Nature may be rejoicing in the silence brought about by reduced human activity, but, in India, media resound with a cacophony which is often aimed at obscuring facts. Did the Centre, or did it not, expect migrant labourers to pay for their tickets for their journey home? A railway circular indicated that the states from which the train originates was to hand out the tickets to the workers and collect the fare for the railways. Some workers have certainly paid. Upon being criticized by Opposition parties the Centre first said that this would ensure that only those who needed to travel would take the train. Apart from the distrust of and disrespect towards helpless people that this suggests, what is remarkable is the inequality built into the Centre’s attitude. People travelling abroad — not migrant workers — can be flown back free so that the world can observe the Indian government’s efficiency when a pandemic threatens. To the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government, display is the key to winning hearts and votes; what happens behind it is unimportant. While migrant workers were asked for tickets, military helicopters flew over cities and hospitals showering flowers to laud the ‘corona warriors’, and ships were lit up in support. The willingness of the chief of defence staff and the service chiefs to comply with these meaningless ceremonies of the government would have made the legendary Sam Manekshaw feel that his warning that pertained to the military’s compliance with a government’s whims has been forgotten.

Flowers do not pay for tickets although, through the overlapping voices of denial, the railways and the Centre have variously said that it did not matter who paid, whether the originating state, the workers themselves, or the destination state, or someone else. Which also meant that the states, without any help from the Centre — not even their share of the goods and services tax — and scrambling to deal with the pandemic, would also have to ensure their workers’ safe return, while no one can ask how the money being collected in the name of the crisis by the Centre is being used. Flowers do not buy food for the starving or safety equipment for the corona warriors being greeted either. But display is all; the hard work is for the less fortunate.