
50,000 each towards the
PM-CARES Fund set up for the
relief work amid the Covid-19
pandemic.
A public charitable trust, the
Fund has been set up by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi. It invi-
tes individual contributions from peo-
ple from all walks of life to donate
and the money shall only be used for
citizens’ assistance and relief in
emergency situations. The prime
minister is the chairman of PM-
CARES Fund and its members in-
clude Defence Minister Rajnath
Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The PM was the first to take to
the social media to extend his grati-
tude to the apex court judges for
making the contribution. “I thank the
Honourable Judges of the Supreme
Court for this exemplary and inspir-
ing gesture. Their contribution to PM-
CARES will strengthen the efforts to
fight COVID-19,” he tweeted.
Earlier, Justice NV Ramana
(above), the next in line to become
the chief justice of India, had made a
contribution of Rs 1 lakh each
towards the PM National Relief Fund
as well as the CM relief funds of
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The
Delhi High Court judges have also
donated Rs 10,000 each to the fund.
SC judges give
Rs 50,000 each
for PM-CARES
—Compiled by India Legal team

Lead/ Economy
10 April 13, 2020
N March 24, Prime Mi-
nister Narendra Modi
announced a complete
lockdown for three weeks
for 1.3 billion Indians. All
hell broke loose for unor-
ganised sector workers and in panic,
large numbers of them started returning
to their villages from towns. This put
paid to the idea of isolating people to
stop the community spread of the virus.
The PM’s decision was correct, if the
experience of other countries is any
guide, but the required preparation to
implement such a drastic measure was
missing. For instance, how would people
who have lost work and incomes survive
in their crowded kholis? These people
believe that in their village they would
have support and basic food and if they
have to die, it is better to be with their
own people. So what are the implica-
tions of an unprecedented situation like
a lockdown?
Economic activity, except the produc-
tion and distribution of essentials, has
come to a halt. Stock markets, reflecting
the negative mood, have tanked with
investors losing trillions of dollars of
global wealth. In India, these losses con-
cern largely the top 3 percent in the
income ladder. But these are largely
paper losses. The wealthy have their sav-
ings to spend from but will cut con-
sumption and investment, leading to a
fall in demand. The 97 percent are the
real sufferers and need assistance.
The middle classes and the poor,
managers, professionals, self-employed
and workers are facing the adverse
impact on a wide range of businesses
over the last month. Manufacturing,
trade, transportation, tourism, hotels,
Looming
Catastrophe
Analreadyslowingeconomyhasbeendealtabodyblow
bythepandemicasproductionandemploymentarehit,
severelyaffectingtheunorganisedsectorwhich
employs94percentoftheworkforce
By Prof Arun Kumar
O
UNI

airlines and so on are impacted. Malls,
cinemas and so on have been closed.
Use of taxis and buses has plummeted.
Demand for petroleum products has
declined and so also for cars. The econo-
my is so inter-linked that this cascades
down to production and employment in
other areas. Organised sector workers
are being told to take unpaid leave and
pay cuts. Globally, governments are
appealing to businesses not to retrench
workers or cut their wages.
W
hile those employed in the or-
ganised sector in India have
some security of employment,
that is not the case with unorganised
sectors. Even many employed in the
organised sector are contract workers
who have been laid off. Workers at air-
ports, shops, hotels, restaurants, etc.,
face loss of work and incomes. Many
self-employed, not able to move, like
those in repair and maintenance or auto
drivers, are also losing work and in-
comes. Since the unorganised sector
employs 94 percent of the workforce,
the consequent fall in demand is large.
In the already slowing Indian econo-
my, data from the RBI had pointed to
decline in consumer confidence. Due
to the fear factor, this has declined fur-
ther. People were already spending on
necessities and less on discretionary
items. With the lockdown, this has
stopped altogether.
The well-off, anticipating a lock-
down, had increased their holding of
cash and stocked up on essential items
at home. Shelves in supermarkets across
the globe have been emptied out.
Payment via electronic forms and
BLEEDING BUSINESS
(Left) Many commercial hotspots have been
shut due to the lockdown; thousands of
jobless workers have walked from their work-
places to their native villages in other states
UNI

12 April 13, 2020
internet may increase as happened dur-
ing demonetisation but overall, purchas-
es will decline. The poor who have little
savings cannot stock up on essentials.
We need to plan to provide them
with the essentials of life and health
services, as and when they need them
(possibly free).
The small sector which produces
cheap products for the poor and ancil-
laries for the large and medium sectors
has largely shut down. The cottage sec-
tors are also in a similar situation. Or-
ders are cancelled and using force ma-
jeure, payments are withheld, which
puts pressure on working capital.
Even when the disease is controlled,
there would be no working capital to
restart production. The collateral used
for taking loans is in danger of being
encashed by lenders and/or the debt
would balloon. NPAs are likely to rise as
businesses fail or close down. Globally,
many governments are addressing
these issues.
Reports suggest that globally, health
facilities are getting overwhelmed and
choices are being made as to whom to
treat. If this happens in India, and it can
occur very quickly, given our situation of
crowded living, poor hygiene and poor
nutrition and weak health infrastruc-
ture, the poor will be at the tail end.
Commodity prices fall as demand
declines, which should raise demand in
normal times but this is not going to
happen as consumer confidence is
down. For instance, decline in petro
goods prices will lower inflation but as
travel is restricted, more of diesel will
not be used. Prices of essentials will rise
due to shortages and hoarding and not
general inflation. There is a real danger
of a deflation which can have a severe
impact on the financial sector.
I
nterest rate cut by central banks
like the Fed in the US and the RBI
in India will not be effective as prof-
its are evaporating. It will also not boost
investment as capacity utilisation has
declined. Highly leveraged companies
can collapse as profits plummet. The
finance sector, highly interconnected,
will totter in spite of availability of liq-
uidity. Fiscal policies can help maintain
some demand via some employment
generation and cash transfers or supply
of free essentials to the needy. Increased
expenditures on health facilities, basic
infrastructure, preventing business fail-
ures and public distribution are some of
the things that need to be done.
As production falls, government rev-
enues will decline. But expenditures will
rise due to the above mentioned re-
quirements. The arbitrary target of
keeping fiscal deficit at 3 percent of the
GDP has to be jettisoned. Clearly, this is
not the usual business cycle in which
monetary-fiscal policies can turn things
around—they can only slow the eco-
nomic collapse taking place. The only
hope is that the virus dissipates soon.
In brief, the future is unknowable
and therefore, always uncertain. One
can deal with it when change is not
large or too unexpected. Covid-19 has
spread rapidly, creating acute uncertain-
ty and produced both a supply shock
and a demand collapse. This situation is
worse than in a war with economic acti-
vity almost at a standstill and especially
hurting those at the margins. They need
to be taken care of if things are not to
deteriorate further.
—The writer is Malcolm Adiseshiah
Chair Professor, Institute of Social
Sciences and author of Indian Economy
since Independence: Persisting Colonial
Disruption
“Today’smeasuresareintendedatreachingouttothepoorest
ofthepoor,withfoodandmoneyinhands,sothattheydonot
facedifficultiesinbuyingessentialsupplies.”
—FinanceMinisterNirmalaSitharamanwhileannouncingPM
GareebKalyanSchemepackageonMarch26
“Financeisthelifelineoftheeconomy,keepingitflowing
istheparamountobjectiveoftheReserveBankofIndiaat
thispointoftime.”
—RBIGovernorShaktikantaDas,whileannouncingmeasuresto
combattheeconomicimpactofthecoronavirusonMarch27
Lead/ Economy
UNI PIB

AccordingtoAmeyaJoshi,whorunsan
aviationanalysiswebsiteNetwork
Thoughts,Delhiairporthasparked205
commercialplanesandevenclosedone
ofitsthreerunwaysforthispurpose.
Lead/ Economy/ Aviation
14 April 13, 2020
HE disastrous effect of
Covid-19 has been especial-
ly hard on the aviation sec-
tor globally. In India, the
21-day lockdown led to the
grounding of over 1,400
aircraft, including 674 commercial ones.
This was accompanied by massive can-
cellations and rebookings. Air cargo
operations, flights carrying medical kits
and special ones repatriating passengers
were the only ones left unscathed.
Alexandre de Juniac, D-G,
International Air Transport Association
(IATA), said in a letter to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi that Indian
airlines were in “grave and immediate
danger” of insolvency and this could
reduce about 5.75 lakh jobs in Indian
aviation. “IATA estimates that Covid-19
could result in a nine percent loss in
passenger volumes and $2.1 billion loss
in passenger base revenues for the air
transport market in India in 2020,”
he said.
Globally, airlines may burn through
$61 billion of their cash reserves during
the second quarter ending June 30,
2020, IATA said. Full-year demand
would fall by 38 percent and revenues
drop by $252 billion compared to 2019.
“We are looking at a devastating net loss
of $39 billion in the second quarter.
This will be amplified by a $35-billion
liability for potential ticket refunds,”
said de Juniac.
In addition, Sydney-based aviation
consultancy CAPA forecast that India’s
domestic aviation industry could incur
losses of $3.3-$3.6 billion in the first
quarter of 2021 if flights remain
grounded till June-end. It said that
domestic airlines could lose approxi-
Crash Landing
Thesectorwillbehardesthitbythepandemic,withexpertspredictinga$3.3-$3.6bnlossto
Indiadomesticallyinthefirstquarterof2021andareductionof5.75lakhjobs
By Shobha John
T
BELEAGUERED SECTOR
Grounded flights at Delhi airport as the
lockdown and passenger fears halt work

