In a sharp attack on India’s response to COVID-19 pandemic, Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was making the ‘same mistake of demonetisation’ albeit at a much larger scale by imposing an ill-planned 21-day lockdown. Writing an open letter to Mr. Modi, Mr. Haasan compared the adverse effects of the current lockdown to that of demonetisation in terms of its impact on the poor. “My biggest fear is that the same mistake of demonetisation is being repeated albeit at a much bigger scale. Mr. Haasan slammed Mr. Modi for ‘ordering an entire nation of 1.4 billion people to shutdown within 4 hours, despite having four months’ notice as India’s first case was reported on January 30. “It seems you are comfortable outsourcing responsible behaviour to the common people and transparency to the State governments,” said Mr. Haasan.

Source: The Hindu April 06, 2020 21:32 UTC