Politics and pandemics: Why we miss our hair dresser, not hair-raising speeches

Through the past week, The Times of India organised an online conclave titled ‘Reboot Tamil Nadu’ where policy makers, industry captains and sectoral experts gathered to brainstorm on ways and means to put the state’s economy and businesses back on track. The 11 sessions covered agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, education, small industries, real estate, logistics, IT, retail, tourism and entertainment. Did we leave out something? Ah, politics!

Like most of the other sectors, politics has been badly hit by the novel coronavirus. Arguably, it was one of the most affected. For many sectors like manufacturing, productivity was directly hit because of diminishing demand and physical distancing norms; for some others like agriculture, where the demand remained high, supply chain posed a challenge. For politics, productivity, logistics, supply chain and, above all, demand fell like never before.

Like those in other sectors, the top honchos in politics went online, holding meetings with their functionaries and cadres, but they could never reach the end user, the common man. In fact, nobody tried to hold a virtual public meeting, for they knew not many beyond the card-holding members of the party would have logged in. And nobody outside the parties was complaining.

(Photo credit: Sasi Menon)

In such circumstances, political party leaders did what they do best—issue statements. These, too, did not find the space and time in the media that they usually get. Why? First, this is not the time for accusations without substantiation. During normal times, mutual mudslinging may be par for the course, even entertaining; but not when the world is faced with a common challenge.

This is not to say opposition parties should not criticise governments – or vice versa. Quite the contrary. Political parties have the duty to point out deficiencies in the system they are part of and help fix them to overcome the crisis of the century. The DMK did question the government for the lack of transparency in Covid-19 reporting and management, but did not bother to bring to light what it suspected the government was hiding. After reports in TOI and some other sections of the media, It made the right noise on Sunday, asking why TN was doing fewer tests nowadays, but again refused to dig deeper.

Most of the times, the opposition parties were choosing the easier option of blaming the government – and the chief minister – for the rising number of people being infected by the virus. The PMK was probably the only party that tried, if inconsistently, to look at public health as the core issue, demanding more tests and better management, in a tone that was more advisory than accusatory. It can be argued that it is because the party technically remains an ally of the ruling party, but I feel Anbumani Ramadoss has employed his qualification as a doctor and his experience as a former Union health minister more than realpolitik this time.

The general cold response to run-of-the-mill political statements during the pandemic shows where people’s priorities are. So, what are the revival fortunes of political parties? Pretty high. The worst hit it may be, but politics will be the first to be back in business once we learn to kill the virus or live with it. I thought political rallies and public meetings may not be the same for a long time after we get back to normal, but the crowds at Tasmac shops much before normalcy have corrected my misgivings.

Once we raise a toast to our post-Covid life, we need to discuss some serious matters. And politics, as Charles de Gaulle said, is too serious a matter to be left to politicians.