mately $1.75 billion, airports and con-
cessionaries between $1.5 and $1.75
billion and ground handlers between
$80-90 million despite a fall in crude
oil prices.
Prior to Covid-19, this sector’s eco-
nomic contribution in India was esti-
mated at $35 billion, supported 6.2 mil-
lion jobs and contributed 1.5 percent to
the country’s GDP, IATA said.
A senior aviation professional told
India Legal on condition of anonymity
that discussions were going on with the
government to urge it to give some
reprieve to the floundering sector. The
airline industry was looking for a defer-
ral of statutory dues or even cutting
them off, passing reduced oil prices to
airlines, opening lines of credit, reduc-
ing various taxes, be it on aviation tur-
bine fuel (ATF) or parking at airports,
and cash funding of workers (mainly
daily wagers), he said. However, the sec-
tor also understood that it wasn’t com-
pletely in the hands of the aviation min-
istry to do this and it would need to
consult with the finance and petroleum
ministries to take this further, he added.
Some in the sector were also disap-
pointed that the government had not
done enough for it, unlike other coun-
tries. (See box) Passengers too are anx-
ious about getting a full refund on can-
cellation of tickets. While the Direct-
orate General of Civil Aviation has
assured that this will be looked into
once the situation returns to normal,
the fact is that no airline has offered to
refund money. Though there were
reports of the centre planning a $1.6
billion relief package for the aviation
sector after the Covid-19 outbreak, it is
nowhere in sight. The only response was
from Hardeep Puri, Union aviation
minister, who tweeted: “We are locked
down, but not bogged down. Our avia-
tion officials and professionals are
working round the clock with determi-
nation and patience. The aircraft are
crisscrossing the skies to ensure that
ICMR kits for testing Covid-19 reach
on time.”
CAPA predicted that the April-June
quarter, traditionally one of the stronger
quarters for Indian airlines, is increas-
ingly looking like it will be a washout.
It said most Indian airlines had not
structured their business models to
withstand even regular shocks such as
elevated fuel prices or economic down-
turns, let alone once-in-a-century
events. It said that if there was a three-
month shutdown, IndiGo’s healthy cash
reserves could get wiped out and small-
er carriers forced to exit. All this would
affect traffic growth, fleet expansion,
pricing, costs and business models. This
will naturally mean that aircraft orders
will be deferred or even cancelled and
leased planes returned. Low-cost carrier
SpiceJet has already returned a leased
Airbus A320 to Bulgarian lessor BH
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
Cargo charter flights with medical equipment
and medicines have been operating on
several routes in India
CAPAhasforecastthatdomesticairlines
inIndiacouldloseabout$1.75bn,
airportsandconcessionaries
between$1.5-$1.75bnandground
handlersbetween$80-90m.

on outstanding payments for airports
for three to six months. Lastly, it sug-
gests bringing ATF under GST, apart
from providing a waiver of three to six
months on airport charges as and when
services resume. In the interim, sales
tax should be reduced to four percent,
it said.
It is obvious that waiving off taxes on
ATF will be a life-saver as fuel amounts
to nearly 40 percent of an airline’s oper-
ational cost. In India, these taxes vary
from state to state. Karnataka, for
example, levies three kinds of rates on
airline fuel—one percent for flights cov-
ered under the Regional Connectivity
Scheme, five for airplanes weighing
below 40,000 kg and 28 percent for
heavier planes.
If this scenario wasn’t bad enough,
flight crew who were instrumental in
getting passengers back to their coun-
tries were harassed and stigmatised.
Such was the paranoia among the pub-
lic that an Air India air hostess report-
edly said that her neighbours threat-
ened to evict her from her apartment
16 April 13, 2020
Air recently.
Meanwhile, airlines have set in cost-
cutting measures, in some cases severe
ones. It was led by SpiceJet which cut
salaries between 10-30 percent in
March. Its chairman Ajay Singh took a
30 percent pay cut. It also announced
“leave without pay” during March 25-31
when the lockdown was in progress.
Angry and anguished employees took to
Twitter to vent their fury showing, in
some cases, paychecks around Rs 2,000
only. The airline later said that some
staff who were entitled to a flying or
performance allowance would be get-
ting their salaries in two parts.
At IndiGo, which has 48 percent
market share domestically, senior
employees have taken a pay cut of up to
25 percent, starting with CEO Ronojoy
Dutta. GoAir laid off its expat pilots,
initiated a short-term rotational leave
without pay programme and announced
a pay cut for all employees for March.
Vistara implemented its compulsory
leave without pay for up to three days
for senior executives and line pilots took
a salary cut, in some cases up to Rs
40,000. April increments were deferred
to July. Air India cut 10 percent in the
allowances of all employees.
T
he silver lining in the cloud is
that some vital flights are still
taking off. Air India and Alliance
Air are operating cargo charter flights—
mostly with medical equipment and
medicines on several routes.
On March 28, essential items and
ICMR kits were transported from Delhi
to Aizawl, Kolkata and Hyderabad and
another flight took off with essential
items from Mumbai to Pune, Bengaluru
and Thiruvananthapuram. Air cargo
was also carried from Delhi to Pune and
ICMR kits from Pune to Patna.
So what should the government do
for the aviation sector? CAPA has rec-
ommended a three-stage support pack-
age for airlines. In the first phase, it has
called for a cash infusion to support
part-payment of salaries up to a certain
grade for three to six months. In the
second phase, it suggests a moratorium
“Covid-19couldresultin
aninepercentlossin
passengervolumesand
$2.1billionloss
inpassengerbase
revenuesforIndiain2020.”
—AlexandredeJuniac,D-G,IATA
“Wearelockeddown,butnotbogged
down.Ouraviationofficialsandprofes-
sionalsareworkingroundtheclockwith
determinationandpatience.Theaircraft
arecrisscrossingtheskiestoensurethat
ICMRkitsreachontime.”
—HardeepPuri,Unionaviationminister
“Wehavetopaycarefulattentiontoour
cashflowsothatwedonotrunoutof
cash.Unfortunately,thismeansthatwe
havetoreduceourcostsinlinewiththe
dropinrevenues.Iampersonallytakinga
25percentpaycut...”
—RonojoyDutta,CEO,IndiGo
Lead/ Economy/Aviation

Ahelpinghand
Measures taken by govern-
ments worldwide for the
aviation sector which supports
over 30 million jobs
US: Congress gave a whopping
$58 billion stimulus package for air-
lines, half in grants for paychecks to
its 7.5 lakh employees and the rest
in loans to help them keep operat-
ing. The Treasury Department,
reports said, can demand stock
options in return for the loans.
However, Boeing is unlikely to take
this aid if it comes with strings
attached. The stimulus package
also includes $100m for general
aviation airports
Australia: announced a
US$430m relief package and waiver
of fees including aviation fuel
excise, air services charges on
domestic airline operations and
domestic and regional aviation
security charges
New Zealand: will open a
US$580 million loan facility to the
national carrier as well as relief for
the aviation sector
Singapore: undertaken relief
measures at US$82 million, includ-
ing rebates on airport charges,
assistance to ground handling
agents, and rental rebates at
Changi Airport. Up to US$13.27 bn
given to Singapore Airlines—the
single biggest rescue for any airline
UK: airlines await a rescue
package.
while she was heading to the US, saying
she would “infect everyone”. Her hus-
band had to call the police. Some staff
was stopped from entering their own
residential premises by security guards.
“We also have families and children that
we leave at home to help fellow citizens
... The least we expect is for our col-
leagues to not be harassed and
ostracised,” said one of them reportedly.
A viral video put out by a journalist one
night showed chaos on Lawrence Road
in Delhi at the home of an Air India
cabin crew. It showed a man with a
handkerchief around his face yelling
into the camera, presumably held by
the employee.
The public has forgotten that airline
personnel have worked during these try-
ing times at great risk. Already, a first
officer of SpiceJet, a cabin crew of Air
India and a ground staffer of the airline
have tested positive.
Airline employees too became emo-
tional as flights came to a halt. A Virgin
Australia cabin supervisor final landing
announcement brought people to tears.
Cassy wished the passengers the best
“during these testing times” and said to
her crew: “To my crew, words don’t
come close to describing the family
bond we all share. The friendships,
hardships, laughter and tears.” She tear-
fully said she counted herself “extremely
lucky to have the pleasure of working
alongside you all”.
Meanwhile, planes have been parked
at various airports all over India.
According to Ameya Joshi who runs an
aviation analysis website Network
Thoughts, Delhi airport has parked 205
commercial planes and even closed one
of its three runways for this purpose.
Mumbai airport has nearly 100 planes
parked there, Bengaluru, 71, Hyder-
abad, 61, Kolkata and Chennai 54 and
53 respectively. “IndiGo has parked its
aircraft at 18 airports across the coun-
try, while SpiceJet and GoAir have
parked at 11 airports each. Air India has
parked its aircraft at seven airports in
the country, while Vistara and AirAsia
India have parked their aircraft at six
and five airports, respectively. The
top six airports—Delhi, Mumbai,
Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and
Kolkata account for 85 percent of all
the parked aircraft, with the rest in
smaller cities.
All that the aviation sector can do
now is wait for the pandemic clouds to
part and the sun to shine through.
TESTING TIMES
A SpiceJet crew keeps their spirits up even
with masks and protective gear

