The BJP’s election machinery has swung into motion and we can now be assured that coverage of virtual rallies conducted by the commander of this campaign will, at last, provide us some respite from the morbid statistics of the dreaded pandemic.
By now it is also clear that those who rule us have finally ‘decided’ that saving the economy is a greater priority than saving lives—at least the lives of the abjectly poor.
One is left aghast when some economists argue ruthlessly that unless the paralysed economy revives, the poorest of poor will die of starvation before the virus claims them.
It’s not very long ago that we were being reassured with the slogan that ‘Jaan hai to jahan hai’ (Life before all else is a loose translation).
The prime minister had confidently shared the government’s plans to simultaneously protect lives and livelihoods. It seems that those plans were hastily put together and have already started unravelling.
Apologists too clever by half are pointing fingers beyond our shores. If the mighty USA with an economy more than 10 times ours is constrained to end lockdown and open up industrial and commercial activity, do we have an option?
Sad to say, our elected representatives seem to believe that they are the best we deserve and that all of us suffer from incurable amnesia.
No one in his right senses belies that India—past, present or even in distant future, can be likened to the US of A.
Nor would it be wise to prescribe solutions that countries in Europe or our strategic partners like Australia and Japan have adopted to cope with this crisis.
As the partisan election campaigners recite the litany of dazzling accomplishments or glaring failures, the life and death issues that confront Indians will be drowned in the din.
Electoral politics seems to be more important than any other national concern. Everyone is bewildered by statements like the ones made by the Delhi CM. Even by his contortionist self-contradictory standards, he has outdone himself.
‘Delhi’s hospitals are only for residents of Delhi.’ What next? ‘Delhi police will be responsible only for the protection of life, limb and property of residents of Delhi.
Others who enter the Capital do so at their own peril?’ And, schools and colleges? Coronavirus has exposed the deep and painful fault lines in our federal system.
This is the place to engage in a fruitless debate about misuse of the provisions regarding imposition of President’s Rule in a state that has incurred the central government’s ire but at least this much needs to be emphatically reminded that not all constitutional lines are obliterated even in times of war and catastrophic calamities.
Human rights aren’t extinguished and in the name of Disaster Management trespasses into states’ domain can’t enjoy immunity.
At the same time the states can’t be allowed to appropriate for themselves what they are not entitled to in the constitutional scheme. Arbitrarily sealing the interstate borders throwing life totally off gear by Haryana and Delhi governments accompanied by flip-flops has blown the concept of the NCR to smithereens.
The most unfortunate effect of the pandemic has been on democratic processes. Of course, we don’t have elections to Rajya Sabha or state legislatures in mind.
The space for questioning or criticising the government’s steps to save lives and revive economy has shrunk drastically.
Learned Solicitor General’s statement in the Supreme Court leave no one in any doubt that he lives in another realm of reality. Those who dare to speak up are slapped with charges of sedition, rioting, criminal defamation and more.
Bail is routinely and repeatedly denied even to accused who are aged and infirm. Thank god, so far no one in this land has suggested that we require a US like solution to restore law and order a la Donald Trump. ‘Vicious dogs, abominable weapons, Rapid Action Forces in full military gear to quell internal terror.’
What we share with the US at this moment is a House Divided against Itself. First Aid is not likely to heal deep wounds. No surgeon however skilled can amputate a cancerous limb and give a new life to his patient on prosthetics.
Nuking the malignant cells can prove even more hazardous. Lockdown is ending. We shall all learn to live with the virus. No one is going to provide succour. We are being told to exercise self-control, become self-reliant in every conceivable way. Ask no questions, respect those who enforce order even if sometimes patently violating what we think is the law.
Most of us will resign to their fate, some will keep hoping for divine intervention. A microscopic minority may not go gently into that night. This is the new normal. Life after the big C.