作者： bharat.cn

The telltale signs on the streets and in the neighbourhood do convey that people are on the edge. Long stretches of once-busy streets are now deserted. Neighborhood parks, usually bustling with humanity in the morning and evening hours, are now almost empty. House-wives are stacking up shelves in kitchens with essentials, lest they run out of stocks. Masks and sanitizers are not easy to come by.

If Modi’s words are heeded, we could see a spectacle at 5 pm on Sunday, when millions could be whistling or clapping for those legions of masked medical and other essential staff who are standing between “you and corona,” in the PM’s words.

“We should be at the forefront of this fight against the pandemic. Like the doctors and nurses, baggage handlers and crew members of aircrafts who are evacuating stranded Indians from abroad,” Modi said.

Although the PM has said he does not intend to abandon the ongoing budget session, it is clear that the pandemic has disrupted many of his ambitious plans, from modernizing India’s army and economy to expanding trade and becoming a leader in the region. All of that will now have to take a back seat to battling the coronavirus – with Modi’s political survival, as well as that of millions of Indians, on the line.

With China seemingly out of the coronavirus woods, the world’s second most populous nation is yet to face the worst of it. For Indian PM Narendra Modi, the coming days might be his greatest disaster… or greatest triumph.
It’s easy for headline-hunters to run away with the screamer that Modi “asks citizens for self-curfew on March 22,” which indeed he did in his address to the nation on Friday. However, the seriousness of his warning to citizens that they need to “isolate” themselves wasn’t lost on anyone.

“Science still doesn’t have a vaccine for [the coronavirus]. The trend in countries shows it explodes after a few benign weeks,” warned Modi, lest Indians be lulled into complacency by the reports of four deaths and 180 cases thus far, and come to think that India’s 1.37 billion people are somehow immune to the lurking danger.

Quietly preparing for siege

The Indian state itself has slowly switched to a “lockdown” footing, though the government has desisted from a formal announcement, figuring it would only further the panic and not the cause.

Starting March 22, international flights will not be allowed to land for a week. Railways are cancelling trains by the hundreds. States are shutting down public transport. Formal curfews are being imposed in India’s busy hinterland cities. Shops have been forcibly shut down, except for essential services such as groceries and chemists – as has been the case in Jammu, a city in the Himalayan foothills.

India’s secondary education exams, a touchstone for millions of teenagers aspiring to a quality higher education, have been postponed. Universities have been asked to shutter till the end of March. A government advisory has asked persons above 65 and children below 10 to stay at home. There is no telling when an evening out in shopping malls, now closed, will be in the realm of possibility again.

India’s health ministry has been converted into a virtual war-room. Screenings are no longer limited to the airports alone. Random tests are being administered to citizens, albeit on a very small sample still. Approved laboratories are training new ones. Quarantine beds and virus kits are being built up, while the export of drugs has been halted.

India’s Supreme Court confirmed that the men who gang-raped a 23-year-old paramedic in 2012 will be hanged. The brutal incident shocked the nation, sparking protests and changes in laws regarding sex crimes.
“There is no material to review our order,” the judges said on Monday as they upheld the death penalty verdict for the three men involved in the shocking rape case, local media reports.

All three men were earlier sentenced to death by hanging but launched a lengthy process to review the verdict, claiming that is was “cold-blooded killing in the name of justice.” The fourth man who is also sentenced to hanging chose not to appeal the ruling.

The crime also involved two other perpetrators. One of them committed suicide in custody, while another, who was underage at the time, was sent to juvenile home and released after serving a three-year term.

The 23-year-old female paramedic intern was gang-raped and viciously beaten by a group of men on a moving bus in South Delhi in 2012. The victim, who became known in the media as ‘Nirbhaya’ (‘The Fearless’), died of severe injuries.

A male friend who boarded the bus with her that night was also beaten by the assailants, and knocked unconscious.

The brutality of the crime sent shockwaves across India, sparking massive protests in many areas. The public outcry led the government to change criminal law with regards to sexual assault. The legal definition of rape was broadened, while other crimes, such as acid attacks, sexual harassment, voyeurism and stalking were added to the criminal code.

In April, India introduced death penalty for the rape of minors.