Lead/ Economy/ Supreme Court/ Migrant Workers
18 April 13, 2020
OLLOWING a PIL in the
Supreme Court, a bench
asked the centre to ensure
that all those whose migra-
tion was stopped in the wake
of Covid-19 be taken care of
in terms of food, shelter, nourishment
and medical aid.
The case was being heard by a divi-
sion bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde
and Justice L Nageswara Rao on a plea
filed by advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava.
The bench said: “We want to impress
upon you that the panic will destroy
more lives than the virus. You need
counsellors. You can have bhajan, kir-
tan, namaz or whatever but you have to
give strength to the people.”
After the announcement of the lock-
down, a large number of migrants were
stranded, with no mode of transport to
take them back to their villages, the
plea said. Many undertook the arduous
journey on foot, hungry, thirsty and
penniless. The petition prayed for basic
facilities for them and for a direction to
be given to the centre “to immediately
identify such moving/stranded migrant
workers and to immediately shift them
to the nearest government shelter ho-
mes/accommodations with proper
food, water, medicines and under med-
ical supervision, in a dignified manner,
till the present Coronavirus Lockdown
continues”.
It said that the fundamental rights of
these workers under Articles 14 and 21
were being violated, and that too, in the
most heart-wrenching and inhuman
manner. It feared that the workers
would be stigmatised and face the un-
certainty of not being accepted in
their villages.
Since the announcement of the lock-
down, many migrants had also fallen
victim to fake news through social me-
dia. One incident was reported in Delhi
where migrants from UP and Bihar
were told that they would be provided
bus facilities to their hometowns. This,
even as public transport was shut.
Scores of people on hearing this news
rushed to Anand Vihar bus terminal
where it became a challenge for the
administration to control the situation.
The entire purpose of the lockdown
thereby seemed to be failing.
Left with no choice, they started
walking hundreds of kilometres. Many
transport operators also charged huge
sums from them to send them home
illegally, bypassing state borders. The
petitioner further stated that the mass
exodus had raised concerns that this
could turn into a humanitarian crisis.
During this crisis, concerned author-
ities seemed clueless about the large
conglomeration of migrant workers at
certain places. Their lack of coordina-
tion left this vulnerable group in dire
straits. However, later, the UP adminis-
tration said it would arrange 1,000 bus-
es to take these migrants to their native
places. The home ministry then issued a
notification directing all states to not
allow any migration as this would defeat
the very purpose of the lockdown.
A detailed reply was filed by the cen-
tre on March 31 in the Court showing all
the steps and details of notifications
issued. The Court said the first priority
was to prevent the spread of Covid-19
and then interstate migration. The
Court also directed it to create a portal
within 24 hours of healthcare profes-
sionals who would answer queries on
Covid-19 and take steps to prevent the
spread of fake news. The case will be
heard on April 7.
A Ray of Hope
TheCourthasaskedthecentretotakecareofmigrantlabourand
providethemshelter,food,waterandmedicinesandcalmtheirfears
By Vedant Bhelonde
F
GUIDING ROLE
CJI SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao
said the priority was to prevent the spread of
Covid-19 and then interstate migration. It also
showed concern over fake news on Covid-19
UNI

NDIA EGALEEL STORIES THAT COUNT
NI
March2, 2020
TheIronFistIncreasingly,Section144isbeenusedbypoliticiansandbureaucratsto
deprivecitizensoftheirfundamentalrights.Nowthecourtshavesteppedin
tostemthemisuse,butisitenough?
Justice Chandrachud:
“Dissent not anti-national”
NO HOLDS BARRED
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and get special discounts for yourself and your friends
For advertising & subscription queries
editor@indialegalonline.com
SUBSCRIBE TO INDIA LEGAL GET FABULOUS DISCOUNTS
` ` `
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GAL
an
ou
?
NI
March9, 2020
Judiciary’sRoleina
ChangingWorld
TheInternationalJudicialConference2020wasthefirstofitskindorganisedbytheSupreme
Courttodiscusscontemporarychallengestothejudiciary.Therangeofspeakers,fromthe
chiefjusticeofIndiaandotherseniorjudges,gavevaluableinsightsontohowthecourtsview
theirresponsibilitiesinrapidlychangingtimes
Coronavirus:
How prepared is India?
GAL
eee
o
or
nge
so
es
NI
March16, 2020
LawandDisorderCrucialmattersthatcameupintheSupremeCourtandDelhiHighCourtindicateacrisisinIndia’s
basicgovernance.TheCrPCandPoliceActsclearlylaydownthatitisthejobofDMsandSDMsto
maintainlawandorder,buttheirrolehasbeentakenoverbythepolicewithquestionableresults
Fast Track Courts:
New scheme
GAL
oturt
sth
ce
NDIA EGALEL STORIES THAT COUNT
NI
March23, 2020
JusticeVenkatachaliah,whoservedaschiefjusticeofIndia,isoneofIndia’smostrespectedjurists.Anavid
championofhumanvaluesandrights,hespoketo RAJSHRIRAI,MD,INDIALEGALonthejudiciary,religion,
Ayodhya,upbringingofchildrenandwhytheSupremeCourtshouldbetrustedtodotherightthing
JusticeVenkatachaliah
‘‘KeepFaithin
theJudiciary’’
Coronavirus:
India’s opportunity
Exclusive Interview
DIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA EEEEEE
sm
LE
GAL
tru
a
n
y
NI
March30, 2020
Judgesandlawyersincourtsarestrugglingtodispensejusticeevenasthefearoftransmissionof
thevirustakeshold.IndiaLegal’sspecialpackagelooksat measuresbeingtakenbytheSupreme
CourtandHighCourtsacrossthecountryandhowitaffectsthejusticesystem
CoronavirusPlagues
TheCourtSystem
Special Supplement:
The Idea of Citizenship
Analysing SC’s Annual Report:
Prof Upendra Baxi
tast
bee
thh
GAL
a
tt
NI
April6, 2020
dolegalprovisionsortheConstitutionallowthegovernmenttotakemore
seriousmeasuresthana21-daytotallockdownifthepandemicworsens?
howKeralaisshowingtheway
doesstampingofforearmsandpastingofquarantinenoticeson
residencesviolatehumanrights?
thecurse oftheblackmarket
theSAARCinitiativeonCOVID-19andwhyPakistanisplayingspoilsport
TheCOVID-19Emergency
Bank Failures:
Scope for scams

Health/ Covid-19/ Insurance
20 April 13, 2020
N the time of Covid-19, a key con-
cern of the public has been the
expenses that will be incurred if
they get infected. Will their health
insurance policies cover the exp-
enses and if they are denied, is the
government equipped to intervene?
Some health insurance policies are
HDFC Ergo Health Insurance, SBI
Health Insurance, Religare Health
Insurance, Reliance General Health
Insurance, etc. But does India have
laws to regulate them?
The Parliament passed the Insurance
Regulatory and Development Act, 1999
(IRD Act) with the aim “to provide for
the establishment of an Authority, to
protect the interests of the policy hold-
ers, to regulate, promote and ensure
orderly growth of the insurance indus-
try, and to establish the Insurance Reg-
ulatory and Development Authority
(IRDA) as a statutory authority respon-
sible to regulate and promote the insur-
ance industry in India and protect the
interests of insurance policy holders”.
The main aim of the health industry
is not just to sell insurance policies but
also provide timely and efficient claims
when their requirement arises. In order
to avoid misunderstanding and ambigu-
ity, IRDA has defined guidelines to stan-
dardise health insurance through the
Insurance Regulatory and Development
Authority of India (Health Insurance)
Regulations, 2016. In the wake of the
Covid-19 outbreak, IRDA took immedi-
ate measures through a circular on
March 4, 2020, and issued guidelines
for health insurers asking them to expe-
dite coronavirus-related claims in case
of hospitalisation. The circular stated:
“Where hospitalisation is covered in a
product, costs of admissible medical
expenses during the course of treatment
including the treatment during quaran-
tine period are settled per applicable
norms.” The regulator emphasised that
insurers shall review the claims thor-
oughly before clearing them. So insurers
are now mandated to cover hospitalisa-
tion as well as quarantine expenses if
the insured tests positive for Covid-19.
IRDA issued instructions to life ins-
urance companies on March 23 with
reference to Covid-19 death claims and
insurers were directed to settle the
claims expeditiously. Any health insur-
ance contracts already issued regarding
admissibility of Covid-19 claims should
be put up on the website, it said. On
March 30, IRDA again issued instruc-
tions and encouraged insurance compa-
nies to devise insurance products that
would provide protection from the risks
of Covid-19, and to fast-track such cases.
Despite these directions, there was
panic among the public regarding the
coverage of coronavirus in health insur-
ance policies. These were due to the fol-
lowing reasons:
pandemics or epidemics are often
excluded under many health insurance
policies
health insurance claims are payable
after hospitalisation of at least 24 hours
and most policies in India don’t cover
outpatient treatment
if the insured is already under treat-
ment for any respiratory-related disease,
claims under a regular indemnity type
health insurance policy or a specific
coronavirus insurance policy might not
get settled
refusal of a claim in case the insured
contracts the disease within the policy
waiting period.
Even though insurance companies
stated that they would do the needful
for their policyholders, the pandemic
New Insurance Umbrella
FollowingdirectionsfromIRDA,variousinsurancecompanieshavereachedouttoCovid-19patients
By Srishti Ojha
I
HOSPITAL TREATMENTS
A Covid-19 patient undergoes treatment in
ICU and in isolation
UNI

