The President of one of India’s highly-regarded think tanks, the Centre for Policy Research, has said that the manner in which the central govt has responded to the plight of tens or hundreds of millions of daily wage workers and unemployed unorganised sector workers has placed India’s democracy in danger. Yamini Aiyar says she is seriously worried.

In a 25 mt interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Aiyar said: “a democracy that treats its citizens with callousness and a complete lack of compassion, cannot survive, regardless of the consequences of the epidemic.” When specifically asked if she was saying the allegedly callous manner in which the Modi govt has responded to the plight of India’s tens of millions of poor and vulnerable during the lockdown was placing India’s democracy in danger she said “yes”.

In the interview to The Wire, Aiyar spelled out the steps the govt needs to urgently take to help the poor and vulnerable. The top 3 are: immediate universalisation of PDS ration distribution, an immediate cash payment which, depending on the states concerned, might have to involve the physical handing over of money as is happening in parts of Orissa and arrangements to transport migrants stuck in shelters or state borders to their homes.