Punjab’s NRIs face ostracisation, suspicion; unable to return home due to exorbitant ticket prices

Administrative failure, mass hysteria and misinformation associated with the COVID-19 has reduced Punjab’s hitherto adored and eagerly awaited Non-Resident Indians to an ostracised community, regarded with suspicion by both their neighbours and the government. The NRIs have found themselves at the receiving end of condemnation on social media, where even the Punjab police and famous pop stars have shared songs framing them as irresponsible carriers of coronavirus. Amid this blame game, many are also stuck in the state, unable to return home. For those who reside in Canada, for instance, the cost of tickets for special flights has risen to four times the usual rate. Others are worried that even if they secure seats on a flight home, they will be stranded or quarantined during layovers.

In mid March, the Punjab government had admitted that more than ninety-thousand NRIs had returned to the state in March alone. The government later revised the figure to 55,000 persons, including both NRIs and international travellers. This has led to an air of uncertainty around the real figure of tourists who visited the affected countries and came back to Punjab. Having failed to take action early, the state machinery appears to have now gone into an overdrive. It has retrospectively quarantined even those NRIs who did not fit the criteria for being at risk—some, for instance, had been in India for several weeks, and have not shown any symptoms. To the NRIs, who have traditionally contributed towards the development of their home state, it appears that the government is making them scapegoats to give the impression that it is cracking down on COVID-19, and even their own communities appear to be resentful of them. Of the five who died from COVID-19 in Punjab, three had returned from abroad, but two did not have any foreign contact. The government’s ham-handed approach, some said, is discouraging those who have returned from abroad to come forward to get screened.

The exaggerated impression of NRIs as carriers of COVID-19 has been fuelled in large part by the Punjab police and its collaborations with famous Punjabi pop stars, and by the media. In late March, a musician named R Nait and Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, a well-known Punjabi singer residing in Canada who goes by the stage name Sidhu Moose Wala, released a song to the latter’s 3.2 million subscribers on YouTube. “Gwacheya Gurbaksh”—Missing Gurbaksh—spoke of a fictional character who moved to Italy for a job. Years later, Gurbaksh returns to Punjab, but having contracted the novel coronavirus. The song goes: “21 saal pehlan gharo se kaddeya, berozgaari ne fer maadi kismaton dab leya ethe dekh bimari ne. O es darr toun chadd ke aa gaya mulk parayya, main Gurbaksh gwacha, Italy toh aaya haan”—Twenty years ago, I left home because I was unemployed, but now I am in the grip of this disease. The fear of it made me leave this foreign land, I am the missing Gurbaksh, I came from Italy.

Instead of turning himself over to the authorities or staying in quarantine, Gurbaksh goes missing. Owing to his carelessness, Gurbaksh’s family, especially his young grandson, become infected by the virus. Sidhu dedicated the song to the Punjab Police. Dinkar Gupta, the director general of the Punjab police, shared the song on his Twitter feed.

Though the song was about “Gurbaksh,” Sidhu used photos of Baldev Singh, a 70-year-old resident of Nawanshahr who died on 18 March and was the first COVID-19 victim of Punjab. In the video for the song, Sidhu used screenshots of news reports and clippings about Baldev Singh, effectively characterising him as “Gurbaksh.” But in reality, Baldev’s case is significantly different. Baldev Singh resided in Punjab and was not an NRI. He had returned from a visit to Italy in early March. He then attended the Hola Mohalla, a religious congregation in Punjab, from 8 to 10 March. Baldev subsequently died of cardiac arrest and tested positive for COVID-19 after his death. So far, 24 people have contracted the virus from him, including 18 of his family members and residents of his village in Nawanshahr. Sections of the media condemned Baldev as irresponsible and immoral, some terming him a “super spreader.” Social-media posts began to appear, condemning Baldev and his family.

By equating the deceased Baldev Singh to “Gurbaksh,” Sidhu’s song crafted an image of a careless NRI who is putting the lives of Punjab’s residents at risk. The police too used this trope in its awareness campaigns. On 26 March, the DGP posted a tweet: “Gawaacha Gurbaksh di kahaani, Diljit Dosanjh di zubaani”—the story of the missing Gurbaksh, in the voice of Diljit Dosanjh. In an audio clip posted with the tweet, Dosanjh, a renowned singer and actor, recited the story of a Gurbaksh, who returns from Italy with symptoms of COVID-19, but goes missing. The clip, which had the Punjab police’s logo on it, directed anyone coming into contact with such a person to immediately quarantine him. Dosanjh’s manager, when contacted over the WhatsApp, replied, “The lines u r talking about were the guidelines shared by Our Punjab Police to be posted. Those lines were instructions given to us to be posted.”

