The prime minister announced an address to the nation today at 10 a m, and the Twitter jokes were instantly in full flow. One wag has him ordering the nation to curse China from their balconies at 5 p m, another suggests Amit Shah will ask people to display their documents from their balconies, a reference to the now forgotten National Population Register exercise. But the serious consequences of the lockdown and its discontents remains the focus of our opinion writers today. Kanika Datta sums up the views.
The government has been decisive on the public health front, but it has been dithering on the economic response needed to fight the pandemic. Aakash Prakash explains why economic policy-making needs a similar display of boldness. Read it here
Mahesh Vyas crunches the jobs data to show why for vulnerable sections of society this is not a lockdown but a knockout. Read it here
Migrant workers have been the hardest hit by the lockdown and their plight urgently highlights the need to end divisions between permanent, casual and contract workers, the top edit argues. Read it here
The prime minister is expected to explain the contours of the lockdown for the next fortnight. The template prepared by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade would be a useful starting point, the lead edit suggests. Read it here
Shreekant Sambrani assesses Narendra Modi’s approach to leadership during the Covid-19 lockdown. “Even as everything is prime-minister-centric, he mostly mentions himself in the third person,” he writes. Read it here
QUOTE OF THE DAY
‘I just don’t think this is the moment for U2 to be doing a sort of Kumbaya thing. It just doesn’t feel right for me – it feels like a time for action rather than words,’
U2 singer Bono on his outreach programme to help Ireland fight Covid-19
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