Humble Migrant Workers Teach Haughty Rulers Lessons in Lockdown Morality

Raman Swamy

Migrant daily wagers have forced mighty Ministers to do a u-turn on the “stay-at-home” directive.  It is like a humble mouse forcing the mighty lion to change the law of the jungle. 

Migrant workers are on the bottom rung of the economic ladder.  They work for a pittance far from home.  They were therefore unable to obey the Prime Minister’s “stay-at-home” directive – for the simple reason that they were hundreds of miles away from their homes when Lockdown was clamped on the country.  

It was not humanly possible to return to their homes within the four-hour deadline that the Prime Minister had laid down.  Nor could they comply with the Prime Minister’s alternative instructions -  “stay wherever you are for the next 21 days”.   Firstly, they had nowhere to stay.  Secondly, the lockdown had snatched away their wages. 

With no money, no food, no shelter, it made more sense to return to their native village in their home State.  But there were no trains and buses.  If they wanted to go home, they would have to walk. 

So they walked.  They began the long trek back home - with the kind of grit and determination that comes when there is no other way. 

But when the unwashed masses display grit and determination, rulers panic.  The powers that be view it as a threat, an act of insubordination and disloyalty to the supreme leader.  Nobody was supposed to cross the Lakhshman Rekha drawn by the Prime Minister.   Nobody was supposed to come out of their front door for 21 days.  Anybody who did so was violating the new Lockdown Law laid down by the Prime Minister in his 8 pm Address on national TV. 

The police swung into action.  They swung their lathis.  They decided to punish the penniless migrant workers by making them hop on the highway like frogs and rabbits.  The electronic media showed video pictures of the poor workers performing pathetic frog-hopping acts.  Humiliation was being taken to new heights - or depths.  

But the lapdog media loved it.  TV anchors praised the policemen for punishing the “Virus Villains”.  Some panellists even clapped in appreciation – those who disobey the Prime Minister should be severely punished, they said. 

But not everybody in civil society is utterly heartless.  Many Opposition political parties mustered up the courage to condemn the shameful treatment of the poor migrants.  Why are they being harassed, humiliated and hounded like criminals, they asked.   They are just trying to get back home – is that a crime?  Why can’t the government provide buses and run special trains?  When aero-planes are sent to foreign countries to bring back Indian citizens stranded in faraway lands, why can’t ordinary buses and trains be arranged so that stranded daily wagers can get back home? 

The lion was furious.  All its loyal chief Ministers roared loudly to prove their loyalty.  Migrant workers have no right to violate the law, they said.  We will not hestitate to issue shoot-at-sight orders to punish them.   Social distancing is the new mantra. It is now the official Covid Policy.   Police chiefs, equally eager to also display their loyalty, made categorical statements -  “if shoot-at-sight orders are given, we are fully prepared to implement”.

The migrant workers just kept marching.  They had no other alternative.   They were still 500, 800 or 1000 miles away from home.  They were tired, hungry and their slippers had worn out long ago.  There were some pregnant women who were walking too.  They had to keep going, one step at a time.  What else was there to do? 

Let the lions roar, let the jackals howl.  Let the corrupt cops at check-points demand bribes.  Let spiteful vigilante gangs along the highway threaten violence and snatch away whatever trinkets they possessed.  Never mind. 

No money, no jobs, no food, no shelter for the night.  So what?  At least they had a place to go – home.  Their home village.   

But something strange happened.   The humble migrant worker’s travails sparked off a powerful chain reaction of emotions among some sections of the people of the country.   Videos of the marching migrants evoked strong empathy.   Vivid descriptions of the atrocities inflicted on them by the authorities in news reports brought out the injustice of it all.   The king of the jungle issues a sudden forman ordering all 1.3 billion countrymen to go home within four hours and to stay indoors for 21 days.  A few lakh illiterate, hard-working people find themselves suddenly jobless and stranded.  It is not their fault.   They were taken by surprise.   But they are punished.  Made to hop like monkeys and frogs. Beaten with lathis.  Labelled as desh-drohis. 

There is an ancient saying that “Sometimes a people lose their right to remain silent when pressured to remain silent.”   Something of that sort seems to have taken place.   Public opinion swung in favour of the migrant workers on the way home. 

As Winston Churchill wrote in his book ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’:   “You see mighty rulers on their pedestals, surrounded by the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad (by the foreign press), thoughts stirring at home (among the common people) ……  A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

This is as good an explanation for the u-turn as any.  Chief Ministers are suddenly singing a different tune.  Buses are being arranged to carry the migrant daily wagers home.  Food and water are being provided.  Wherever that is not feasible, tarpaulins are being requisitioned, tents are being erected, beds and blankets
procured,  community kitchens set up.  Either way, there are no longer threats of issuing shoot-at-sight orders -  nor are homesick daily wage workers being called virus villains anymore. 

Ultimately, the humble mouse has taught the haughty lion a lesson in humanity.  And in common sense lockdown management. 

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Mar 30, 2020