RAILWAYS MIGRANTS EDUCATION E-LEARNING AGRICULTURE APMC ACT FNightmareRO on Shramik Specials 18NTLINEOnline illusion 47 ‘Reform’ by stealth 92 JUNE 19, 2020 I NDIA’S NATIONAL MAGAZINE HTTPS://FRONTLINE.THEHINDU.COM RS.125 Now, data deception As India’s count of confirmed cases continues to rise, the government puts a creative spin on how and what data it releases to make it appear that the four phases of lockdown had positive outcomes. But nothing can hide the fact that it squandered the opportunities it had to improve the public health infrastructure and prevent the misery that migrant labourers were forced to undergo V OLUME 37 NUMBER 12 JUNE 06-19, 2020 ISSN 0970-1710 HTTPS://FRONTLINE.THEHINDU.COM COVER STORY other successes 65 Bihar: Flood of worries 66 Denial and deception Delhi: Rising numbers and dubious decisions 68 The government puts a spin on what data on the pandemic it releases, Madhya Pradesh: Assembly and how, to make it appear that the four phases of lockdown actually bypolls take precedence 70 Chhattisgarh: Systemic had positive outcomes. But the fact is that it squandered the opportun- shortcomings 72 Punjab: Labour shortage ities to improve the public health infrastructure and prevent the and a farming crisis 74 misery that migrant labourers were forced to undergo. 4 Haryana: COVID grows in urban pockets 76 West Bengal: Out of control 78 Odisha: A double battle 80 Tamil Nadu: Mismanaging a robust system 82 Kerala: On edge, but holding out 85 Karnataka: Quantum jump 88 Jammu & Kashmir: Orchards in the doldrums 90 APMC Act: ‘Reform’ by stealth 92 Madrasa miseries 96 COVER STORY High Courts shine 25 Crushing the right U.S. vs the WHO 98 COVID strategy: Big finance gets to dissent 42 COVID forces a new Clutching at straws 12 a helping hand 28 Delhi riots: Tale of alliance against China 102 Unlocking the Modi two reports 44 regime’s real agenda 15 Education: Online illusion 47 An ode to the classroom 50 WORLD AFFAIRS China tightens screws STATES on Hong Kong 104 Uttar Pradesh: All talk, little action 54 DEFENCE Maharashtra: Test Rumble in the Army 107 Why slowdown is no of leadership 56 solution for clean air 31 Gujarat: Judicial rebuke 58 POLITICS Nightmare on Shramik Lessons in the airlift Surat, a tinder box 60 Redesigning J&K 110 Specials 18 from Kuwait 35 Rajasthan: Janus-faced Endgame in Kashmir? 112 Supreme Court speaks up Interview: Prof T. Jacob approach to migrants 62 for migrants, finally 22 John, Virologist 38 Jharkhand: An airlift and On the Cover Stranded migrant workers wait to board a Shramik Special train at the MGR Central Railway Station in Chennai, on May 14. Air Surcharge: Colombo - Rs.20.00 and COVER DESIGN: U. UDAYA SHANKAR. PHOTOGRAPHS: ARUN SANKAR/AFP Port Blair - Rs.15.00 For subscription queries and delivery related issues Contact: Pan-India Toll Free No: 1800 102 1878 or [email protected] Disclaimer: Readers are requested to verify & make appropriate enquiries Published by N. RAVI, Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600 002 and Printed by T. 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F RONTLINE 3 COVER STORY DENIAL AND DECEPTION As the number of confirmed cases keeps rising, the government puts The government did not offer the public or the people. But, even today the country is not fully prepared scientific community any rationale—scientific, medical on that front. a creative spin on the data it releases, but nothing can hide the fact or otherwise—for continuing with the lockdown beyond One continues to hear reports about the inadequate the second phase, and the lifting of the lockdown seems supplies of PPE to health care workers and the shortage that it squandered the opportunities to improve the public health equally arbitrary. The 10-week period of lockdown seems of doctors. As per the Indian Council Medical Research to have been influenced by a statement the editor-in- (ICMR), the current testing rate is around 1,40,000 per infrastructure and prevent the misery heaped on migrant labourers. chief of the leading medical journal The Lancet made on day. This is about 3,300 tests for a million population, an Indian TV channel without explaining how he arrived which is a low figure. This level of testing should have R. RAMACHANDRAN BY at that conclusion. been in place in February-March itself and