Off the record: 31 May

A new kind of war

While recently J&K police chief Dilbagh Singh accused Pakistan of sending Covid-19 infected militants into the Valley, there were suggestions from a few on social media that the army should now fortify the Line of Control (LoC) with Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) mines. While responding to police chief’s claims, the netizens, in lighter vein, suggested that not only HCQ mines should be laid along the LoC, sandbags in the bunkers should be replaced with HCQ bags and HCQ darts should be fired instead of machine-gun fire and mortar shells at infiltrators. There was also a suggestion of setting up quarantine bunkers for the infiltrators on the LoC, if they are caught alive. While wars are nothing new in human history, Covid-19 wars will be different.

Zulfikar Majid, Srinagar

Praiseworthy act

A video showing some passengers in a Mizoram-bound Shramik special train giving away food items to flood-affected people taking shelter on a railway track somewhere in Assam is earning a lot of praise. These people were stranded in Bengaluru during the lockdown and had faced a lot of hardships before the Centre decided to start special trains to help them get back to their homes. That the passengers showed so much of concern for the flood-affected people despite their suffering was inspiring. Even the Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad K Sangma appreciated the gesture. On Saturday, another video was seen in social media where some people in Begusarai in Bihar were seen offering food items to passengers in another Mizoram-bound train. Zoramthanga.

Sumir Karmakar, Guwahati

Pragya’s tale

Nearly a decade after she was released on bail by an NIA court, the Malegaon bomb blast accused and Bhopal MP Pragya Singh Thakur still wants the world to believe that she bears the trauma of alleged torture she underwent during custody of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, Maharashtra. Ten people were killed and 80 injured in the blasts in Malegaon, Maharashtra in September 2008. On Saturday, she released a video message saying visibility in one of her eyes was absent and the second had 25% vision. She said there was swelling and pus in parts of her brain. The injuries to her eyes were caused by torture. The controversial Lok Sabha member is undergoing treatment in the AIIMs, New Delhi. She disclosed her condition a day after posters appeared in parts of Bhopal to the effect that the MP is missing in her constituency at the time of unprecedented crisis.

Rakesh Dixit, Bhopal

Another slugfest

The plight of the migrant workers during Covid-19 has generated much political heat. Pushed on the backfoot, BJP is now busy trading punches with the Congress on the issue. Delhi BJP leaders shared separate photographs of Rahul Gandhi’s interaction with migrant workers and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra speaking to a group of party workers. They claimed that the same lady figured in both the photographs, once as a migrant worker and in the other as a party worker. Congress hit back at the BJP asking it not to insult the migrants even if they cannot help them.

Sagar Kulkarni, New Delhi

Winding routes

Since more than 90% of total 3890 Shramik Special trains operational from May 1 were travelling to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the railways diverted some trains to avoid route congestion. Around 70 trains were diverted to different routes, and 35 of these went through Odisha. This led to an increase in the duration of the journey by 10 to 16 hours. According to the railways, they diverted the trains as per a suggestion from a computer-system. The railways defended an Uttar Pradesh bound Shramik special train from Vasai Road in Maharashtra landing in Rourkela in Odisha, but a top official is now studying whether the computer based-system guided the trains properly or not.

Ajith Athrady, New Delhi