aspect was expected to change the equa-
tion. With over 1,18,000 cases of Covid-
19 in 114 countries, WHO declared it a
pandemic on March 11. With an increas-
ing number of such cases and the possi-
bility of a rise in deaths, insurance com-
panies may deny claims as the cost of
tests and treatments could rise too.
Digit Insurance launched a health
policy for coronavirus patients, covering
both positive and quarantined cases.
Under it, if the insured is tested positive
and files a claim, he would be eligible
for 100 percent of the sum insured. And
in case he is quarantined, which could
lead to a loss of income, he would be eli-
gible for 50 percent. The policy imposed
certain conditions such as the insured
should not be in contact with someone
with a suspected history of coronavirus
till the policy ends, should not be suffer-
ing from any Covid-19 related symptoms
for the last six weeks and he or immedi-
ate family members should not have
travelled to China, Japan, etc., since
December 1, 2019.
Future Generali India Insurance Co-
mpany announced a group insurance
policy for coronavirus whereby a lump
sum benefit will be given in case the ins-
ured is diagnosed with it and is confirm-
ed by a medical practitioner along with
a government/WHO-approved lab or
quarantined for suspected symptoms. It
will cover all, from a day-old infant to a
senior citizen up to 75 years of age.
Edelweiss General Insurance will
cover hospitalisation for not only those
who have a confirmed diagnosis but also
those who have been quarantined in
facilities identified by the government.
For the quarantined, it will also cover
the entire period with up to 100 percent
of the claim amount being paid.
S
tar Health and Allied Insurance
launched the Star Novel Corona-
virus Insurance Policy which will
cover all those testing positive and
requiring hospitalisation. It will provide
a lump sum payment to any insured
aged 18 to 65 years who are declared
positive by a government accredited test
and is hospitalised for coronavirus and
has no international travel history.
ICICI Lombard introduced a “Covid-
19 Protection Cover” in group insurance
mode that covers those in the 18-75 age
bracket. The policy is priced at a premi-
um of Rs 149 per employee and provides
a sum of Rs 25,000, including value-
added benefits such as health assistance,
chat/virtual assistance, tele-consultation
and ambulance assistance.
Religare’s coronavirus health insur-
ance plan covers hospitalisation and
includes in-patient care, ICU charges
and quarantine period at a registered
facility. The cover will not be provided if
the insured is quarantined at home or
has undergone quarantine at any non-
recognised facility.
Reliance General Health Insurance
will cover coronavirus from the day the
insured is diagnosed with the infection,
irrespective of the type of policy or how
dangerous the infection is. It will be
covered under the base policy of the in-
sured as Covid-19 is a new disease and
does not come under pre-existing dis-
eases. The insured will be provided with
all the covers, including in-patient treat-
ment, pre- and post-hospitalisation and
other tests and diagnosis.
Aditya Birla Health Insurance under
the existing cover of the insured will
take care of the cost of admissible med-
ical expenses during the hospitalisation.
Treatment during quarantine inside a
hospital will be also be settled.
Other than these private insurance
companies, the public sector New India
Assurance has also introduced a policy
of Rs 50 lakh per person for 22.12 lakh
healthcare providers who are spearhead-
ing the battle against coronavirus. This
three-month insurance scheme was part
of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan
package announced by the finance min-
ister in March. The policy will provide
comprehensive personal accident cover,
including accidental loss of life on
account of Covid-19. The scheme takes
effect from March 30 and will continue
till June 2020. Those insured will be
both public healthcare providers and
private healthcare staff who may have to
be in direct care of Covid-19 patients
and risk being affected by it.
One wonders how many people will
go in for such specific policies when
there are certain exclusions in them.
Also, those already having a standard
health insurance plan, which covers
corona, may not need extra policies
especially after IRDA directed all insur-
ers to cover these cases.
Nonetheless, IRDA’s constant
attempts to bring Covid-19 patients
under its umbrella are reassuring.
TheIRDAissuedacircularon
March4,2020withspecificguidelines
forhealthinsurersaskingthemto
expediteCovid-19relatedclaimsin
caseofhospitalisation.
IRDA

Column/ Lockdown MG Devasahayam
22 April 13, 2020
HE clangs and claps of the
March 22 Janata Curfew
had hardly died down than
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi appeared on national
TV at 8 pm on March 24 to
declare a nationwide “sarkari curfew” of
21 days with effect from midnight. By
then, about 21 states had already
announced lockdowns of different
durations and were enforcing them in
various degrees. The prime minister’s
draconian declaration is intriguing
because only the previous day the cabi-
net secretary and principal secretary to
the PM had in consultation with state
chief secretaries announced measures
to contain the corona pandemic. This
included complete shutdown of 78 dis-
tricts/cities across the country, identi-
fied as hotspots of Covid-19 and where
only essential services were allowed to
operate. State governments were
allowed to expand the list depending
on their assessment of the situation. In
the meantime, all interstate bus servic-
es were to be suspended till March 31.
This is called risk-based manage-
ment which is in line with the advice
given by leading experts on the subject.
They advocate “cocooning” for coun-
tries like India with high population
density, where mass-scale quarantine
and a nationwide lockdown are near
impossible to implement. Cocooning is
a measure to protect those over 70
years or those medically vulnerable by
minimising interaction between them
and others. This means that these peo-
ple should not leave their homes. Even
within their homes, they should min-
imise all non-essential contact with
other members of their household. This
is to protect those who are at high risk
of severe illness from coming into con-
tact with the virus.
The other variation of cocooning is
Draconian Measures
Lockingdownanationof1.3billionwhichhadlessthanfourhourstoprepareforithas
resultedinahumongoushumancrisis.Othermethodscouldhavesecuredbetterresults
T
HARD DECISIONS
Prime Minister Modi announcing the 21-day
lockdown in a televised address

to identify city/district/region-wise
hotspots with these measures being
practised by all sections of people. Such
a strategy could have been effectively
implemented and scaled up if need be
with the help of our highly competent
armed forces. India was probably mov-
ing in this direction when Modi
jumped the gun and clamped the cur-
few throughout the country at one go.
He finished his speech at 8.30 pm and
a nation of 1.3 billion—rich, poor, old,
infirm, disabled, women, youth, chil-
dren and infants—constituting one-
sixth of the human race had just over
three hours to shut down everything,
provide for their livelihood and move to
a place of safety to spend the next 21
days in “solitary confinement”.
As if in response, Dr Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, D-G of WHO,
took to the media and said: “Asking
people to stay at home and shutting
down population movement is buying
time...But on their own, these measures
will not extinguish epidemics.” Then he
went on to suggest six measures to
combat the deadly virus:
first, expand, train and deploy your
healthcare and public health workforce
implement a system to find every sus-
pected case at the community level
ramp up the production, capacity and
availability of testing
UNI
India’scorona
chronology
January 1: India’s first travel advi-
sory was issued. It kept evolving
January 30: WHO declared the
outbreak a “Public Health
Emergency of International
Concern”
February 3: A Group of Ministers
chaired by the Union health minister
was constituted to monitor the situa-
tion
February 12: Rahul Gandhi warns
in his tweet: “The Corona Virus is an
extremely serious threat to our peo-
ple and our economy. My sense is
the government is not taking this
threat seriously. Timely action is criti-
cal”
February 28: WHO raised the
level of risk to “very high”
March 4: Rahul repeats his cau-
tion and is trolled by the BJP IT cell
March 5: The PM is personally
monitoring the preparedness and
response on a regular basis, states
the health minister in Parliament
March 11: WHO labels the coron-
avirus outbreak a pandemic
March 22: Janata Curfew
March 24: Lockdown with less
than four hours’ notice.
DIFFICULT TIMES
People buy groceries while maintaining a
distance in Hyderabad; (left) Migrant
workers sprayed with disinfectants in Bareilly
Youtube

24 April 13, 2020
identify, adapt and equip facilities
you will use to treat and isolate patients
fifth, develop a clear plan and process
to quarantine contacts
lastly, refocus on suppressing and
controlling Covid-19.
According to him, aggressive meas-
ures to “Track, Trace, Test, and Treat”
(T4) is the best way to prevent and con-
tain the pandemic.
None of these measures found men-
tion in Modi’s speech which ad nause-
aum repeated “social distancing” as the
only panacea. As per industry experts,
the complete 21-day shutdown would
cause a severe, disruptive impact on
both demand and supply across sectors.
They estimate the cost of the lockdown
at around $120 billion (Rs 9 lakh crore)
or 4 percent of the GDP. Further, with
94 percent of India’s workforce emplo-
yed in the unorganised sector, this lock-
down would effectively put over 45 mil-
lion migrants out of work. India’s econ-
omy, already on dialysis because of
demonetisation and other economic
excesses, could go into coma. With
standing crops awaiting harvesting, far-
ming has already gone into a tailspin.
R
endered jobless and wageless
overnight, millions of migrant
labour became paupers. With
all forms of transportation suspended
and police resorting to brutality, the
heart-rending scenes that followed and
the pathetic exodus from major cities
are to be seen to be believed. The hor-
rendous part of it happened six days
down the line.
On an executive fiat issued by the
home ministry, these les miserables
inching their way home were halted in
UP, crowded together and sprayed with
“disinfectant chemicals” as if they were
the corona virus itself. In neighbouring
Haryana, migrant labour was ordered
to be herded together and locked inside
“indoor stadiums” converted into “tem-
porary jails”. These humans were
deprived of their last vestiges of dignity.
And an individual sans dignity is noth-
ing but “meat-on-feet”. This is reminis-
cent of Nazi Germany’s Holocaust days.
It is pertinent to note here that the
prime minister of New Zealand which
has a population of less than 50 lakh
gave 48 hours’ notice and South Africa
with less than six crore gave 72 hours’
notice for lockdowns. But India with
1.3 billion people had less than four
hours. Such was the rank unprepared-
ness of the government.
In the event, even after a week, with
masses of jobless, homeless and cash-
less people moving like herds, the very
fundamentals of “social distancing”
stood abandoned. Yet, tongue-in-cheek,
the government described this response
to Covid-19 as “pre-emptive, pro-active
and graded”. Such perversion is not
without reason. As Covid-19 was
spreading worldwide, India had ade-
quate advance notice. (See box)
Such dismal planning and prepared-
ness was due to the political leadership
being busy elsewhere. Instead of
expanding and strengthening the
healthcare infrastructure and testing
facilities, it was engaged with the ven-
omous Delhi state election campaign
O
n March 30, 2020, I came to
know about abuse of power by
the police personnel in Challera
village, Gali No 3, PS- Noida Sector 39,
Dist- Gautam Buddh Nagar.
At around 9.45 am, two vehicles, with
more than six police personnel, were
making an announcement to not to
come out of homes, and under the guise
of Section 144, never gave a second
thought before hurling sticks at any per-
son seen outside home.
The victim was standing on the ter-
race of his rented house with his mobile
phone and when the police personnel
saw the victim, they started to hurl abus-
es and kept banging the gate of his
house. When the victim asked for the
reason of doing so, they started to
threaten him, and when he opened the
gate, four-five police personnel held him
by the neck, dragged him inside the
police vehicle and started thrashing him
mercilessly. He was beaten continuously
for an hour.
The victim stated that in the vehicle
he saw bricks and stones and the police
personnel pinned him down with their
legs and beat him as if he were a terror-
ist. When the victim started to bleed from
the mouth, the police personnel stopped
the beating.
Neither was he informed why he was
detained or beaten, nor was his family
informed about his whereabouts, and
therefore on the face of it, the police per-
sonnel arrogantly violated the guidelines
of DK Basu vs State of West Bengal
(1997) 6 SCC 642 observed by the
Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.
The policemen alleged that he was
making a video of the cops beating citi-
zens on the street, but when on search
the police didn’t find anything in the vic-
tim’s mobile, they deleted everything
from it.
SHO Neeraj Malik told the consta-
bles: “He’s got enough thrashing, just
leave him.”
The constables and SI Devendra
Rathi then said: “Today Yogi ji (CM of
UP) is coming to Noida. Since there are
no cases in Noida Sector 44, we will reg-
ister an FIR against him under Section
188 (Disobedience of order duly promul-
gated by public servant) of the Indian
Penal Code (IPC) so that Yogi ji will
come to know we are showing strictness
on the streets and this police station will
get an appreciation.”
The SHO said that they didn’t have
any evidence against him, and so he
directed the constables to record a
video of the victim forcing him to state
that he was causing obstruction to
police work.
When the victim denied this, they
Eyewitnessreport
Supreme Court advocate Simanta
Kumar took up the case of an inci-
dent of police brutality under the
garb of Section 144. His report:
Column/ Lockdown/ MG Devasahayam

