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Lockdown defiance increasing in Kathmandu.
When this lockdown started, I had no idea that would go beyond two months. I left Kathmandu a day before the lockdown was going to start. I was not prepared for the number of Nepalese that would be swarming back from India, mostly with the virus. I had not anticipated that the quarantine would be run so badly that they would be the primary source of the spread. And here were are two and a half mother later with no sign of opening up the lockdown. Rightfully, the people, especially the businesses have started a call for defiance. After two months, stores in Kathmandu are opening. In my neighborhood too, I have seen other stores opening along with food and vegetables.
When the lockdown was placed on March 24, people expected that they would help the government control the spread of the virus. And that they did. It was a new experience for humanity all over to be confined within the walls of their homes. It was then that the news started pouring in about thousands of Nepalese returning from India as they were also locked down, so all the people losing their jobs, figured they would be safer being back home. They walked most of the time for hundreds of kilometers, night and day to get to Nepal’s borders, only to be told that they were barred from coming in. Did the government think that the border was a Berlin Wall?
Nepalese stranded at the Indian border.
That was the first mistake. Sooner or later they would have had to come inside, anyway. Sooner would have been better if there had been proper arrangements. But that was not to be. You see, the lockdown was imposed without any preparation. There were no external forces telling the government what to do, like other times in politics, or something like MCC, so the government had to rely on their own wit. But wit is something totally lacking in the government. After all, it is headed by someone alleged to have only education up to grade eight.
On the contrary, it became another great opportunity for corruption in the purchase of billions of medical equipment and supplies. It showed the true face of the government as if they had not made that amply clear already. But the alarming part was that they wanted to profit even from the pandemic and lives of Nepalese facing death. When all the stores were closed the one close to the government, Bharbhateni was allowed to open all day. Such stark favoritism during the worst crisis we are facing emphasized the impression in public that lockdown was just another way to control the population. That lent more credence when all the political hacks were moving around freely, even causing traffic congestion in the streets, while we all were strictly ordered to remain inside, being reminded by brutal police attacks if anyone dared venture outside even in emergency cases.
Kathmandu during lockdown
The purpose of lockdown has totally failed. Hence, it is natural for people to be fidgety after the lockdown extended beyond two months. If the government has understood the gravity of the situation and taken appropriate measures to do proper testing, quarantine and assured that people would be allowed to go home following a proper procedure, then there would not have been cases of thousands of people secretly finding their way home, or locked into quarantines with not the least of criteria met. They failed to anticipate the consequence of herding people like cattle and confining them in the name of quarantine.
Nepal's quarantine
The testing also failed. In the names of RDT (not reliable) and PCR, the impression was thrown that testing was being done, while they were faulty and unreliable. A wrong diagnosis definitely meant that infected people would be allowed to mix with their family and others. In an absurd example, police in Nagdhunga were spraying people with chemical disinfectants. That alone should tell us the intelligence of those in power, and those handling this serious threat that even the smartest among the smart, the Swedes blew it.
A mother and her child being sprayed disinfectants.
So the myriad aspects of the pandemic, taken together, ensured that Nepal would not handle the virus properly and that it would escalate given a few months of the inappropriate policy. While casualty from the pandemic has been shown to be low still, the real killer has been other factors caused by the lockdown. Suicide alone has caused hundreds of deaths, and the figure for hunger-related deaths are not even collected. In a poverty-stricken country like Nepal, they are bound to be high.
Since the government has botched in all aspects of the lockdown and the virus has now reached 71 districts, what good reason is there to keep the lockdown? Gorkhali bravado has been rather to die fighting rather than surrender like cowards. So, defying this unjust confinement is the right thing to do.
USE Discount code: JUNE714(all this week)
