India's coronavirus lockdown hits poor, tests Modi's support

FILE PHOTO: Migrant workers, who work in textile looms, are seen outside a loom after it was shut due to the 21-day nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Bhiwandi on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, April 1, 2020. Picture taken April 1, 2020. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Ravi Prasad Gupta, a worker at a pipe plant in the western Indian state of Gujarat, for years proudly supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his promise to usher in "good days" for millions of impoverished labourers.

But Modi on March 24 announced a three-week lockdown to fight the coronavirus, which meant Gupta lost his job and so decided to head home, first by train and then on foot.