HONEST ISSUES
   Date :28-Apr-2021

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The stern, no-nonsense observation by the Madras High Court’s first Bench of Chief Justice Mr. Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Mr. Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy stating that the Election Commission is singularly responsible for the second wave of COVID-19 in the country, has to be understood in totality. The honourable judges have verbalised the sentiment of the entire nation on a major concern. Earlier, too, a Bench of the honourable Delhi High Court consisting of Justice Bipin Sanghi and Justice Rekha Palli had given expression to general exasperation by asserting that they would hang anybody who blocked the supplies of medical-grade oxygen. It must be said that the judiciary is now giving voice to the feelings of the common man in the hour of current crisis that is claiming countless lives.
 
This initiative has wider implications as well, in the sense several honest issues are crying for national attention at this point in time as the nation struggles to overcome the current crisis. It is time the nation paid a serious attention to the sentiment expressed by the honourable judges and started correcting its own act urgently -- not just in the States that hosted elections, but also in other places where thousands of persons are getting affected by coronavirus and are even losing lives. Even though there are no elections in those States, the ugly coronavirus is making life hell, mocking at all the political tall talk of controlling the scourge.
 
If massive crowds that a few States witnessed during election campaigns were to be blamed for the spread of coronavirus in those areas, then the nation must also find out why the ugly disease is spreading menacingly in other States where there have been no elections. Yes, it is true that elections could have been postponed to a further date after suitable administrative and constitutional re-arrangements. But it is also equally necessary to consider other honest issues that the nation should have handled more carefully -- such as holding of the Kumbh Mela where countless lakhs of devotees formed formidable crowds that led to the spread of the ugly disease in big numbers. It is necessary that the nation responds to those issues as well. The observations of the honourable judges of the two High Courts, thus, needs to be considered by the larger Indian society in a wider context. This will help all of us not just in the future but also in the present times. For, the observations point to a serious flaw our society has harboured for long.