When they care in capital letters.

A poll conducted by the India office of YouGov reported that "urban India's middle-and upper-income classes overwhelmingly supported the lockdown," wrote Prof V Anantha Nageswaran. "Professor Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University told unheard.com in an interview that, "in reality, the lockdown was a luxury that the middle class was enjoying at the expense of the poor." The professor is not aware that the middle class was not consulted before the lockdown was announced with a notice of four hours and certainly never wanted the poor to suffer the way they did. When the word of suffering got round people rushed to provide food and water to migrants. This is not easy when local officials make their own interpretation of lockdown rules. The government apparently is unable to spend for fear of a rating downgrade if fiscal deficit goes out of control. Nageswaran recommends that rich people should donate a "tiny fraction of their of their wealth". Profs Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian, who live in the US of A, recommend imposition of wealth tax and elimination of subsidies for the rich. Do they recommend similar taxes on their own incomes in the US where 38.6 million people have filed for unemployment benefits and there are long lines for packets of food? Middle class Indians are losing their jobs, finding it difficult to pay mortgages and school fees of children. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set up a PM CARES fund, apparently to help the millions walking home to their villages from distant cities. If it is any consolation to these professors, industrialists, actors, sports people and citizens have been pouring billions of rupees into the fund. "Donations have been made tax exempt, and can be counted against a company's corporate social responsibility (CSR) obligations. It is also exempt from the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, and accepts foreign contributions, although the Center has previously refused foreign aid to deal with disasters such as the Kerala floods," wrote Priscilla Jabaraj. "The PM CARES web page is opaque regarding the amount of money collected, names of donors, the expenditure of the fund so far, or names of beneficiaries," and queries under the Right to Information (RTI) Act have been ignored. Clearly the PM is contemptuous about any form of accountability. "In India, the government appears to have treated the lockdown as a policy end in itself," wrote Prof Shruti Rajagopalan. Instead of as a means to controlling spread of infection and improve healthcare. A complete paralysis of movement can have other uses, such as freedom to arrest anyone without photographs or interference. Or change labor laws to compel workers to work longer hours with less pay and no rights to form unions. "But over the past few decades labor laws have changed such that they are hardly among industry's top constraints," wrote Azim Premji. "Diluting these already lax laws will not boost economic activity, it will only exacerbate the conditions of low wage earners and the poor." Premji does not have to win elections by caring for the poor with taxpayer money. So much caring, but for what?