Reassuring clarity

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba’s statement that there are no plans to extend the 21-day lockdown will serve to douse the high levels of anxiety caused by reports that the government is contemplating such a move. By dismissing such reports as ‘baseless’, the government has shown how it can address issues with decisive clarity.

Ever since the lockdown was imposed, the government has been calibrating its execution — streamlining essential services, increasing them and taking measures to provide relief to the public at large in various forms. The vast migration of migrant labourers has shown how it initially failed to take their concerns into account. The informal sector involves the largest number of workers at the bottom of the financial totem pole, and they operate without any safety net, living far from their homes and families. The lockdown upturned their world. Then came rumours of the extension which impelled many to leave their temporary residence for their permanent abode.

The Cabinet Secretary’s statement will work well with the government’s strategy to contain the migration of labour. Those who were planning to head home would now find reassurance in the finite period of time spelt out by the government. So will the general public. Even as people understand the need for the lockdown, the tremendous disruption of their lives and the economic and social consequences that are bound to follow have raised anxiety levels. In such times, all steps that show a clear path help calm things down. The government will, naturally, need to keep the overall situation in mind as it navigates the remaining two weeks of the lockdown. The utilitarian maxim, ‘The greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people’, will have to govern its planning and its execution in the coming days as the country, and its masses, weather the crisis.