Thread: Contrast btw PMO India speech& CMO Kerala. Caution: had tweeted many of these previously. Kerala CM may not be high on dramatic appeal (Lakshmanrekha kinda stuff), but the state-wide lockdown on 23 March was announced with granular clarity, inclu on how to get food etc
On food& other must-have services, he said: Hotels can only home deliver. Grocery shops, vegetable-meat-egg-milk vendors, petrol pumps, LPG, govt offices (50% staff), water-power-telecom offices, banks, pharmacies will be open. Except pharmacies, they all open only from 7 am-5pm.
Also said in his 23 March press meet: State borders will be shut. People from other states will be mandatorily put in 14 days of observation. Intra-dist public transport will be shut. Pvt vehicles will run, but only essential travel. Commercial vehicles exempted
Ofc, things didn't go as planned. Today, people came out on the streets needlessly, many still panic-buying, vendors trying for profiteering etc. So today, CM met with dist admins, officials, and deployed police on the streets, warned of hefty fine to even confounding passports.
He addressed it in today's press meet, said: All pvt vehicles will be stopped, unless they are in an emergency. Taxi& autos can only ply for essential services. In pvt vehicles, apart from driver only a senior citizen can travel.
He came down heavily against hoarding and profiteering too. "If you think of exploiting the situation for profit, you will regret. The state will come after you without any forbearance."
On some things, I liked how granular he went: For instance, he said today that people who don't have sufficient resources at homes, like having a seperate room with attached bathroom etc, should shift themselves to hospital isolation.
Also, in each press meet, he keeps nudging our attention to the underprivileged. Today, for instance, he said the state will ask ward members& volunteers to provide food& medicine for daily wage labourers, senior citizens, differently-abled and destitute persons in each village.
This is not a PV paean or Modi bashing, but how politicians speak to the public. Or not speak, if you ask me. Both Pinarayi and Modi may not have given all the info they have and they shouldn't. But we deserve the utmost clarity from those who rule us in times like these.