Harpal Singh, the sarpanch of Pathlawa village, where Baldev Singh was from, condemned Sidhu’s song and its resulting impression. He rued the way certain sections of news and social media as well as the administration had depicted Baldev Singh, saying that it traumatised his family and friends. The sarpanch himself contracted the infection from Baldev, as did his mother. He is currently in an isolation ward at a civil hospital in Nawanshahr, which he is sharing with Baldev Singh’s three sons. Speaking over the phone, he said that the characterisation of Baldev as “Gurbaksh” relieved the state administration of all blame in failing to curb the spread of the disease. The media frenzy created by the case had allowed the administration to cordon off the village, even emptying the hospital. “There is a charitable hospital in the village with about seven or eight doctors,” the sarpanch said. “Such was the impression created by the media that the officials chased all of them away.” Baldev Singh, who tested positive only after his death due to cardiac arrest, “was never asked to quarantine himself,” the sarpanch added. “No one at the airport or at the hospitals told him to stay home.”

Baldev Singh’s family members, many of whom were now infected themselves, were pained by the media’s suggestion that they deliberately withheld the victim’s condition, Harpal Singh said. The family felt emotionally and mentally harassed. “Whatever is being projected about the victim, his family and our village in the media will haunt and mentally torture us for generations to come,” he said.

Sidhu’s song was “so insensitive that the villagers had to write a letter to the Chief Minister demanding that the song be removed from YouTube,” Harpal Singh said. The letter alleged that the singer and Gupta, the DGP, had defamed the victim and his family members, as well as the village. It went on to express apprehensions that the condemnation faced by Baldev Singh and those infected among his family and friends, coupled with the defamation of his village, would discourage others from stepping forward for screening. “Baldev Singh lost his life after a trip to Italy and I am sure, there must be hundreds of others like him. But I wonder, how many of them would come forward to share their condition post all the torture that we had to go through,” Harpal Singh said.  The letter went on to state that “in no other state has there been a government driven campaign to defame a COVID-19 victim like that in Punjab.” 

Aside from appearing to blame NRIs for the spread of COVID-19, the government of Punjab has further been quarantining NRIs at random. Taran Singh, of village Karnana, in the Nawanshahr tehsil of the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district, left the United States on 29 February and arrived in India on 1 March, along with his wife and two kids. “We self-quarantined ourselves after the cops came asking for our documents on 2 March,” he said. “Thereafter, nobody came until 25 March, when we were surprised to see a red home-quarantine sticker declaring that nine members in the house are under quarantine,” he added, referring to notices that the government has been putting at the entrance of homes where quarantined residents reside. “In any case, our justified and prescribed quarantine period is long over, but would now continue till 8 April.” Taran Singh’s uncle, Jasvir Singh, said he had experience the phobia associated with even the relatives of NRIs. “It is such that even when I clear my throat or brush my teeth, people start calling me, inquiring about my health. Who is even standing and eavesdropping on these sounds, I don’t know.”

“I am less scared of the coronavirus and more of the attitude of people, considering NRIs as the COVID suspects, no matter even if they are in the safe period post the quarantine,” Prabhjeet Singh said. He is a resident of Dherian village in Nakodar town, Jallandhar district—part of the state’s so-called NRI belt. “Officials came and posted the quarantine notice in front of my house on 31 March, asking me to stay quarantined till 14 April even though I showed them my documents proving that I reached here from Vancouver on 5 March,” he said. “They just keep pouring in and take selfies here, with or without me.”

Amid the lockdown, when air travel is largely banned, the Canadian government has arranged special flights to take foreign nationals back home. Between 4 April and 7 April, four flights will leave from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, in Delhi, and two more on 5 and 7 April from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai. But Prabhjeet, like many others, cannot take these flight owing to the retrospective quarantine. Further, many are stuck even though they have emerged from the quarantine without symptoms—the journey is inordinately expensive, and is subject to a complex series of terms and conditions.