subsequently One can give the government the benefit of the doubt ramped up to much higher rates. AFTER ITS FOURTH PHASE, THE LOCKDOWN June 8. All manner of activities and the movement of for the first two phases of the lockdown. They may have Faced with a burgeoning caseload and the apparent was lifted as of May 31 in most parts of the country except goods and personnel, including movement across State been necessary for the government to get its act together shortage of testing kits, particularly in States, the ICMR for the containment zones, where it will continue until borders, will now be unrestricted. However, passenger on medical infrastructure from primary to tertiary care, is still procuring antibody (IgG) ELISA (enzyme-linked June 30. trains and Shramik Specials, domestic air travel, including building up stocks of personal protective immunosorbent assay) test kits. After the early fiasco of On the basis of the guidelines issued by the Ministry movement of Indian nationals stranded abroad, travel of equipment (PPE) for the public and for health care the poor performance of the rapid antibody kits from of Home Affairs vide its circular dated May 30, States will specified individuals abroad and evacuation of foreign workers, and to ensure that it had the necessary China, the government began to import kits from the ease restrictions in a phased manner beginning from nationals will continue to be regulated. equipment and reagents for high rates of testing of United States. In parallel, the ICMR initiated the indigenous development of a kit called Kavach through the National Institute of Virology, Pune, an institute under its wing. As of date, only three makes of the kit, two from the U.S. and Kavach, have been validated for field use, including sero- surveys of asymptomatic individuals. This initiative of domestic development and manufacture, as the virologist T. Jacob John pointed out in an earlier Frontline article (“Lockdown and after”, May 8, 2020), should have started in January-February so that kits would now be ready for widespread countrywide antibody ELISA testing of the population. Although this indigenous technology was transferred for licensed production to seven pharma companies, the ICMR has so far only approved the one manufactured by the Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila Healthcare Ltd. Also, it is not clear why IgM (or for that matter even IgA) testing kits are not being deployed. While it is true that the immune system produces IgG antibodies in large quantities, IgM antibodies are the first to be produced after a viral attack. In fact, a recent release of the ICMR itself said: “IgG antibodies generally start appearing after two weeks of onset of infection, once the individual has recovered after MIGRANT LABOURERS and their family members wait for the screening process in New Delhi on May 21 before leaving for the railway station to board Shramik Special trains. On the basis of the meagre data that is available, the general positivity rate among the returning migrant workers R.V. MOORTHY appears to be low. F RONTLINE . J UNE 19, 2020 4 5 F RONTLINE . J UNE 19, 2020 have been news reports on this issue on States such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh based on statements made by the State governments. M IGRANT WORKERS NOT THE SOURCE OF P RIMARY INFECTION Of course, while there has been a spurt in the number of confirmed cases with the influx of returnee migrant workers—including in Kerala, which had brought the infection spread totally under control during the lockdowns—one can say on the basis of the meagre data that is available that the general positivity rate among the returning migrant workers appears to be low, except perhaps in the case of Bihar. Bihar has claimed that the THE ALL-INDIA per day increase in the number of caseload among migrants coming into the State is much FIG. 2A: Similar to Figure 1 but plotted for individual States. Each curve in the graph corresponds to a different State. From confirmed cases (as a a six-day moving average; y-axis) is higher than what Delhi claimed was the caseload at the fact that many States’ trajectories seem to be roughly on the reference straight line, it can be inferred that infection plotted against the total number of confirmed cases on departure.