Pune: Exactly a year back, a 14-hour-long ‘Janata Curfew’ was imposed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi requested people to stay indoors from 7 am to 9 pm to break the chain of spread of COVID-19 The novel coronavirus had already claimed four lives in India and infected at least 169. Remember this speech?
It’s been one year and the COVID-19 outbreak is far, far from over. While the world still battles the novel virus, India has its grim milestone of a year in the fight with coronavirus: Janata Curfew. On 22 March last year, Janata Curfew was enforced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to stay indoors from 7 am to 9 pm. PM Modi also had requested people to bang pots and pans with their ‘taali bajao’ to honour India’s essential workers as a show of gratitude. The Janata Curfew was successful in India as the streets wore deserted look and the people remained indoors. Two days after the Janata Curfew, a nationwide lockdown of 21 days was announced.
Today, as India remains in the grips of the contagion reporting the possible second wave in some states, people are taking to Twitter to recall the bitter memories of the day when 'the new normal' was brought in. While some on social media sites look back to the day unhappily, others are in the mood of creating funny memes and jokes. Check some of them below:
Fast forward to March 2021, India has still not returned to normalcy and several states are witnessing a fresh wave of COVID-19 cases with assumptions of another lockdown on its way. In the recent scene, one can say that the COVID-19 has made a comeback on anniversary of Janata Curfew.
The cases have been rising at an alarming rate prompting states such as, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka to reinforce strict COVID-19 measures.
Amid the increasing COVID-19 cases in the country, several states and Union territories have enforced restrictions to curtail the spread of the infection. These limits range from stricter implementation of COVID-19 guideline, night curfew or full lockdown.