down was imposed under the Epidemic
Diseases Act, 1897, on the ground of
containing a suspected outbreak of epi-
demic. In the present case, neither a
riot nor “unlawful assembly” are
involved. Yet Section 144 was imposed,
subjecting individuals going about to
procure essential supplies or medicines,
and migrant labourers on their arduous
walk to reach their villages, to indignity
and police brutality. As of now, as many
as 22 migrant workers have died in
their attempt to return home.
Locking down 1.3 billion with the
resultant mayhem, chaos and conges-
tion is the worst way to contain the
contagion. By adopting the T4 method-
ology, Asian countries such as Japan,
South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore
have successfully contained the spread
of the virus. This meant the govern-
ment taking responsibility instead of
burdening the people with it. Practising
this approach would have gone a long
way in coping with Covid-19. A humon-
gous human crisis has been dealt with
in the most inhuman manner.
Now experts are advising extension
of curfew due to contagion dangers
caused by the migrant exodus. But the
cabinet secretary has said no to it.
Extended or not, with such dismal gov-
ernance, India’s future appears bleak.
— The writer is a former Army & IAS
officer. He has served as SDM and DM
in Haryana and Chandigarh
and the Rs 20,000 crore Central Vista,
a fancy real estate project. As Covid-19
was spreading, the BJP national leader-
ship was busy with “Namaste Trump”
and purchasing MLAs to form a gov-
ernment in MP. There was little
response to the expert’s call to adopt
the T4 solution to deal with the virus.
O
ver the weeks preceding the
national lockdown, four central
laws—the Epidemic Diseases
Act, CrPC, Disaster Management Act
and Essential Services Act—were
invoked with stringent clauses. All
these laws, except the CrPC, are meant
to facilitate planning, preparing and
managing natural and man-made dis-
asters in a systematic manner without
panic and causing least inconvenience
to the public. But in the case of coron-
avirus, though there was enough warn-
ing, the centre and some state govern-
ments miserably failed in this critical
aspect of management. To cover this
unpardonable failure of governance,
the centre resorted to the lockdown,
thereby unleashing pandemonium to
contain a pandemic.
A lockdown, according to the Oxford
Dictionary, means confining prisoners
to their cells, typically in order to gain
control during a riot. As a corollary,
restrictions under Section 144, CrPC
are imposed whenever there is an
imminent threat to human life due to
rioting, communal clashes or distur-
bance to public order. But the lock-
slapped him and asked him from which
state he belonged to and how much he
earned? The victim stated that he was
from Jharkhand, and then the SHO start-
ed hurling racial abuse at him: “Saale
Bihari 5,000-6,000 kamaane ke liye
poora Delhi and Noida ko gandaa kar dia
he, tum saalon ka encounter kar dena
chahiye…maaro saale ko (These Biharis
come to earn Rs 5,000-6,000 and then
go about violating Delhi and Noida.
These people should just be killed in
encounter, beat him up).”
The constables again started thrash-
ing the victim and demanded ransom.
The victim said he won’t pay a single
penny to them. After that, the SHO
transferred the victim to IO Raghvender
Singh of PS Sector 39 and there,
Constable Sanjay Singh registered an
FIR under Section 188 of the IPC. The
victim was detained in the police station
of Sector 39, Noida, and forced to
undergo a medical test as a criminal
procedure.
The victim requested them to give
him a shirt, a mask and gloves as he
was only wearing a trouser and a vest.
The police personnel again started to
abuse him and said: “Mar saale Bihaari
Corona se. (You Bihari, go die of
Corona).”
The wife of the victim called around
11 am to the Police Helpline 112 and
told them of all the facts of the case.
She was assured that police will come to
her within a short time. However, no one
came and after an hour, she was told
that her husband was detained in Sector
39 police station and she was asked to
visit the police station with a shirt.
The wife of the victim called me and
I immediately accompanied her to the
Sector 39 police station. They told us
they won’t release him. I incessantly
requested them, and after a few
hours, the victim was released on
bail. I requested for the FIR and
medical copies, but they refused to
hand them over.
"Askingpeopletostay
athomeandshutting
downpopulation
movementisbuying
time...Butontheir
own,thesemeasures
willnotextinguish
epidemics.”
—DrTedros
AdhanomGhebreyesus,
D-GofWHO

26 April 13, 2020
HE sight of a vast multi-
tude of migrants attempt-
ing to leave the capital for
their villages at any cost
was a humanitarian ni-
ghtmare. Was it inept
mishandling by the state machinery or
deliberate misinformation regarding
availability of public transport which led
this vast multitude of now homeless and
jobless people to violate all precautions
against the spread of the deadly coron-
avirus? This desperate multitude is put-
ting not only the capital but also villages
they are heading for under the grave
threat of community spread of the virus.
One could not have imagined that a day
such as this would arrive for people wi-
thin their own land and in a democracy.
However, we must also realise that
for a nation like India with such a huge
population and equally large state ma-
chinery, a situation such as this is not
uncommon and has happened earlier on
many occasions for different reasons in
the last eight decades. In the present
case, the state machinery should have
had a plan in place. If proper civil de-
fence and safety procedures had been
worked out following SOPs (Standard
Operating Procedures), this tragedy
could have been avoided. In normal cir-
cumstances, the state machinery should
have had plans to accommodate this
mass of people in proper camps with
civic and medicinal facilities.
However, in the absence of such a
system, the CIMIC (Civil Military Co-
operation) procedures by the state
should have been in place, planned and
documented in SOPs written decades
Migrant Crisis and
Civil Defence
Theenormoussufferingandchaosunleashedbythesuddenexodusofworkersfromcitiescould
havebeenavertedifpropercivildefenceandsafetyprocedureshadbeenworkedout
Column/ Covid-19/ Army’s Role Wg Cdr Praful Bakshi
READY TO TAKE ON COVID-19
Medics at the Army wellness centre, Jodhpur,
examining Indians who landed from Iran
T

back. The CIMIC operations would have
directly involved the military, assisted
by paramilitary units and helped by the
home ministry. The affected migrants
could have been diverted to proper
camps or in acquired buildings like sch-
ools and stadiums with medical and
other requirements till the crisis was
over. The last resort would have been to
escort the people involved back to their
native places.
However, the only catch in this entire
process is that this huge mass of human-
ity could have a large number of coron-
avirus-infected people amongst them
who would carry the virus to their native
places. Consequently, all of them need to
be quarantined for the required period
and the infected ones separated from
the rest.
I
n the absence of alternative accom-
modation, the Army and the para-
military units can create large tent-
ed camp areas with field accommoda-
tion, including kitchen and toilet arr-
angements, along with medical and iso-
lation facilities. This team can be sup-
ported by experts from the Red Cross
and St John’s Ambulance. This process
has to be a part of the civil defence oper-
ations which should have come into play
when the emergency operations started.
This process is a part of the internal
security doctrine which spells out the
necessary policies and SOPs.
After the period of quarantine is over
but the emergency situation—the epi-
demic—continues and the workers have
nowhere to work or live and still want to
go back home, there would be no other
choice but to transport the non-affected
populace to their respective districts/
state capitals by rail or road.
So what should the process of trans-
porting people back to their home dis-
tricts have been?
Call an immediate meeting of the
Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Chair-
man, Railway Board, and a senior secre-
tary from the home ministry.
The CDS should ask the Army to
form a joint Operation Room in the
form of NEEOC (National Emergency
Evacuation Ops Centre), manned by
personnel with appropriate seniority
from Services, the Railways and the
home ministry.
The home ministry must ascertain the
total number of people involved in the
crisis and requirement of transportation
along with the destinations
involved. This would help the
Army to calculate the number
of units needed to help build
the camps in the first place
and thereafter be available to
escort the migrants to the
places earmarked.
The Army must provide the
required number of units to
escort the migrants to their
destinations. The units must
have the necessary medical
support. Also, if any camp is
required at the destination then the
closest military/Air Force station be
asked to take charge along with local
administration and medical department.
The Railways must, as per home min-
istry projections, calculate and provide
the required number of trains which
would transfer the people with the Army
escorts to the destinations. Stations en
route must be informed and asked to
prepare for any eventuality.
The home ministry, along with the
destination state, will ensure that proper
camps to receive the transferred people
are made ready along with quarantine
facilities. Here the local police and para-
military units can be put in aid of army
and the administration. Most impor-
tantly, paramilitary forces like BSF and
ITBP should be made ready if required
to assist the army in any way.
The Air Force, too, should be involved
with at least one unit of medium lift hel-
icopters and medical evacuation heli-
copters to be ready with emergency
medical teams.
All the above mentioned organisa-
tions must be kept in direct contact with
the NEEOC at Delhi. As the saying goes,
the more we sweat in peace, the less we
bleed in war.
—The writer is a military analyst and
air accident investigator
PREPARING FOR BATTLE
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh
discussing the action plan of his
ministry regarding Covid-19
Thecivil-militarycooperationwouldhave
involvedtheArmy,assistedbyparamili-
taryunitsandhelpedbythehomemin-
istry.Themigrantscouldhavebeen
divertedtocampsoracquiredbuildings.
UNI

