Honnasiri's Catch

The COVID-19 crisis in India has unleashed the mass movement of poor migrant labourers (the key word here) that has people rightly up in arms.  Whether you blame the government or not, it is something that cannot be right and needs to be righted. In response, some people have used the twitter hash tag #metoomigrant to say that they, too, are by definition migrants i.e. they migrated from their hometown to another place to make it, just like these people. When the migrant labourers came from nothing to nothing to (relatively) bargain for a little something, the #metoomigrants came from something to something else usually bargaining for a lot more (else they wouldn't even come).   We are all migrants because we all come from somewhere. Even if it wasn't us who made the arduous journey, we are here in our privilege because someone else did. That is why we sit pretty with that privilege today. As long as your ancestor many generations ago didn't move a micro inch from where t...

For those with the simplistic understanding of Government, there are only two ways that responses can swing to the many cases of police beating that has/has been happening in India under lockdown: I don't know what to do but this is ridiculous or the police know what they're doing so the person must have done something wrong. For those with more nuanced understanding, it will be: The police have a stressful job handling the lockdown, a part of which is a small percentage of error or this is wrong and the result of the lack of sensitisation. For those with a heart, it will be: this is wrong and this must stop.  Ever since India has been under lockdown till April 13th, the police have been given unusual superpowers to maintain law and order. This, itself, isn't unusual. What is, though, is the eagerness they are ready to use the stick with, when people are moving about within rules of curfew and when they aren't. All states have allowed shops selling essentials to...