By M L Satyan

Bengaluru, March 25, 2020: Many people in Bengaluru got a shock on March 24 when the headline in the daily newspaper read: “In Karnataka curfew extended till the midnight of 31st March.” The state government had made no prior announcement about this.

The news also said that all essential items like grocery, milk, vegetables, fruits, medicines and other essential commodities will be available for the people. This news eased my tension.

However, when I ventured out for milk and bread I could find only the milk vendor in my residential area. Every provision store and bakery in my area was closed. So I went on my bike to places such as Benson Town, Cox Town and Fraser Town, but found no super market or grocery store open. The petrol bunk was open and I filled some petrol.

I took Mosque Road to return home. There I found “MORE” super market doing business with the shutter half down.

I parked my bike and joined a queue of some 20 people to get inside the super market. The security person instructed all to keep 1-meter distance between each other. He permitted only four persons inside at a time. He applied a few drops of sanitizer on the hands of those in the queue.

A middle-aged coupe was in front of me. As they stood close to each other, the security asked them to stand apart. But they said, “We are husband and wife.” The security said, “You may be close at home but here you are the customers. Please maintain the distance.” They obliged with a lot of hesitance.

When my turn came I went inside, picked up the bread and found another long queue at the cash counters. Meanwhile, the security asked the people to hurry up. “The police may come at any time and make us shut down the shop!” The message meant that even the police did not permit the shops to be open. In short, I had to spend 1 hour and 30 minutes to buy one loaf of bread.

Many supermarkets, medical stores and milk booths are advised to make the customers keep a distance from one another while on queue. All this is done by politicians’ instructions. But the politicians do exactly the opposite. In spite of the outbreak and spread of Coronavirus, the Parliament Sessions were on until recently and the Assembly in Tamil Nadu was on until March 24.

Did they maintain a safe distance from one another? Never! When Shivraj Singh Chouhan took over as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh all the BJP MLAs were seen holding each other’s raised hands. These politicians preach but never practice.

On my way back from the MORE super market, I found a fruit shop half open. I bought a kilo of banana. I asked the shopkeeper whether there was any problem. He said, “Sir, if the police comes I have to close down the shop.” Who gave the police the authority to close shops of grocery and fruit and supermarkets?

When I was at the petrol bunk I was surprised to hear the news on FM Radio announcing, “Today all hotels and grocery stores will be open. Please do not panic! No panic buying! Be calm!” At the ground level, I could not find small hotels and provision stores open all day. Who instructed the news reader to give such false news?

On the YouTube I watched several incidents of “police beating with their stick” those riding two-wheelers or were walking alone. Such incidents seemed to have happened in various parts of the country. On March 23 my friend called from Chennai to say that he saw police beating people even when they walking alone. Who gave the police the authority to “beat people”?

On March 24, I watched a TV interview of a family of husband, wife and three small children living on a footpath near a gurudwara in Delhi. They used to get their meals from the Sikh place of worship. But after the gurudwara was closed, they were forced to roam around to see if other gurudwaras conducted langar (community kitchen). The police chase away such homeless people and ask them to remain on the footpath.

On the Janta Curfew day (March 22) some volunteers in Puducherry went out to distribute food packets to footpath dwellers and beggars. They helped those people to clean their hands with sanitizer before serving food. The police came and chased them away. Who gave the authority to the police?

It was shocking to read about the Telangana chief minister telling the media people: “If people do not obey the government instruction and come out to the public areas I will not hesitate to give “Shoot at sight” order.”

Oh, God, where is the country heading?

All this has convinced me that the politicians and police are more dangerous than the Coronavirus. So beware of them.

(M L Satyan is a Bengaluru-based freelance journalist.)