Column/ Covid-19/ Vivek K Agnihotri
28 April 13, 2020
N March 24, while ann-
ouncing the unprece-
dented 21-day lockdown,
the prime minister com-
pared it to the war of
Mahabharata which last-
ed all of 18 days. The insinuation was
that if it took 18 days to finish off the
ruinous war of Mahabharata, the leeway
of 21 days should be more than suffi-
cient to decimate and drive away the evil
of Covid-19. India’s battle against the
coronavirus started on a war footing
thereafter. The lockdown was an exten-
sion of the Janata curfew, which had
preceded it on March 22.
Doordarshan, the bouquet of 21 TV
channels promoted by the government,
decided to make its own contribution
to the war effort. In its endeavour to
keep lovers of soap operas and cinema
enthralled at home, it decided to repeat
two of its most popular TV serials, the
Ramayana (1987-88) and the Maha-
bharata (1988-90), with two episodes
per day, seven days a week. A hypnotic
dispensation, indeed.
As I watched them, apart from the
longer duration of each episode com-
pared to the current crop, three things
stood out in contrast. The fast pace of
story execution: in six episodes, the
Mahabharata serial covered four gener-
ations of the Kurus; Bhishma (born as
Devavrat in the second episode, as the
eighth child of the Ganga) had become
the uncle of two grown-up princes
(Dhritarashtra and Pandu) by the sixth
episode and Pandu had been crowned.
Second was the near absence of
breaks unlike today, which make you
lose the thread of the storyline. There is
no attempt to make do with very little
new content by using devices such as
“what has gone before” and “what is co-
ming up” and many flashbacks, repeated
ad nauseam. These interruptions, cou-
pled with advertisements and previews
of other serials of the channel, take up
almost two-thirds of the serial’s half-an-
hour slot.
Finally, earlier there was smooth and
uninterrupted conversation. No unhar-
monious, and occasionally jarring back-
ground scores which drown the niceties
of nuanced dialogue today. Again, in
the Mahabharata, there are spells of
silence when you can hear water being
poured into a vessel; occasionally, there
is no sound. What I also like are the
subtle ways of depicting immaculate
conception and how the mental state of
the mother impacts the child.
The corona pandemic is being tack-
led on a war footing. The two armies,
comprising the authorities ostensibly
backed by civil society on the one hand
and the corona (sounding suspiciously
like the Kauravas) on the other, are face
to face on the battlefield of human car-
nage. Each day, the enemy employs new
tactics, forcing humanity to devise new
strategies to meet the “novel’’ challenges.
Arjuna is in doubt because of the irre-
sponsible behaviour of some of his own
tribe. How are we going to win this war?
The central theme of the Mahabha-
rata war strategy, in a sense, is trickery.
The war had to be won at any cost. Fair
was foul and foul was fair, to rephrase
Macbeth’s witches. Of the two warring
sides, the Pandavas made the maximum
use of foul means, though some of them
Winning the Mahabharata
CanlessonstofightthevirusbegarneredfromtheepicbattlebetweenthePandavasandthe
Kauravas?Canwarstrategiesfortifyustodaytodefeatthisviciousenemy?
O
Isittimetogetreadytofacethe
worldbeyondcorona:therestructuring
oftheglobaleconomicorder?Arewe
headingforapyrrhicvictoryinthe
waragainstCovid-19?

look fair, with Lord Krishna playing the
stellar partisan role.
It all began with the Pandavas realis-
ing that Bhishma, the commander-in-
chief of the Kaurava army, should be eli-
minated if they had to win the war. Ar-
juna placed Shikhandi (a transgender)
in front of him on his chariot. As Bhish-
ma had vowed never to strike women,
he laid his bow down on seeing Shi-
khandi. Arjuna then pierced him with
25 arrows and Bhishma fell from his
chariot on the bed of arrows and remai-
ned there till he decided to call it a day.
On the 13th day of the war, Abhi-
manyu, the underage son of Arjuna, was
trapped in the chakravyuha by the Kau-
ravas; technically, it was not an unfair
warfare tactic. But what followed till the
end were a series of blatantly foul and
ingenious tricks used by the Pandavas,
aided and abetted by Krishna.
Jayadratha, who killed Abhimanyu,
was tricked by Krishna into believing
that the sun had set, thus giving an opp-
ortunity to Arjuna to kill him as he had
put down his weapons, thinking it was
the end of the day’s battle. Dronacharya
was killed when he felt distraught on
account of Yudhisthira telling a white lie
about the death of his son, Ashwatt-
hama. Upon the death of an eponymous
elephant, Yudhisthira announced: “Ash-
watthama is dead.” Against the back-
drop of the beating of war drums by his
army to celebrate the achievement, he
added: “May be a man or an elephant.”
What he said later was inaudible, much
like the nuanced dialogues against the
cacophonous background music in TV
serials today.
Karna, the next commander-in-chief
of the Kauravas, was killed when Arju-
na, instigated by Krishna and in viola-
tion of the rules of the battle, struck him
as he bent down to disengage the mired
wheel of his chariot. Then, on the final
day, Bhima struck Duryodhana below
the belt with his mace on a signal from
Krishna via Arjuna. The war was over
and the Kauravas lost in spite of the
scheming Shakuni on their side; but the
acrimony created by it led to mayhem
and more devastation in due course. It
was indeed a pyrrhic victory. Only two
things came out unscathed: Bhishma
Pitamaha and Gita, the scripture.
A
re there any lessons in these ma-
noeuvres and shenanigans on
how to win the war against coro-
na, humanity’s enemy number one to-
day? Will the advice of Krishna to the
Pandava army to duck (comparable to a
lockdown) in order to avoid the harmful
effects of Narayanastra launched by
Ashwatthama work today? Are the Kau-
ravas comparable to community trans-
mission? Will our inherent shortcom-
ings lead to devastation or will the Gito-
padesh rescue us? While we debate and
discuss various strategies to fortify and
arm ourselves to the teeth to defeat the
enemy, some good news has started to
trickle in. A new, controlled clinical
study conducted by doctors in France
shows that a combo of hydroxychloro-
quine (HCQ) and (Z-Pak) completely
cures coronavirus patients within six
days of treatment. Can Covid-19 be
tricked into mutating as a malarial mos-
quito variant? The government has all-
owed the use of hydroxychloroquine in
combination with azithromycin under
close monitoring for serious patients. In
the meanwhile, Italian doctors said that
Tocilizumab, a drug used to treat mod-
erate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, has
shown more promise than HCQ, the
anti-malaria drug. Or will some other
trick or a combination of tricks be able
to mutate foul into fair? Is that the
way to win the corona war? Only time
will tell.
Finally, could the Mahabharata or
the corona disaster have been avoided?
The compulsive obsession with finding
an heir to the throne of Hastinapura,
from time to time, followed by an all-
consuming desire to wrest power by
hook or crook led to devastation in the
Mahabharata. Is similar uncontrolled
greed, coupled with a flawed value sys-
tem, at the root of the Covid-19 catastro-
phe? Is it time to get ready to face the
world beyond corona: the restructuring
of the global economic order? Are we
heading for a pyrrhic victory in the war
against Covid-19?
—The writer is a former Secretary-
General, Rajya Sabha, and a retired IAS
officer of the AP cadre
ENTERTAINMENT ON OFFER
Doordarshan is re-telecasting popular serials
Ramayana (left) and Mahabharata

Environment/ Covid-19/ Air Pollution
30 April 13, 2020
HE corona lockdown in
India has had many delete-
rious effects on society
which suddenly finds itself
coming to a grinding halt.
But the one positive effect
it has had is on the environment which
has found a new awakening. Clear blue
skies, birds chirping sonorously and
bright sunshine are testimony to this.
Within a week of the lockdown, the
air quality index (AQI) showed a drastic
improvement across the country. Cer-
tain areas in Delhi-NCR climbed to
“green” category, indicating good air
quality—a rare feature during the spring
months. Compare this to a week before
the lockdown—then the AQI in Delhi
ranged from moderately polluted to the
poor category.
Typically, the Central Pollution Con-
trol Board categorises AQI under 50 as
good; 51-100, satisfactory; 101-200, mo-
derately polluted; 201-300, poor; 301-
400, very poor and 401-500, severe.
An analysis done by the Centre for
Science and Environment (CSE) showed
a dramatic declining trend in daily
peak-hour pollution in six major cities
(Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru,
Hyderabad and Chennai). Air with a
concentration of PM 2.5 and PM 10 fell
by 60 percent in several cities after the
lockdown. Hourly NO2 levels associated
with vehicles dropped more sharply.
Hourly PM 2.5 levels associated with
other sources of pollution also reduced.
It is well-established that vehicles are
a major contributor to air pollution. As
employers were forced to provide the
option of “work from home” and almost
all vehicles were pulled off the roads, the
effect on the air was evident. “Overall,
air pollution levels dropped sharply af-
ter the lockdown because vehicles, facto-
ries and construction stopped. Of cour-
se, we don’t want this kind of emergency
to bring this change,” said Anumita Roy-
chowdhury, Executive Director, Res-
earch and Advocacy and head of the
Clean Air Campaign at CSE. “This crisis
has proved that if a health risk percep-
tion can provoke an emergency res-
ponse, it can galvanise far-reaching
changes. Collective community action
during this pandemic has forced us to
reinvent solutions to reduce our vulner-
ability to toxic risk.”
Over the years, research has shown
that air pollution is one of the biggest
Mother Nature
Breathes Again
Astheworldcomestoahalt,goodairqualityandclearskies
arethereforalltosee.Withairpollutionkilling1.2million
Indiansannually,thisisagainworthprotectingandfightingfor
By Papia Samajdar
T
UNI

