While the entire country is strictly implementing the lockdown in order to break the chain of the spread of Coronavirus, some disturbing reports have come up from the state of West Bengal, where the Mamata Banerjee administration does not seem to be serious about implementing the lockdown at all.
Such has been the dilution of lockdown in West Bengal that even the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has taken note and has issued a warning to the Mamata Banerjee government.
In a communication to the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police (DGP) of West Bengal, the Union Home Ministry has made it clear that there is “no regulation in vegetable, fish and mutton markets where people have been thronging in complete violation of social distancing“.
The communiqué also states, “As per further reports received from security agencies, gradual dilution of lockdown has been reported from West Bengal, with an increase in the number of exceptions being provided by the state government.” In fact, it has also taken cognizance of the religious congregations and has stated, “police have been allowing religious congregations.“
Apart from this, the letter also makes a very important observation about how the ration is not being distributed through institutional means, but by political leaders.
It is reassuring that the Home Ministry has now decided to at least warn the West Bengal government of its dereliction of national responsibility. I think the IAS and IPS officers should now be told that serving a state government does not mean colluding in irresponsible acts. pic.twitter.com/1z6I8PDk2U
— Swapan Dasgupta (@swapan55) April 11, 2020
The letter, in stern words, warns of penal action if there is a continuous violation of the Ministry’s orders issued from time to time under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
This comes as a huge setback for the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who has not been taking the nationwide lockdown seriously, and has been continuously violating its spirit with her populist decisions and utterances.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been herself taking the matter far too casually, and not too long ago she was ready to make the same mistake that the Communist regime had made in China by allowing mass travel during the Lunar New Year.
Banerjee said, “The state government has powers to announce relaxations to the lockdown. Pohela Boishakh (Bengali New Year) comes within the regulation period (April 14). But we may consider it (relaxing the total lockdown) after taking stock of the situation on 31 March.”
In fact, the TMC leaders, particularly those from Muslim community, are not taking the lockdown seriously. As per a report by Times Now, Akhtar Hussain, a TMC councillor in Asansol had shared a video message on social media asking Muslims to gather for prayer, because he was of the view that only Azan can defeat the Coronavirus.
Mamata Banerjee herself thinks that a long lockdown is totally unnecessary. And earlier there were reports that she wanted lockdown lifted in the first week of April.
According to Swarajya, an officer in West Bengal said, “She says the poor are suffering a lot and such a long lockdown is totally unnecessary.”
In fact, Mamata Banerjee has started resorting to sheer populism even in the face of the ongoing lockdown. Recently, she announced that flower growers and bidi workers can now start working again.
This directly puts all such workers at the risk of getting infected, and then the logic behind flower growers and bidi workers to start working again is beyond comprehension.
Flower and bidis are definitely not necessary supplies that can’t be shut down during the lockdown. This is an outright dilution of the nationwide lockdown.
And then there is this issue of minority appeasement which just can’t be detached from the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal.
This Friday, disturbing visuals had come from a Mosque in Murshidabad where hundreds had gathered for Namaz. The police could be seen trying to disperse the crowd, which was rather nonchalant about the lockdown and the dangers that the Wuhan virus posed to their own lives.
Now with the MHA taking note of the situation in West Bengal, the civil servants in charge of administration in the state will have to abide by the nationwide instructions rather than succumbing to the extra-Constitutional pulls and pressures from the state government.