It’s been obvious for weeks now that a Wuhan-style shutdown was inevitable in the world’s second-biggest country.

Despite having time to plan, government officials are putting India& #39;s urban poor in harms way https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-04-01/india-s-government-should-have-expected-coronavirus-migration">https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...

While many nations see echoes of the 1918 influenza epidemic, India is being reminded of a more modern tragedy.

Hundreds of thousands of poor workers are fleeing cities for their home villages in a mass migration reminiscent of the 1947 Partition https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-04-01/india-s-grim-coronavirus-exodus-has-some-ugly-echoes">https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...

The images that began flooding out of India after Modi declared a lockdown are heart-wrenching:

Feet worn bloody by walking hundreds of miles in brutal heat
Crowds clinging to the roofs of overcrowded buses
Migrants cowering under the batons of police https://trib.al/kGVAcS2 ">https://trib.al/kGVAcS2&q...

India’s dysfunctional state machinery is particularly dangerous now, when the lockdown’s success as a public health measure depends upon public cooperation and trust in the government https://trib.al/uFh5ysb ">https://trib.al/uFh5ysb&q...

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇮🇳" title="Flag of India" aria-label="Emoji: Flag of India"> Police beating up grocery shoppers and deliverymen
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇮🇳" title="Flag of India" aria-label="Emoji: Flag of India"> Exhausted 90-year-old ladies walking 400 km
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇮🇳" title="Flag of India" aria-label="Emoji: Flag of India"> Migrants being hosed down by a chlorine solution

These are the scenes that are playing out during India& #39;s lockdown https://trib.al/uFh5ysb ">https://trib.al/uFh5ysb&q...

India’s mix of authoritarian instincts combined with democratic liberties is toxic—and is particularly ill-suited to fighting a pandemic or minimizing human suffering.

At least 22 people have reportedly died in the mass migration to the countryside https://trib.al/uFh5ysb ">https://trib.al/uFh5ysb&q...

The point of India’s lockdown was to prevent transmission of the coronavirus.

But, if anything, the herds of people heading to the countryside means the virus will find its way to the poorer rural parts of India where it could do the most damage https://trib.al/uFh5ysb ">https://trib.al/uFh5ysb&q...