causes of deaths across the globe. Acc-
ording to WHO, an estimated 4.2 mil-
lion deaths occur annually due to bad
ambient air quality, globally. Of the 30
most polluted cities in the world, 22 are
in India. This puts a large section of the
Indian population at risk.
Being exposed to poor air quality for
a long duration also increases the risk of
death from diseases like Covid-19 and
SARS. The European Public Health All-
iance warned that there is a link bet-
ween deaths due to Covid-19 of patients
with illnesses linked to air pollution.
Doctors had found that the risk of death
among SARS patients exposed to mod-
erate air pollution was 84 percent high-
er compared to patients exposed to low
air pollution.
Despite these numbers and multiple
warnings by researchers, public percep-
tion of poor air quality is low. With the
global lockdown, companies are forced
to change the ways they operate. As gov-
ernments emphasise social distancing as
the best precaution, along with periodic
washing of hands, the world adjusts to
new ways of functioning. Schools and
colleges have taken education online
and so have big grocery outlets. Fitness
regimes move into people’s living rooms
and chatting with friends is through
social media and online apps.
C
an this crisis-induced change give
long-term solutions for air pollu-
tion? Roychowdhury said: “If we
can make systemic changes to institu-
tionalise some of the emergency
responses and maximise the potential of
the digital world to alter the workplace,
it can work in the environment sphere
too. We can scale up public transport
options to reduce vehicles, roll out elec-
tric mobility to move towards zero emis-
sions and ensure zero tolerance for non-
compliance with emission control regu-
lations and standards. Only then can we
see a different post-pandemic period.”
Ravi Kumar, a senior executive at
Anil Agarwal Environmental Training
Institute, foresees a change in opera-
tions after the lockdown is over. “Post-
pandemic, we are expecting many
changes in the way companies and busi-
nesses operate. We cannot entirely
gauge what these will be or at what sc-
ale, but change will definitely be seen,”
he said. “We will be putting systems and
processes in place, ensure that lack of
physical presence in designated spaces
does not hinder operations and offer
online courses.”
The coronavirus pandemic has defi-
nitely made us realise how quickly we
must adapt to the new normal and how
we can be more productive using tech-
nology, said Gaurav Singh, Regional
Head, No Brokers Technology Solutions,
a software firm. “As a service provider,
we have to ensure that we remain com-
petitive. We can function effectively
even if we deviate from the way we used
to operate. We will design our systems
to build on this learning,” he said.
When asked if the reduced air pollu-
tion would influence his decision, he
said: “That is a bonus as it also leads to
reduced transport bills. The manage-
ment has made a note of the benefits of
work from home and is willing to con-
sider it in future.”
Rijit Sengupta, CEO at Centre for
Responsible Business, remembers how a
few months back in Davos, where rich
business leaders were hosted by the
World Economic Forum, a manifesto
was released underscoring the impor-
tance of “Business with Purpose”. “As
businesses and society pass through
these difficult times, we must reflect on
how to design and promote businesses
with a purpose in India. If there is one
time when we can begin some thinking
and dialogue on this subject, it is now,”
he added.
There are concerns that in the post-
pandemic period, it will be business as
usual and pollution will go out of con-
trol once again. But the air pollution cri-
sis that kills 1.2 million Indians and
makes many more ill requires a similar
emergency response and public support
for strong action. “It is important to
deepen awareness and public under-
standing of this connection and the
overall health risk associated with air
pollution. We need hard action for this,”
said Roychowdhury.
BREATHING EASY
The clear blue skies in Delhi (far left) show a
drastic improvement in the AQI index as
compared to pre-lockdown days
“Thiscrisishasprovedthatifahealthriskperception
canprovokeanemergencyresponse,itcangalvanise
far-reachingchanges.”
—AnumitaRoychowdhury,ExecutiveDirector,Research
andAdvocacyandheadoftheCleanAirCampaignatCSE
Sumit Roy Dutta @wikimedia.org

32 April 13, 2020
HE number of people
infected with Covid-19
continues to skyrocket,
with nearly one million
cases worldwide. But
there’s no vaccine or cure
for it, though human trials have started
in the US based on their earlier research
on the Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome (MERS) and the Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
This means that doctors can do little
more than offer supportive treatment to
the very sick and hope their bodies can
survive the infection.
With about 15 percent of Covid-19
patients suffering from severe disease
and hospitals being overwhelmed, treat-
ments are desperately needed. Now a
coalition of researchers says that already
approved drugs might hold the key to
treatment. This includes a drug combo
used against HIV, a malaria treatment
first tested during World War II and a
new antiviral whose promise against
Ebola fizzled out last year.
WHO is looking for such drugs
which have already been approved for
other diseases and known to be largely
Boost Your Health
EvenasWHOhasstartedalargeglobaltrialcalledSolidaritytoevaluatepotential
treatmentsagainstthisdeadlyvirus,India’salternativehealthsystemshaveahostof
suggestionstoboostrespiratoryhealth
My Space/ Covid-19 Dr KK Aggarwal
T RESEARCH AND TRIALS
Treatments are needed fast in view of the
alarming march of the Covid-19 pandemic
Representative Picture: UNI

safe. It is also looking at unapproved
drugs that have performed well in ani-
mal studies to treat SARS and MERS. It
is also looking for treatments to be given
prophylactically to protect healthcare
workers and others at high risk of infec-
tion. Treatments may also reduce the
time patients spend in intensive care
units, freeing critical hospital beds.
W
HO has announced a large
global trial called Solidarity
to evaluate whether potential
treatments are effective against Covid-
19. Already, Argentina, Bahrain, Canada,
France, Iran, Norway, South Africa,
Spain, Switzerland and Thailand have
joined this effort. The Solidarity trial
will test four different drugs or combi-
nations and compare their effectiveness
to fight the virus. The trial is an
unprecedented effort—an all-out, coor-
dinated push to collect robust, scientific
data rapidly during this pandemic. The
study, which could include thousands of
patients in a dozen countries has been
designed to be as simple as possible so
that even hospitals overwhelmed by
Covid-19 patients can participate.
Even as the Nizamuddin catastrophe
unfolds in Delhi, the spread of Covid-19
can be linked to cult practices in South
Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Paki-
stan. In March, a Muslim congregation
of over 2,000 people was organised in
Nizamuddin, Delhi, by Tablighi Jamaat,
a global Islamic missionary movement,
leading to the spread of the virus all
over India.
In South Korea, most Covid-19
cases can be traced back to the myste-
rious Shincheonji Church of Jesus
where one person spread it to the oth-
ers. Almost 63.5 percent of all con-
firmed cases in the country were related
to Shincheonji. Some of its practices
included secrecy, banning of health
masks, praying in close proximity, kiss-
ing each other’s hands, singing hymns,
not caring about worldly things and
focusing on conversions even when
someone is sick. They feel that getting
sick is a sin as it prevents them from
doing God’s work. Such behaviour
defies physical distancing principles.
Tablighi Jamaat attendees believe
only in their leader, that getting sick is a
gift from Allah and dying in a mosque
grants them heaven. The organisation
urges Muslims to practise their religion
as it was during Prophet Muhammad’s
time. This is particularly so in matters of
ritual, dress and behaviour. It has an
estimated 150-250 million adherents,
with the majority living in South Asia.
Between February 27 and March 1,
the movement organised an internation-
al religious gathering at Sri Petaling
Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This was linked to more than 600
Covid-19 cases, making it the largest
known centre of transmission in
Southeast Asia.
A second gathering was scheduled
on March 18 in South Sulawesi, Indon-
esia. Though the organisers initially
rebuffed official directives to cancel the
gathering, they subsequently complied.
Yet another gathering was organised in
Pakistan near Lahore for 1.5 lakh peo-
ple. Despite officials’ requests, the par-
ticipants communed together, leading
to the spread of the virus overseas.
Meanwhile, the Nizamuddin faction
of the Tablighi Jamaat held a congrega-
tion there every week of last month till
March 21. There were reportedly other
violations by foreign speakers here,
including misuse of their tourist visas for
missionary activities and not observing
the 14-day home quarantine. It is belie-
ved the sources of infection were prea-
chers from Indonesia. Many returned to
their states in India and provided refuge
to foreign speakers without the knowl-
edge of local governments and eventu-
ally spread it in Tamil Nadu, Telangana,
Karnataka, J&K and Assam.
Clinical experience suggests that
certain situational or developmental fea-
tures appear to make people more
receptive to cults. These include high
stress levels or dissatisfaction, lack of
self-confidence, gullibility, desire to
belong to a group and frustrated spiritu-
al searching. Most cult leaders have a
narcissistic personality disorder, an
excessive need for admiration, disre-
gard for others’ feelings, an inability to
handle any criticism and a sense of
entitlement. As for the followers, most
would be going through a mental crisis
and the cult seems to offer relief. Many
ex-followers have issues readjusting
to society.
EPICENTRE SCENARIO
Covid-19 symptomatic patients being taken
to hospital from Nizamuddin, Delhi
Cultpractices
&Covid-19
UNI

