Mumbai - Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi asked the nation's poor for forgiveness on Sunday, as the
economic and human toll from his 21-day nationwide lockdown
deepens and criticism mounts about a lack of adequate planning
ahead of the decision.
Modi on Tuesday announced a three week-lockdown to curb the
spread of coronavirus. But, the decision has particularly stung
millions of India's poor, leaving many hungry and forcing tens
of thousands of jobless migrant labourers to walk hundreds of
kilometres from cities to their native villages.
"I would firstly like to seek forgiveness from all my
countrymen," Modi said in a nationwide radio address.
The poor "would definitely be thinking what kind of prime
minister is this, who has put us into so much trouble," he said,
urging people to understand there was no other option.
"Steps taken so far… will give India victory over corona,"
he added.
Modi, whose government on Thursday announced a $22.6 billion
economic stimulus plan to provide direct cash transfers and food
handouts to India's poor, however, did not offer any clarity on
future plans.
Migrant workers travel on a crowded bus as they return to their villages, during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to limit the spreading of coronavirus disease in Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India. Picture: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
In an op-ed published on Sunday, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther
Duflo - two of the three winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics
in 2019 - warned that even more aid for the poor is needed.
"Without that, the demand crisis will snowball into an
economic avalanche, and people will have no choice but to defy
orders," they wrote in the Indian Express.
There is still broad support for strong measures to avoid a
coronavirus catastrophe in India, a country of some 1.3 billion
people where the public health system is poor.
But opposition leaders, analysts and even some citizens are
increasingly criticizing its implementation.
"It's shameful that we've allowed any Indian citizen to be
treated this way & that the Gov't had no contingency plans in
place for this exodus," tweeted opposition politician Rahul
Gandhi as images and footage of migrant labourers walking long
distances to return home dominated newspaper headlines and news
bulletins.
Police said four migrants were killed on Saturday when a
truck ran into them in the western state of Maharashtra.
On Saturday, a migrant collapsed and died in the northern
state of Uttar Pradesh while on a 270km walk home, according to a police official.
"We will die of walking and starving before getting killed
by corona," said migrant worker Madhav Raj, 28, as he walked by
the road in Uttar Pradesh.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India rose to
979 on Sunday, including 25 deaths.
Although experts largely agree that a stringent lockdown in
India is necessary to keep the spread of the virus in check, the
economic fallout of the move is causing anger among the poor.
"We have no food or drink. I am sat down thinking how to
feed my family," said homemaker Amirbee Shaikh Yusuf, 50, in
Mumbai's sprawling Dharavi slum, around lunchtime on Saturday.
"There is nothing good about this lockdown. People are
angry, no one is caring for us."