Meanwhile, Congress sheds crocodile tears

The first ever lockdown was when Lakshmana drew Lakshman Rekha and asked Sita not to cross it. She violated and the rest is history. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about Lakshman Rekha, this is precisely what he wanted to convey.

If we don't follow the guidelines, we would be digging our own grave. Everyone is expressing scare but are not willing to exhibit the kind of solidarity they demonstrated on the day of Janata Curfew. May be that one day was sort of week-end game to them.

While it is debatable whether lockdown had helped in containing coronavirus or not, the positive side of it is that it has brought the importance of administration back into light.

People are now slowly understanding the importance of officials like Village Revenue Officers, police, municipal officials, transport staff, village secretariats along with the Marketing and Panchayat Raj officials, to ease people's life during this crisis period.

Shortcomings might be there, but the delivery system is always dependent on them and not on public representatives. While in Telangana all public representatives strictly followed lockdown and refused to move out till Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao expressed his displeasure over their behaviour.

In Andhra Pradesh too the situation is no better. Barring a few, all others are spending most of their time with family members and are there, scouting for their photo-ops and lecturing.

At the national level, we have political parties which are still extending lip service saying we are with the government but are opposing the various announcements made by the government and accusing it of not waking up in advance.

The grand old party - the Congress - so far has not done anything to instil confidence among people or spread awareness on the need to follow the guidelines issued by WHO or the Centre at least on television. A few days ago, Rahul Gandhi criticised Prime Minister Modi for waking up late.

On Sunday, he wrote another letter claiming that they were doing utmost to cooperate with the government but at the same time said it was not to go in for complete shutdown of all economic activity.

The consequences of complete economic shutdown will disastrously amplify the death toll arising from the Covid-19 and hence there is a need for nuanced and targeted approach that takes the complex realities of our people into consideration.

Isolate elders and vulnerable from the virus and strongly communicate to the young the danger of their proximity to older people. By complete shutdown, the unemployed will rush back to their villages and can infect their parents and grandparents, and this could result in a catastrophe.

The concern of Rahul Gandhi is well taken but what is the alternate road map the Congress has? Does he mean that by not going in for economic shutdown, we can prevent spread of the deadly virus?

When people, mostly the so called Bhadralok (educated), in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru are brazenly violating the restrictions even when total lockdown is there, how can Rahul Gandhi say that it should not be there? Touchwood, so far India has been in much better position as compared to other countries like the US only because it woke up early and has acted fast.

One would have appreciated if the Congress which had ruled the country for over sixty years had formed a committee of senior leaders who claim to have immense administrative experience and taken up some concrete measures to help the worst affected section of the society and created confidence among them thereby preventing them from thinking of going back to their homes.

It had not done nothing either in Delhi or for that matter anywhere in the country. All Congress leaders seem to be enjoying sitting in the comforts of their home and lecturing. The party seems to have lost the power to think, act and convert crisis into opportunity to bounce back on the country's political map.