MIXED UP PRIORITIES

Frankly, I am not just baffled but completely perplexed by the Government’s decision to grant the police permission to arrest of activists and students in connection with the anticitizenship Amendment Act (CAA) movement at a time when the country is battling the COVID-19 pandemic. Women activists in Delhi are being arrested under the draconian

UAPA. In addition to this, scores of students are being called for interrogation by the Special Branch and intimidated.

When the entire world is experiencing fear and uncertainty, the Government’s priority must be to single-mindedly focus in effectively dealing with this pandemic and the problems that have spawned from it, like the lakhs of starving migrant workers trudging back home. With a highly infectious disease, the government should have released prisoners, instead of arresting more. It is also shocking to note that certain communities are being targeted while the perpetrators of communally-charged violence are moving around scot-free.

It is equally shocking to hear that even pregnant women are not being spared arrests at this moment and are being held in prison cells despite a medical advisory that specifies them as being part of a group more susceptible to succumbing to the deadlier symptoms of the virus. One has to truly question what is the wisdom and rationale to such a decision when criminals with far more serious charges are being let out of prison worldwide to prevent prisons from becoming disease hotspots. The Government must rethink this pointless act of tyranny. it stands to risk any goodwill effective lockdown measures may have earned it while also amplifying resentment accrued for the various bloopers. This is not even taking into account as to how this wastes the time of public servants who have important duties elsewhere in the pandemic and endangering their lives alongside the lives of those they are directed to apprehend. Alas, we did not learn any lesson from the COVID-19 experience. Still, one hopes that good sense may prevail.

..... N KALAM, MAHARASHTRA via email