Twenty-one days, 1.3 billion people. That was the order Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave India in a televised address: stay home.
“From 12 midnight today, the entire country will be in lockdown, total lockdown,” Modi said. By the government’s count India had 519 coronavirus infections and 10 deaths. The jump had come in recent days.
Modi did not soften it. “This is a curfew,” he said. “We will have to pay economic cost of this, but to save every family member, this is the responsibility of everyone.” He told Indians that if the 21 days were not managed, “the country and your family will go back 21 years.”
What the order closes
Every social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural and religious gathering is banned. Air, rail and road transport are suspended. Funerals are capped at 20 people. People in essential services such as hospitals, police and media are exempt. Anyone who breaks the rules faces up to two years in jail and a fine the order did not specify.
India had already banned incoming international flights, grounded domestic ones and shut sea and river ports. Indian Railways, which carries more than 20 million passengers a day, had cancelled everything except suburban and goods trains. Several states had sealed borders and limited movement before Modi spoke.
Panic buying
AFP reporters saw shoppers rush stores within minutes of the speech. In Delhi, some people ran to nearby shops in their pyjamas through heavy rain. In Mumbai, masked crowds queued outside pharmacies and supermarkets. Police in Ghaziabad, in Uttar Pradesh, drove through the streets with megaphones telling residents to stay indoors.
Modi tried to calm things afterward. “THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED TO PANIC,” he tweeted, adding that essential commodities and medicines would be available and that the central and state governments would coordinate. Local media reported that state leaders would announce when people could buy essential items. Amazon said it would sell only “high priority” products.
Virologist Shahid Jameel of the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance backed the shutdown. “If this is not done now we would be looking at six to eight weeks later, with many more deaths,” he told AFP. He added a warning: “It’s going to be very hard on the poor and vulnerable. I hope there is a plan in place.”
