DNA Special: COVID-19 changed everything but politics

Due to the increasing cases of COVID-19 in most cities of India, you will neither be able to celebrate Christmas with your friends nor will you be able to have a New Year party. Christmas and New Year's party has been banned in many big cities of the country including Delhi. Even in weddings, you can no longer invite more than 200 guests. But if you are holding a political rally, you can also invite 2 lakh people to that. In many places, you cannot go to a mall or a government office without taking both doses of the vaccine. But if you go to a political rally, neither you will be asked about the mask nor will you be asked for information about vaccination. If you have a big party or you want to invite thousands of people to the wedding, then declare yourself a politician and your program as an election rally. By doing this, you can invite as many people as you want. 

In the last two years, COVID-19 has changed our lives. People working in offices are doing work from home, online hearings are being held in courts. Online classes are going on in schools. The customs after birth and death are also happening online. Sports like IPL and Olympics are being organized without spectators. And movies are being released on OTT instead of theatre. But there is one area where COVID-19 has not made any difference at all and that is politics. Even now, elections are being held as before, voting is also happening in the same way and the attitude of the politicians is also the same.

In the last two years, neither the elections have changed, nor the process of elections has changed nor the manner in which the politicians' rallies have changed. At present, massive campaigning is going on for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections. And all the parties are holding rallies by mobilizing thousands of people. But there is no restriction on these rallies. More than 40 state-level elections have been held in India in the last two years and next year's calendar is also full from the election dates.

In the year 2022, elections to the Legislative Assembly are to be held in seven states of Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Manipur. During this time, even if the cases of coronavirus increase in these states, perhaps, the process of elections and elections will not change at all.

Unfortunately, no more than 200 guests can come in a wedding ceremony today, but in election rallies, 20,000 people can easily gather at one place. You can't party in a restaurant or pub with more than 50 people, but you can go to a crowd of thousands at an election rally. You cannot go to a shopping mall or shop without a mask and vaccination. But you can easily go to the rallies of leaders, where no one will ask you for a mask or ask for vaccination. 

That is, the situation has become such that today if someone is getting married in your house and you call people in that marriage saying that they are organizing an election rally then probably the administration and governments will not take any action against you. But if you have invited more than 200 guests to the wedding or party with 50 people on Christmas then you can also be arrested under criminal sections and can also be fined up to a maximum of Rs 2 lakh.

However, we are not saying this thing only for India. Politics is the only area in the whole world that has not changed.

In the last two years, since the pandemic arrived, elections have been held in 146 countries of the world. Out of these, there are 124 countries where national and state-level elections have been held. That is, elections were held for the post of President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister and Governor and in these elections, the leaders held rallies among the crowd, Due to this, the cases of coronavirus also increased in these countries. For example, Presidential elections were held in America last year and due to these elections, there was a tremendous explosion of COVID-19. But despite this, the politics there did not change.

Elections were also held in South Korea, Mongolia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Croatia despite increasing cases of infection. And when people died from this disease, these leaders did not even take moral responsibility for it. Rather, these leaders became silent when it came to taking responsibility.

That is, the world has told you that in COVID-19, markets can be closed for common people, marriage can also stop, jobs can also be done from home, customs of birth and death can also be changed and movies can also be released online instead of cinema halls. That is, everything can be changed and stopped for you. But nothing can stop for politics and politicians. Whether coronavirus remains or not, politics will remain the same as it was before.