Many of the NRIs are registered under Canada’s Registration of Canadians Abroad, or ROCA service—a service that allows the government to notify Canadian citizens during an emergency—and received information on the flights through it. “I was supposed to go back on 4 March but my flight was cancelled and I lost the money. My two-way ticket was for 1,700 Canadian dollars, making it 850 dollars one-way,” Prabhjeet said. “I now had to book myself for an 11 April flight by paying 1,100 dollars.” This flight was also cancelled because the Indian government imposed a lockdown and banned international travel, and Prabhjeet lost his money. “My wife and two daughters are in Canada. And now the ticket of the special flights being organised by the Canadian government costs approximately 2,900 dollars one-way. Add to it, the transportation charges to-from the airport. It’s almost a whooping four times more,” he said. An uncle of his, who came from Surrey to Hoshiarpur with a family of six, “can’t imagine paying 18,000 dollars for the return tickets,” Prabhjeet added.

Ravinder Singh, who is from Ludhiana, came to India from Toronto on 1 February along with his wife and two kids. He was supposed to go back on 17 March, but got an intimation regarding cancellation of his flight, also due to the government’s ban. “All my money was gone and I again booked tickets for 27 March, and again the same thing happened, and I didn’t get any refund.” Ravinder, too, cannot afford the exorbitant special flight. Further, he said, “There will be a connecting flight from United Kingdom with a stay of a few hours there and the food outlets at the airport would be closed.”

Prabhjeet Kaur, from a village in Samana, in Patiala, is stranded with two young children, a five-year-old and a 12-year-old. She, too, was retrospectively quarantined. “I came here on 18 February from Canada and the officials pasted the quarantine notice from 21 March to 4 April. We had self-quarantined for the specified time.  This is not done,” she said. “No doctors come to my house to enquire after us and no officials asking for any food supplies.”

She was apprehensive about the cost of the flights, and concerned about the demanding conditions imposed on those wishing to travel. All Canadian nationals in India received these conditions via an email from the Indian consulate of Canada. Prabhjeet Kaur said the email, which The Caravan also perused, made it clear that  “commercial transport to these airports would also involve additional costs and the private transport would require advance clearance and curfew pass from authorities for reaching the respective airports during the lockdown.” According to the email, “the High Commission cannot facilitate this, nor guarantee that we will be able to reach the airport.” Further, Prabhjeet Kaur said, passengers may need to stay overnight between their arrival in Delhi or Mumbai, and the departure of their flight. The email suggested, she added, that “additional hotel and airport transfer arrangements must be made through the travel service provider on a paid basis.”

Another concern that the prospective travellers have to contend with is the possibility of being quarantined in India or United Kingdom. The email from the consulate said, “Anyone who shows symptoms of COVID-19 will not be allowed to enter Canada by air and could be placed into quarantine in India or the United Kingdom at their own expense.”

“What if I get a normal sore throat or fever? While such passengers would be denied boarding for Canada, their payments will not be reimbursed,” Prabhjeet Kaur said. The mail further noted that baggage allowance would be limited and notified later. It also said, “Given the current situation, airport restaurants and airline lounges will be closed. You are advised to pack appropriate snacks for your journey. Some catering will be offered on the Delhi or Mumbai flights to London, but it may be very limited on the onward flights to Canada. Note that pillow and blanket availability should not be expected on the flight; you are advised to carry your own.”

The email noted that Canadian citizens could avail a “COVID-19 emergency loan,” of up to 5,000 Canadian dollars. For those who have been stuck in India, away from work, and who have lost money on flights, “will not be able to afford to repay it,” Prabhjeet Kaur said. 

Many NRIs, who have long since made efforts to contribute to their communities and their villages in Punjab, feel that they are being abandoned in a time of their need. “It saddens me but does not shock me how many [Punjabis] in Punjab have taken this deadly pandemic as a reason to spew hatred on NRI’s,” Mehsopuria, a UK-based Punjabi singer and songwriter, wrote in a long social-media post. “It’s this time you stand with your brothers, family, friends, country, people and especially those who have helped build your beloved state. Yet, [Punjabis] have decided to create an agenda to blame NRIs for this, when the deceased”—referring to Baldev Singh—“did not know he had come into contact with this invisible killer.

“The same NRI’s are the ones who sent millions back to their Punjab families, got their brothers/sisters married off, brought more land for them, help fund educations, develop their village lives, Gurdwara’s and so much more,” he continued. NRIs, he wrote, were never accepted abroad and are now being rejected by their own communities. “I repeat again not all but a large majority who are blaming and creating this hate for NRI’s should stop right now and spend that time educating those who they are influencing and [unite] to fight this worldwide pandemic.”

At the end of his post, Mehsopuria appeared to comment on Sidhu, Nait and Dosanjh: “No singer has the right to mention the name and identity of the deceased from Italy, without permission from their family. This [song] is further creating issues, hate and more importantly hurt to his family, who are dealing with the loss of a loved one.”