What astounded Alexander’s chroniclers in 327 BC about Indians is true in 2021 AD. Indifference to what doesn’t affect me directly. While armies fought, farmers would keep ploughing their fields calmly in adjoining habitations. Just as everything from electioneering to Kumbh to farm protests goes on as a pandemic rages.
Leaders should emulate Rahul Gandhi’s move to suspend rallies. EC must club remaining phases
Rahul Gandhi has made a good move by suspending all poll rallies in West Bengal with rising Covid cases. We hope other leaders will do so too. India is facing a war-like emergency. Fight against this menace must be collective, not partisan. EC must combine remaining voting phases into one.
I can appreciate Didi not campaigning. But Rahul Gandhi may have realised that his campaigning is useless and actually counterproductive. Now he cannot be blamed for congress debacle. It is a win-win situation for him.
A masked hello to my friend from the IT cell.
The straw man you have created is easy to topple. No one proposed curtailing of elections and although the suggestions are abundantly clear, I can attempt to clarify it again for your target audience. Suggestions are for COVID appropriate behavior during elections – so no election rallies, instead leaders can try to reach out to people in other ways. Secondly, the utterly remarkable 8 phase elections announced in WB can be relooked at and the phase shortened. And why the 8 phases in the first place? To allow laurel and hardy to campaign at a leisurely place.
Now one question for you: This is a state election: what’s the need for the PM, who is the head of the central govt, to devote almost 100% of his time in this state? Cant the country expect from its PM to devote his full focus on current COVID emergency?Doesnt BJP doesn’t have a party president and state leaders to take care of a state election?
The ECI has been on test, almost like never before. One can only hope that reports of its recently retired head accepting a gubernatorial assignment are untrue. That would be on par with Shri Ranjan Gogoi planning to spend the next six years in the Rajya Sabha.
The job is offered only after person has retired from post. Do you think person should waste his years if he has talents?
If person does not get opportunity in age when he can contribute, he becomes frustrated becomes Cranky old man. Your Yashwant Sinha, Kulkarni etc. are good examples. As it is India is short of talents that is the reason dynasties like Nehru family, Charan Singh family etc. are still ruling their parties.
When the government is so powerful, it is easy to forget that people too have agency, are able to influence national responses. Crowds in election rallies / roadshows are earning their daily bread. However, devotees travelling to Haridwar are spending their own money, creating a super spreader event at a time when India is recording a quarter of a million cases daily. The authorities should not be facilitating, in fact they should be hard at work, preventing such provocations in a time of pandemic. Ordinary citizens too should learn to respect, fear the virus. Now not sparing even the young and children.
Yes. for you Tablighi gathering is OK.
Rahul Gandhi did it because congress virtually haa no stake in the election. The cases were growing even during kerala polls and tnadu polls….why didn’t rahul give up then? Even now there are many bypolls and all parties including congress and bjp are fighting those hard away from the cameras of media.
I am for banning all congregations and assemblies of people but not elections. For the simple reason being, this will set a precedent. Tomorrow for another reason which our political leaders think are “emergency” even though they are not, will ask for changes in schedule or clubbing or cancelling of polls. I for one am not comfortable giving my leaders a free pass on elections. That’s the last weapon a citizen has to ensure accountability. If that too is given up at the alter of diseases, tomorrow may be floods and draughts or any other reason, we are in for a rough ride.
All these people who are asking for curtailing elections haven’t even once asked the farmers to give up their unreasonable demands. So spare us the moral sermons. Elections should not be given up on. That will only become a slippery slope in the future.
Now coming to the pandemic, deploy all forces the country can afford. CRPF, RAF, police whatever and ensure covid appropriate behaviour (masks). That way we won’t have to go for complete lockdown and destruction of a near-dead economy.
To thePrint, stop parroting useless suggestions from the opposition. Be a little.more creative.