IN POLITICS, every communication has to be countered with a repartee or even reprimand. That is what Congress party’s Interim President Mrs. Sonia Gandhi seems to have done in response to a letter from Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) President Mr. Jagat Prasad Nadda. Instead of paying attention to the issues raised by Mr. Nadda, the Congress leader appears to have accused the BJP of playing letter-politics and muddling issues. In a way, Mr. Nadda’s letter does not seem to have served much purpose -- except that he could place before the larger society the BJP’s point of view on how the Congress is trying to spread a false panic by building a fake narrative around the Government’s COVID-19 management. And it was only natural that the Congress party rejected the BJP accusation totally. That is politics -- only a game for grabbing power, and not a full-time commitment to larger social good. This is the most important point raised in Mr. J. P. Nadda’s letter to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi.

 

There is an appeal not to distort facts and slap a twisted narrative on the people about COVID-19 handling by the Government. There is an element of sadness in the letter’s tone, and also a request for a more sensible consideration of how patiently and non-politically the Government is handling the coronavirus challenge. What was expected of a responsible Opposition party was a well-thought response. Instead, what emerged from the Congress camp was an unfortunate statement accusing the BJP of playing letter-politics. The whole nation knows that much of the muddle in COVID-19 management has taken place not at the Centre’s level but that of the States.

 

Enough evidence is available when responsible officers in respective State administrations have realised the high quality of non-partisan and apolitical response from the Central Government to their calls for help in critical moments of COVID-19 management. The nation has realised by now how various State Governments ruled by the Congress party directly or in alliances have twisted facts only to bring in disrepute the Central Government -- no matter who is ruling there. Yet, the Congress party chose to send back a quick repartee that made no sense. Enough evidence is available in public domain to expose the shenanigans of the Opposition parties like the Congress or the Aam Aadmi Party or the Trinamool Congress or the Left Front. A few unfortunate instances also have come to fore when even the Governments of the BJP-ruled States have blundered and brought the Centre in an undesirable negative focus (howsoever unintentionally).

 

Despite this, either Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi or his colleagues in the Central Government are not falling pray to the temptation of passing the buck to the States even when it is clear that the States have bungled things and not the Centre. Very patiently, the Central Government is monitoring COVID-19 management by its various agencies, including those related to Defence Services, in the most professional manner. So well-intentioned is this centrally-monitored handling of COVID-19 challenge is that the Centre could finally tell the judiciary not to meddle in policy matters which it is capable of taking of. In his letter, all Mr. Nadda sought to achieve was a patient hearing of the points he raised. Instead, what he got was a uncouth response that made little sense on the ground. In the short run, the Congress may have scored a brownie point by its response. But in the long run, the common people got to understand how the Congress leadership was refusing to understand the critical dimensions of the current condition and the need to have a consensus by avoiding unnecessary hostility.

 

This exchange will help the BJP more in the long run than it would ever do to Congress. Most unfortunately, the Congress leadership has not even tried to understand the responsibility it must shoulder out of a sense of history. There is little doubt that history will never pardon such mistakes. But that is not the central issue today. The issue is togetherness in the fight against COVID-19.