In what will go a long way in ridding the country of the menacing second wave of the pandemic, the attempts to earn political brownie points amid the unprecedented times should be shunned. The need of the hour is to put an immediate halt to the ongoing mudslinging and levelling of one allegation after the other against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. So, what is needed is the constructive role of the political parties in the Opposition which can come into play by backing PM Modi to help the government in its efforts aimed at dealing with the pandemic efficiently. Prioritising effective governance and public health over political point-scoring will be laudable at this point.
This is exactly what we saw in other countries of the world, where concerted efforts, cutting across the party lines, have been made to fight the Covid-19. From the USA, France, Spain to the UK, everywhere, a narrow political agenda was set aside by everyone to strengthen the hands of their respective leaderships in the battle against the Coronavirus.
This is not the right time to point fingers at each other— as has been said repeatedly not only by the political leadership of the country but also by several significant members of the medical fraternity. The message is loud and clear: a bid to derive political mileage—out of whatever is happening in every state of the country— diverts the focus of the frontline warriors from the key task of fighting the pandemic and guarding the people against its havoc. Merely any state has been from the onslaught of the Covid-19. Needless to say that the governments of almost all the political parties are grappling with the corona-induced crises, and there is a possibility of every single party being questioned on the issue of proper strategy and a sufficient healthcare system. Recently, Congress and other parties, complaining about ‘faulty’ ventilators allegedly sent by the Centre to their states, ended up getting embarrassed when it was found that ‘they did not recalibrate settings according to geographical location. So, what does this suggest? Does it not suggest that political parties are deliberately trying to send out a wrong picture about the central government in a bid just to gain their narrow political agenda?
Similarly, a section of media and social media was flooded with the story claiming an RSS leader allegedly being left in the lurch after which he ‘succumbed to corona’. But it came to light that he was helped by the BJP and RSS workers. Was it not an attempt to politicise the matter to project the government and leadership in a poor light?
Likewise, if one goes by a report, then the AAP leader and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s demand— to give what he called vaccine formula to all the companies in India to prepare vaccines— seems to be a statement aimed at scoring political points only. A report appearing in the media says, “Firstly, in the process of vaccine production, there is no formula. It’s a process that involves enough R&D. Even if someone acquires the information, it will take nearly a year to start producing the vaccine in the BSL-3 facility.” Now, how can one not describe Kejriwal’s statement as a political one?
One can recall how SP leader and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav refused to get inoculated, saying that it is for the BJP. His statement was an outright attempt to send out a message to the minority community, obviously out of political desire.
With the political parties in the opposition apparently seeing political opportunity in crisis, who is going to be hit the most? It is the common people. There is no denying that this kind of political opportunism in myriad ways, at some level, hinders the ongoing battle which has been launched by the Modi government to eliminate the coronavirus and put the economy back on track. Many believe that political parties are duty-bound to back the Prime Minister and his government for his ‘efforts on war-footing’.
But the question is whether any kind of finger-pointing is going to solve the problem? Will the trading of charges not defeat the real purpose? All this kind of political agenda should be immediately stopped. Analysts and political observers firmly believe that the political moves and messages targeting the Modi government either on social media or elsewhere are detrimental to the objective of defeating the pandemic.
It is undeniably difficult to lead in a crisis, and leading the political opposition is not easier either. But it is the responsibility of the opposition parties to be supportive of the leadership of the government of the day. Many European countries witnessed how the major opposition parties supported governments’ calls for unity and backed most of the decisions in what was called the unprecedented time of crisis.
The whole world saw how opposition in France and Germany cooperated with their respective governments during the pandemic. Similarly, coordination was exercised between the opposition and government in Italy.
Another European nation Poland was a glaring example where the opposition stood away from the exercise of punching holes in the government’s decisions. The government and the opposition in Poland were on the right foot. The government’s tight and strict restrictions met with support from all the sides. Spain was among the worst-affected countries by the coronavirus pandemic, and most of the opposition leaders in the parliament supported the government’s bid to tackle the exigencies posed by the Covid-19 virus. In the USA and the UK too, the governments received relentless freedom and support.
With all this in view, the opposition in India should also go by what the world has depicted so far. However, the respective situation in India so far is not encouraging. The political faultlines over the Covid second surge have sharpened. A dozen of major opposition leaders wrote a joint letter to PM Modi asking the Centre to procure vaccines centrally from the global and domestic sources to ‘begin’ a free, universal mass vaccination campaign across the country. Ironically, these parties have made such demands at a time when the global tenders have already been sent by the different states for procuring vaccines from abroad. Political observers and crisis managers do not see such moves as a positive development that could do any service to the people of the nation. What they need to do is come out with constructive and enriching suggestions, sans politics.
Anshuman Rao is a political analyst and former Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Electronics Development Corporation. Views expressed are personal.
With the Opposition trying to take a political mileage out of the ongoing crisis, the common man is going to be hit the most. There is no denying that this kind of political opportunism is going to hinder the ongoing battle which has been launched by the Narendra Modi government to eliminate coronavirus, and put the economy back on track. It’s the duty of each political party to back the Prime Minister and his government in these Covid times.