Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 20: The BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have refused to implement their respective High Court’s recommendations to impose lockdown in the states to control the spike in the Covid-19 cases.
Both the governments have claimed that imposition of lockdown “may not be the right approach” to control the infection. But none of the governments have given any explanation that if imposition of nation-wide 69-day lockdown by Narendra Modi-led central government during the same months last year was a “right decision” why a similar measure this year, when the number of daily cases was even nearly three times more, “may not be the right approach.”
“We have to protect both lives and livelihood,” the UP government counsel told the Supreme Court on Tuesday challenging the Allahabad High Court’s Monday’s order for a strict lockdown in five major cities in the state to control the surge. “The blanket lockdown imposed by the High Court in five cities would create immense administrative difficulties,” the state government counsel Tushar Mehta, who had vociferously defended the centre’s decision to impose the lockdown last year, told the apex court.
As the Supreme Court granted a stay on the Allahabad High Court’s order, there will be no lockdown in Lucknow, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Kanpur and Gorakhpur cities. The state government refused to enforce the order on Monday evening and approached the apex court against it on Tuesday and obtained a pause on a day UP reported a record 30,000-plus new cases in 24 hours. The state government has been asked to report to the Supreme Court within a week the steps it has taken and plans to take to tackle the Covid surge.
The Uttar Pradesh government argued that locking down five cities by judicial order “may not be the right approach” and a “blanket lockdown imposed by the High Court in five cities would create immense administrative difficulties.” It also said Allahabad High Court’s order infringed upon the state government’s domain.
“I share the concern of the court. Several steps have been taken,” said Tushar Mehta and claimed that some of what had been ordered by the High Court was already in place.
The High Court, while ordering the cities to shut down, had said on Monday that the pandemic had “virtually incapacitated our medical infrastructure…especially in cities like Prayagraj, Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur and Gorakhpur.” But the state government said such a lockdown was not needed and it had to protect both lives and livelihoods.
The BJP and the party-ruled state governments had all through justified the imposition of lockdown last year claiming that “saving lives” was more important than saving livelihood. The party had also been forwarding some imaginary assessment claiming that several lakhs of lives would had been lost if robust lockdown was not imposed by the Modi government then. As per modest estimates of the organization working in the labour fields, close to 122 million people lost their livelihood during the lockdown last year and took the country’s economy to new low.
Gujarat’s deputy chief minister Nitin Patel while defending the state government’s decision to turn down Gujarat High Court’s suggestion for lockdown in the worst-hit cities and towns, went a step ahead claiming that there was “no proof that lockdown breaks the chain,” apparently a late realization after millions of people lost their jobs last year.
“There are many versions and opinions about lockdown and whether it will be instrumental in breaking the chain. However, it can not be said so scientifically that clamping of lockdown will definitely break the chain,” he said.
“In fact, despite lockdown cases had been rising. This was experienced in Gujarat and other parts of the country,” Patel said which was a clear indictment of Modi government’s decision as no full or even partial lockdown has been imposed in any part of the country since May, last year, when the centre had started the first “unlock” process.
