Waking up late

Ever since the COVID-19 outbreak began, the Bihar government has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. First, it said it would not allow migrant workers stranded elsewhere to return home lest they would bring infection with them. Then, it said that since the students stuck in coaching centres in Rajasthan’s Kota were from affluent classes they should stay there until the lockdown was over. This prompted many to see Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is known as “Sushasan babu” (good governance man), as an insensitive politician in the hour of crisis.

Ever since the lockdown began, thousands of migrant labourers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal have been taking to the streets