Do not make it any harder for people

While lockdown guidelines must be enforced in the larger interest of society to check the spread of coronavirus, such enforcement cannot be totally devoid of empathy. After all, while those in authority may have declared the lockdown, it is the common man who has to live it and suffer its inconveniences and consequences. And this lockdown is not for one day or two, it’s for 21 long days at a stretch. The police should be showing that its empathy and sympathy lies with the citizens in this time. There may be someone stepping out of home here and there for reasons other than buying essentials, but that does not mean that anyone who steps out is out to violate the lockdown. In that respect, Bengaluru Police Commissoner Bhaskar Rao’s decree that people should go walking to buy groceries and not by vehicle is unsound. The commissioner also goes on to say, “This is not the time for grocery shopping”. To a Twitter user who said that there were no departmental stores near his house and he needed to travel three kilometres to buy diapers for his kid, the commissioner replied, “If you are caught, your vehicle is liable to be seized.” Indeed, the police say they have seized some 6,500 vehicles in such actions during the lockdown. This is uncalled for.

People normally stock up provisions at the start of the month. The weight of rice and other commodities they buy could easily exceed 20 kilos. Does the police chief expect people to carry that weight walking, rather than transport it by vehicle? Will not such a diktat cause people to visit the market more frequently and thus defeat the very purpose of the lockdown? What should women and senior citizens who need to shop for themselves do? While Chief Minister Yediyurappa has consistently maintained that people will have no difficulty in buying essentials, the police chief’s utterances are often at complete variance. If this is not the time to buy groceries, why are grocery stores and vegetable vends open in the first place? Why is the government working hard to restore the supply chain if not to ensure that neither farmers nor consumers suffer?

To be sure, thanks to Rao’s own guidelines to his men, the police have come a long way from the initial display of brutality against those who stepped out to now going beyond the call of duty with initiatives like feeding the poor and transporting those requiring urgent medical care to hospitals in police vehicles. But these commendable acts will tend to be overlooked if the general attitude of the police is seen to be one that increases the difficulties being faced by the people in an already difficult time.