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SC to hear plea on migrant workers during lockdown; Air India to open booking for flights to US, Canada; Tata Sons board meeting to review business plans; World Environment Day; Lunar eclipse

The lockdown first put in place on March 25 was aimed at flattening the Covid-19 curve, but it ended up flattening a very different curve — the growth (GDP) curve — Rajiv Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj Auto and one of the most influential voices of India Inc, said on Thursday in his conversation with Congress’ Rahul Gandhi. The GDP growth in the January-March quarter of 2019-20 hit a 11-year low though it overlapped with just one week of the lockdown. Some excerpts:

• "There were various forms of lockdown that we could have opted for. We chose a hard lockdown that was porous. On one hand a porous lockdown makes sure that the virus will still exist and it is still waiting to hit you when you will unlock. So you have not solved that problem.”
• “But you have definitely decimated the economy. You flattened the wrong curve. It is not the infection curve, it is the GDP curve. This is what we have ended (up) with, the worst of both worlds”.
• “Unfortunately, India not only looked west, it went to the wild west. I think we stayed more towards the impervious side.”
• “We have fallen very short of disclosing facts, logic and the truth (about Covid-19) and this has then got amplified and created such an enormous fear in people that people seem to think that contagion is equal to contagious cancer or something and now to change the mind of the people to start "living with the virus" … will take a long time”

(Check the latest data here)

Meanwhile, another equally influential industrialist and billionaire Gautam Adani praised the Centre saying: “had the decisions that got made been delayed we could have been facing an unmitigated disaster that would not just impact India but have global ramifications”. The statement was part of the Adani Enterprises’ annual report released on Wednesday. His company, however, has expressed its inability to take over three airports it won after aggressive bidding last year citing uncertainty in the aviation sector due to the coronavirus pandemic, dealing a blow to the government’s privatisation plan.

Samosa diplomacy: India and Australia elevated their ties to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’, and signed nine agreements, including a pact on access to each other’s military bases for logistical support, called the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), after a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Aussie counterpart Scott Morrison. Morrison and Modi had set the tone for the virtual summit by sharing thoughts on samosas a few days ago.

• The new pact lays the groundwork for ships and aircraft to refuel and access each other’s maintenance facilities. The two nations also upgraded their so-called 2+2 dialogue (foreign and defence) to ministerial-level.
• A joint statement said, “India and Australia share a vision of a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region to support the freedom of navigation, over-flight and peaceful and cooperative use of the seas by adherence of all nations to international law.”
• “India-Australia relations have deepened. And this depth comes from our shared values, shared interests, shared geography and shared objectives,” Modi said. “How our relations become a ‘factor of stability’ for our region and for the world, how we work together for global good, all these aspects need to be considered.”

Why it matters:

• India and Australia are members of the US-led Quad group of nations that is seen as a hedge against China in the Asia-Pacific region. The two already conduct bilateral defence exercise; last year, Australia sent its largest defence task force for the AUSINDEX exercise. There has been speculations that Australia could be part of the Malabar naval exercise, which includes India and the US, and since 2015, Japan. India's external affairs secretary (East) Vijay Thakur Singh, however, said there was no discussion on “any specific naval exercise”.
• The MLSA pact comes after India had signed a military logistics agreement with the US in 2016, and later in 2018, another on interoperability of military communication devices, called COMCASA. The military and security establishments of the US and Australia are already deeply integrated; and the US is the guarantor of the national security of Japan.
• India and Australia also share common concerns on China. Modi’s reference to “stability for our region” should be seen in this regard. India has flagged the increasing presence of Chinese ships in the Indian Ocean (the “string of pearls” strategy), while Australia, despite its close economic relationship with China, has been critical of China's naval expansion; last month an Australian frigate joined three US naval ships in a show of force in the South China Sea.

In Beijing: As is the norm, China tightened the security in and around the Tiananmen Square, Beijing, on Thursday, on the anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on the student-led protests that killed thousands. Police and armoured vehicles stood guard on the square. Few pedestrians lined up at security checkpoints where they must show IDs to be allowed through as part of mass surveillance nationwide to prevent any commemoration of the event, reports Associated Press. Many dissidents were placed under house arrest and their communications cut off, according to rights groups .

• About the protest: In 1989, thousands of students began assembling at the Tiananmen Square demanding greater political freedom. By some accounts as many as a million joined in a few days. On the night of June 3 and 4, the Chinese military moved in and opened fire. The actual number of casualties of the crackdown is not known, but a British diplomatic cable in 2017 estimated as many as 10,000 could have died.

In Hong Kong...

• The lack of political freedom in China has meant the anniversary is commemorated by activists in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This time, Hong Kongers also face the prospect of China finally curtailing on the freedoms that mark the city-state apart from the mainland. A reminder of an uncertain future: The Hong Kong legislature on Thursday passed a controversial bill criminalising insult of the Chinese national anthem by a comfortable majority. China’s assembly had last week moved a proposal to introduce a national security law in Hong Kong.
• On Thursday, thousands of students defied police curfew to hold a candlelight vigil at Victoria Park, the Hong Kong Free Press reports. Students also cleaned the eight-metre tall Pillar of Shame statue, a tribute to the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown installed at the University of Hong Kong.

Quoted: The US Department of State, in a statement, called for “full, public accounting of those killed or missing”. “The American people stand with the families still grieving their lost loved ones, including the courageous Tiananmen Mothers who have never stopped seeking accountability for their children’s deaths, despite great personal hardship and risk,” it added.

Tablighi Jamaat. The government has blacklisted around 2,300 foreign members of the group and barred their re-entry into India for 10 years over their participation in the outfit’s religious activities in the country flouting their ‘tourist‘ visa norms. The Jamaat’s meeting in Delhi had led to a massive spread in Covid among its members and their families. The highest number of those blacklisted are from Indonesia, followed by Bangladesh and Malaysia.