On 9th May, 16 persons sleeping on a railway track in the district of Jalana (Maharashtra) were killed by a goods train. They had been employed at a steel factory at Jalana but due to the lockdown, they had been rendered jobless and homeless since 23 March 2020, when the first lockdown was thrust on the nation in the fashion of the Notebandi of 2016. In his typical dramatic way, Narendra Modi announced that decision without doing any preparatory work.
The nation, particularly the farmers, small craftsmen and middle-class people suffered a heavy blow and nobody has fully recovered yet. Shri Uddhav Thakarey, CM of Maharashtra had urged Modi on 22 March 2020 to transport by railway all migrant workers to their native states before clamping the lockdown. But the latter did not listen. Hence the tragedy of Jalana.
All of us Indians should hold ourselves responsible for this. Many similar tragedies are being reported from various parts of the country. There might be about 2 crores such migrant workers. Seasoned administrators should have anticipated that no state machinery would be able to provide shelter and food to such a huge number. It is deeply saddening to see umpteen number of families walking long distances bearing the heat of the scorching sun. Modi while delivering one hour lecture to the nation on 12th May 2020 night, did not even care to pay homage to those 16 persons who were made to suffer that tragic end by the negligence of the government.
In that speech, Modi gave a long narration about Aatmanirbharta. How can a person make the outlandish claim of the 21st century belonging to one’s own nation? Boasting is folly, so said the great Saint Swami Ramdas. But Modi and his party take pride in self-praise. At the end of that lecture, Modi announced that Lockdown 4 will start from 18th May with many changes in details. He also announced Rs. 20 lakh crore package for MSEs and workers covered by Provident Fund scheme.
Next day, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman gave out the details of the package, which includes all earlier packages by the RBI and the Central Government. If that is deducted, the net package to MSEs comes to about Rs 12 lakh crores. It does include a few good things like loans to those units, raising of investment and turnover limits, extensions of time-limits for filing returns, registering contracts and reduction in tax rates. All this is good as far as it goes but it does not go far enough. More facilities need to be given to those units in the areas of transportation and marketing. Extending the lockdown is obligatory because of the one billion dollar loan by the IMF, but it is overtaxing urban workers and other people.
Pannalal Surana
