BJP’s Bihar poll preparations show it’s prioritising politics over pandemic

The nation is braving the COVID-19 pandemic and all constituents of the Republic of Bharat are struggling to deal with this deadly pandemic that has ravaged the lives and livelihoods of billions of people across the globe. The states in India are somehow scrambling to contain the spread of this virus with every bit of resource available at their disposal. The biggest tool to check its spread has been the nationwide lockdown in place since March 24.

This lockdown, along with all of its challenges, has been propagated as one of the most effective tools to stop the pandemic from spreading. However, we and the government need to be clear that a ‘lockdown’ is not the ultimate tool or a winning strategy against an infectious virus. Currently, the optimum weapons of defence against this contagious disease are testing, tracing and treatment. Though the government has ramped up the testing, it is still significantly low from what is needed to “flatten the curve” of the contagion.

Since the Union government has foisted the responsibility to deal with the pandemic upon the constituent states while it basks in the glory of the unempathetic and unplanned lockdown. The lockdown in India has been rolled out as a political response rather than a health response to the pandemic. Even this health crisis is being manoeuvred by the ruling dispensation to extend its political influence and further its Goebbelsian propaganda in the states otherwise bound for Assembly elections this year.

This can be surmised by the clarion call of none other than the national president of the ruling BJP, urging the workers of its party to gear up for the upcoming polls in Bihar. He has purportedly tasked key party functionaries and representatives in the state to start with poll preparations. This is quite eerie, that too coming from the president of the ruling party when Bihar is experiencing an influx of migrants, reported to be in millions and when its health infrastructure is already overburdened in dealing with the pandemic.

With the migrants coming back to their home state, the fear of spreading the virus has also grown rapidly which is now resulting in higher number of reported COVID-19 cases. As quoted in many media reports, one in every fourth Bihar returnee migrant has tested positive which has set the alarm bell ringing as this could exponentially increase the number of COVID-19 cases in the state. Bihar has one of the highest migrant populations in the country and witnesses the movement of the highest number of seasonal migrants. Lack of economic and employment opportunities have driven the people of Bihar out of their homes in search of employment since generations. The coalition govt in the state has been lackadaisical and apathetic in reversing the trend. It has even declined to bring back its stranded migrants from other states, reducing its self-acclaimed good governance to a farce.

But the coalition partners have been quick to seize the political opportunity of this never seen humanitarian crisis so much so that it is going to make this humanitarian crisis its poll plank in Bihar.

The BJP is in full swing to woo the voters of Bihar and has formally launched the Bihar Assembly election campaign with the PM’s ‘Pradhan Mantri Ke Mann Ki Baat, Saptarishi Ke Saath’, on May 31. Saptarishis is the seven-member committee formed by the BJP for each booth in Bihar. The Union Home Minister will also kick in its digital election campaign for the Assembly elections in Bihar with a ‘Virtual Rally’ on June 9. This virtual rally is intended to address around one lakh workers from 243 Assembly constituencies. Subsequently, BJP’s national president JP Nadda will follow suit.

The workers of the BJP will be peddling the lockdown, which has muted into a humanitarian crisis, as a proactive response of the PM to the voters. The political dispensation is unfazed by the pandemic and is mulling all means to hold the election in Bihar within the stipulated time of the current Assembly. Had such readiness been shown in its response to the pandemic, the nation would have not been in the situation that it finds itself now.

A cue is also being taken from South Korea to hold the Bihar Assembly election online which is ironical, considering the difference between the two governments’ preparedness and response in dealing with the spread of infection. If the election to the Rajya Sabha can be deferred because of a health emergency, then why can’t a state poll be deferred?

Or is the BJP too eager to ride on its propaganda because it fears the upcoming ‘Economic Tsunami’, caused due to massive mismanagement during the lockdown and the party’s inability to deliver on promises of employment, which would act against its interests in the Bihar polls? The moot point is why an electoral or political issue takes precedence over an issue as sensitive as health. The policymakers should have rather followed the South Korean model of COVID-19 containment that has deployed extensive testing and tracing strategy.

Why has the BJP not show the same zeal towards this deadly pandemic the way it is showing towards the Bihar polls? Not to forget, this Bihar Assembly election would be conducted in the backdrop of the health crisis and the migrant crisis wherein majority of the migrants would be exercising their franchise if the election goes as scheduled.

After losing a series of state elections, post the 2019 victory and failing to form the government in Maharashtra, the BJP is eager to taste victory in Bihar. However, be as it may be, the state of Bihar cannot risk going to the polls amid this pandemic. Holding elections, traditionally, amid the pandemic when all are advised to follow strict social distancing norms would be a gargantuan mistake in itself. The same would also deflect the resources of the government to meet election expenses at a time when there has been a constraint and states are resorting to asking people for funds and donations.

The government delayed its response to the pandemic in its political pursuit, exemplified by MP where an elected government was toppled. Despite early health warnings by the WHO, the Centre and the Gujarat government went on with its jamboree to host foreign dignitaries.

Adult franchise is a right in a democracy to exercise opinion in choosing a representative, a process, the sanctity of which, must be upheld. If the government is not too fearful of the people’s response, after its mismanagement of the pandemic and the economy comes to the fore, it should wait and not be too anxious to hold the Bihar Assembly polls.

(Amrish Ranjan Pandey is national secretary and national media in-charge of Indian Youth Congress and Nirbhay Dubey is a strategic communication consultant. Views expressed are their own)