In January, as it became clear that China was facing a new disease, the Chinese government convinced millions of citizens to stay home, hop...
In January, as it became clear that China was facing a new disease, the Chinese government convinced millions of citizens to stay home, hoping to break the human-to-human transmission strain for the coronavirus. This strategy was unprecedented in human history and the World Health Organisation has called it the most “aggressive disease containment effort in history”.
As India now tries to follow in China’s footsteps and institute a similar lockdown, New Delhi is also implementing drastic steps in order to try and contain the disease. One of them is the sealing of state borders.
This has never happened before in the seven-decade history of independent India.
As a federal union, India has a Centre-heavy structure that gives little power to states to regulate inter-state traffic or restrict the movement of Indians through them. In fact, the right to “move freely throughout the territory of India” is a part of the Indian Constitution.
Despite this, as the coronavirus cases rose in the country, states started sealing their borders attempting to implement a China-style lockdown. On March 16, the northeastern state of Sikkim sealed itself to other Indians. On March 20, Tamil Nadu also sealed its borders. When Prime Minister Modi announced a 21-day country-wide curfew starting March 24, this meant every...
