AA Edit: Flights home: More optics, less mitigation

About 50 days after it banned air traffic from abroad, and amid desperate cries from Indians trapped overseas due to the lockdown measures the world has taken to contain the spread of pandemic Sars-CoV-2, India will soon open its skies to bring a limited number of its citizens back home.

Christened Vande Bharat Mission, the operation will engage national carrier Air India and naval ships to pick people from 12 countries including the United States, Britain, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Gulf Cooperation Council nations.

As per the “standard operating protocol for movement of Indian nationals stranded outside the country”,  issued by the ministry of home affairs, the facility is open to Indians who had travelled abroad before lockdown on various purposes such as employment, studies, internships, tourism and business.

Indians who need to visit India due to medical emergencies or the death of a family member are also allowed to come back. Migrant workers or labourers who have been laid off, short-term visa-holders faced with the expiry of visa, pregnant women and elderly will be given priority.

The ministry of external affairs will conduct thermal test of all passengers at the airport and only those who are found to be asymptomatic will be allowed to board the aircraft/ship.

They will undergo a mandatory quarantine for 14 days, the cost of which, as well as that of the travel, will be borne by the passengers themselves.

The government move, though too late, is welcome as it brings hope to lakhs of people who have registered with the government for their homeward journey.

Their desperation, especially those in the Gulf Cooperation Council nations, knew no boundaries as most countries had already taken their nationals home much before India started its process.

The increasing spread of Covid-19 and the stress on the medical infrastructure in those countries added to their worries. The government sat over the proposals moved by state governments, including Kerala which got more than one lakh rooms for quarantine ready, for long before launching a concerted action.

And it is not only too late, it is also too little. As the government itself notes, the mission is meant for people in distress, and obviously in need of a helping hand.

But the Union government seems to be in no mood to extend one; in fact it looks like it is seeing it as an opportunity to mitigate the woes of the ailing Air India. A similar uncaring attitude was shown when the government decided to run Shramik special trains to take stranded migrant workers home.

They were charged '50 extra per ticket on the plea that one third of the seats will remain empty to meet the physical distancing norms. What the right-thinking Indian would ask the government is this, what are its plans to spend the money it has collected though the dedicated PM-Cares fund if not for purposes such as these?

And it is for the government to come up with a convincing answer for them, that it’s a government that cares, followed by action on the ground.