My Space/ Covid-19/ Dr KK Aggarwal
34 April 13, 2020
WHO is focusing on four most
promising therapies: an experimental
antiviral compound called remdesevir;
malaria medications chloroquine and
hydroxychloroquine; a combination of
two HIV drugs, lopinavir and ritonavir,
and the same combination plus interfer-
on-beta, an immune system messenger.
Some data on their use in Covid-19
patients has already emerged—the HIV
combo failed in a small study in China—
but WHO believes a large trial with a
greater variety of patients is warranted.
In India, the Drug Controller Gene-
ral of India approved the two anti-HIV
drugs for restrictive use for Covid-19
and ICMR cleared the prophylactic use
of hydroxychloroquine for close con-
tacts. The health ministry has approved
use of the anti-flu drug oseltamivir (Ta-
miflu group) for the treatment protocol.
Meanwhile, the Confederation of Medi-
cal Associations in Asia and Oceania has
recommended a hydroxychloroquine
and azithromycin combination. Hydro-
xychloroquine has been reported to
inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in vitro.
C
hloroquine is included in treat-
ment guidelines from China’s
National Health Commission and
was associated with reduced progression
of the disease. Treatment guidelines
from the Commission include the inter-
leukin (IL)-6 receptor inhibitor,
tocilizumab, for patients with severe
Covid-19. In the US, the FDA is accept-
ing emergency investigational new drug
applications for use of convalescent
plasma for patients with severe Covid-
19. A case series described the adminis-
tration of plasma from donors who had
completely recovered from Covid-19 to
five patients who were on mechanical
ventilation and had persistently high
viral titters despite antiviral treatment.
Twelve days later, they were found to ha-
ve decreased disease severity, but these
findings do not establish a causal effect.
Enhancing the body’s immunity plays
an important role in maintaining opti-
mum health. The ministry of AYUSH
recommends the following self-care
guidelines for boosting immunity with
special reference to respiratory health.
Drink warm water throughout the day.
Daily practice of Yogasana, Pranayama
and meditation for at least 30 minutes
Spices such as turmeric, cumin,
coriander and garlic are recommended
in cooking
Meanwhile, ayurveda suggests the
following measures for better immunity:
Take 10 gm Chyavanprash in the
morning. Diabetics should take sugar-
free Chyavanprash
Drink herbal tea/decoction made from
basil, cinnamon, black pepper, dry gin-
ger and raisins once or twice a day. Add
jaggery and/or fresh lemon juice
Have golden milk—half teaspoon
turmeric powder in 150 ml hot milk
once or twice a day
Nasal application—apply sesame
oil/coconut oil/ghee in both nostrils
morning and evening
Oil-pulling therapy—put a tablespoon
of sesame/coconut oil in the mouth,
swirl it for 2-3 minutes and spit it out,
followed by a warm water rinse
To tackle dry cough/sore throat, take
steam inhalation with fresh mint leaves
or caraway seeds daily. In addition, clove
powder mixed with honey can be taken
2-3 times a day for throat irritation.
A stitch in time saves nine.
—The writer is President, Confederation
of Medical Associations in Asia
and Oceania and former
National President, IMA
WHOisfocusingonfourmost
promisingtherapies:anexperimen-
talantiviralcompoundcalled
remdesevir;malariamedications
chloroquineandhydroxychloro-
quine;acombinationoftwo
HIVdrugs,lopinavirandritonavir,
andthesamecombination
plusinterferon-beta,animmune
systemmessenger.
HELPING IMMUNITY
Herbal preparations come to the rescue

Global Trends/ US/ Corona Effect
36 April 13, 2020
LL across the US, in cities,
big and small, at the beaches
and lakefronts, in mountain
resorts, everywhere, there are
empty hotels and airports be-
cause of the government-ordered shut-
downs, social distancing and a fear level
approaching paranoia. The economic
impact is wide and deeply felt and any
return will be to a “new normal” and not
the way things were before the outbreak
of the pandemic. While most public
schools remain closed, millions of stu-
dents are dependent on the internet for
distance-learning classes, instead of the
ubiquitous yellow school buses. This
leaves thousands of school bus drivers
without jobs, and in many cases, unpaid.
Stonington, in Connecticut, a collec-
tion of small villages along the shore on
Long Island Sound, became a summer
getaway when the train line was built in
the mid-19th century between Boston
and New York City. Its two largest tou-
rist attractions have now laid off many
workers. The Mystic Aquarium has kept
only the staff needed to care for its ani-
mals. It plans to keep paying the staff
but the length of the shutdown may be
a factor. The nearby Mystic Seaport Mu-
seum is closed for visitors. Its large col-
lection of old wooden ships and whaling
artifacts is a big draw. Spokesman Don
McFadden said: “The closure and layoffs
are disappointing because they come
just after the blockbuster JMW Turner
paintings’ exhibition that attracted
95,000 visitors this winter, a stunning
89 percent increase over the same time
period last winter.”
The Seaport has become one of the
main engines of local hospitality growth
in the last decade, along with two gam-
bling casinos, nearby. They are closing
just as Las Vegas closed its hotels and
casinos when giant conventions, that
bring hundreds of thousands of visitors,
were cancelled. It is difficult to believe
that special financial support from the
federal government can do much more
than keep people breathing desperately.
Ironically, a big reduction in the use of
fossil fuels for industry and transport
can clean up the globe’s atmosphere.
Inter-state life and travel have always
been unfettered across America’s 50
states, but that, too, can change. Rhode
Island, the smallest state, is sandwiched
between Boston and New York. Rhode
Island’s governor has ordered all out-of-
staters coming there to self-quarantine
for 14 days with police checkpoints stop-
ping out-of-state cars. This is unprece-
dented in the US.
Elements of these situations are play-
ing out across America and the globe.
The impact on cultural institutions that
depend financially on visitors who now
cannot travel is difficult to calculate.
The US hospitality sectors seek hun-
dreds of billions in federal support.
Thousands of Indian families immigrat-
ed to America, buying and operating
moderately-priced motels in smaller
cities and towns. Where they come in a
bailout plan is unclear. Big city hotel
occupancy rates have cratered from 80
percent six weeks ago to barely 20 per-
cent now. Without federal aid, the travel
and lodging trade organisation claims
that the US could lose as many as four
million jobs in 2020. The irony is that
the Russian-Saudi Arabian oil price war
has brought the cost of a litre of petrol
down to about 52 US cents (Rs 40),
approximately half the cost of a litre in
India. But the problem is whatever the
price of fuel, there is no place to go.
— The writer has worked in senior
positions at The Washington Post, NBC,
ABC and CNN and also consults for
several Indian channels
Closed States of America
TheUnitedStatesisshuttingdownandAmericansarestrugglingtocopewithlifeinthetimeof
thecoronavirus.Theworld’srichestandmostpowerfulcountryhasneverlookedmorehelpless
By Kenneth Tiven in Connecticut
A
WREAKING HAVOC
Miami Beach in the US has been shut down
in an effort to contain the coronavirus
Highsmith, Carol M/loc.gov.

Global Trends/ Covid-19/ Indian Students Abroad/ Personal Account
OR those of us from India
who travelled abroad for pur-
suing graduate studies in the
hopes of better job prospects,
things seem to have backfired
during this pandemic attack.
Unable to now return home, these stu-
dents are now confronting the adversity
in a foreign land away from the safety
and solace of family for their immediate
support.
Students like me in isolation must
abide by the restrictions in our respec-
tive countries and keep a close eye on
the news about our homeland and fami-
lies that we are so anxious about. This
only adds to the uncertainty in the
minds of many young students.
Given the trying circumstances, what
does this mean for those in need of visa
extensions? When would the gates back
into India be open again? Where does
one go to seek support? Are there across
the board testing facilities for Indian
students quarantined abroad? The
Indian consulate in Germany, where I
am pursuing my studies, has limited
information online to offer in this re-
gard. This ripple effect of a lack of infor-
mation thereof needs to be tackled from
a centralised source.
Students face many challenges in a
foreign land, not the least of which is
the financial angle. They engage in
part-time jobs to help soften some of
the burden on their families. But with
the current restrictions, job loss and hir-
ing freeze, how do students manage
their livelihood?
One student, who doesn’t want to be
named, says: “Job loss after graduating
from a Canadian university was a shock.
But I’m glad for the employment insur-
ance and personal savings which help
me get by. I’m grateful for the rent sup-
port scheme offered by the Canadian
government.” But not all are so lucky.
EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und
Recht, Germany, where I study, offers
counsellors and contacts of qualified
mental health specialists who have
made themselves available to interna-
tional students. Recognising the chal-
lenges that many international students
face is a commendable action taken by
the university. But for graduate students
such as myself, the future—in the short
and the long term—remains hazy as re-
cruiters state that the coronavirus has
now become an influential cause in their
hiring process. This, in turn, has left
students puzzled, besides contributing
to the rising levels of anxiety among
well-qualified students who simply can-
not begin their professional careers.
“This uncertainty triggering anxiety
remains a primary source of burn-out
among students,” says a counsellor.
The reasons for the anxiety can pri-
marily be divided into two:
How do I support myself emotionally
in times like these?
What do I do next?
Given the unprecedented times we
are now going through, students like me
are struggling to decipher what the
future is going to be like. We are rest-
less, unable to fathom what all this
means for our future. Does this mean,
all those years of effort and time put to-
wards making that vision was all for
nothing? Questions, questions, but as of
now, answers are elusive.
—The writer is a student at
EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und
Recht, Germany
Trapped and Far from Home
Withclassescancelledandtravelrestrictionsinplace,thousandsofthemarestranded
incampuses,dormsorairportsaroundtheworld.Oneofthem,VVarunThomasin
Germany,sendsusthisreport
F
RESCUE US
Hundreds of Indian students are still stranded
in several countries due to the pandemic
thenewsminute.com

India legal 13 april 2020

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