Hindustan Times (Amritsar)

Covid-19: What you need to know today

- R Sukumar

Kerala gets a lot of good press for its response to Covid-19. I have a hypothesis on that, but it can wait — perhaps for another column, perhaps forever.

There’s no denying Kerala has done well, but so have Tamil Nadu, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. I pick these three states and not other states that have done well (Karnataka, Haryana and Odisha, for instance) for one reason — all had something that went against them.

Delhi and Tamil Nadu, in that order, suffered the most from the irresponsi­bility of the Tablighi Jamaat, which insisted on hosting a weeks-long gathering at its headquarte­rs in Delhi in March, a gathering that was attended by missionari­es from some Covid-19-affected countries. And UP is, well, UP, the U in the late Ashish Bose’s coinage BIMARU, to refer to India’s most underdevel­oped states in the 1980s, and also the most populous state in the country.

Delhi’s dashboard, on Wednesday night, showed 3,439 cases, 1,092 recoveries, and 56 deaths. The correspond­ing numbers for Tamil Nadu were 2,162, 1,210, and 27. And for UP – 2,134, 510, and 39. In terms of recoveries and deaths, all three states have done well. Kerala’s numbers on Wednesday (for an easy comparison) were 495 cases, 369 recoveries, and 3 deaths.

Sure, UP lags on the testing front — just around 360 per million population, according to the latest data — but Tamil Nadu (almost 1,500) and Delhi (almost 2,400) fare well on this count too. Tamil Nadu’s performanc­e isn’t a surprise — for decades now, the state’s social developmen­t indicators have been among the best in the country. Nor is Delhi’s — it is the national capital, after all, and administer­ed by a progressiv­e government. UP is a surprise, a pleasant one, which merits deeper study. Its social developmen­t indicators remain in the red, and it is vast, in terms of geography as well as population. Yet it has managed to keep its Covid-19 numbers under control.

Delhi’s performanc­e is at odds with how it has been treated by its neighbours. Both UP and Haryana are pushing for a hard border with the national capital, worried that people who live in UP and Haryana, and work in Delhi (there are many) or the other way round (there are perhaps as many) pose a risk. Local administra­tors, even ministers, have spoken of people who get infected in Delhi and carry it across the border.

Sure, these aren’t the only states to want hard borders with neighbours — in the past month, Karnataka has pushed for one with Kerala (the latter complained); Kerala then wanted one with Tamil Nadu (the latter complained); and Tamil Nadu wanted one with Andhra Pradesh (the latter complained). But Delhi’s situation is different.

It is different because Delhi is the epicentre of the National Capital Region which includes parts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The urban and economic developmen­t seen in parts of these states bordering Delhi is simply because of that — proximity to the capital city-state. Gurugram is a city in its own right, but it is unlikely to have become the base for the India HQs of a few hundred Fortune 500 companies were it located deeper inside Haryana, say, near Sonipat (which too is part of NCR). The same is true for Noida, which is yet to graduate from being a Delhi-satellite, though that too should happen in a few years.

There are other urban agglomerat­ions in India — the Mumbai Metropolit­an Region which includes several satellite towns in Maharashtr­a is one — and for years now, government­s have struggled with how to manage them. The latest episode involving Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh needs to be seen in that context. And, to the long list of personal, organisati­onal, and governance improvemen­ts we need to focus on when this is all over, we can add one more — a better way to manage urban agglomerat­ions across districts within the same state, and across several states.

 ?? JASJEET PLAHA / HT PHOTO ??
JASJEET PLAHA / HT PHOTO

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