You Don't Stop Elections In Places Like India, Replies Jaishankar Amid Criticism Of It Being COVID Superspreader

The recently concluded assembly elections in four states and one union territory were the biggest of its kind exercise anywhere in the world, in the midst of the COIVD-19 pandemic.

The only other notable such large-scale gathering and campaigns were in November 2020, in the US. But the US had hit the COVID-19 peak by then and cases were on the decline there.

AP

On the contrary, West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry went to the assembly polls along with the panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh in the midst of the second wave of COVID-19 in the country, which has stuttered the global records for daily infections.

Ignoring the alarm bells raised by health experts the Election Commission went ahead with the polls, and now even the WHO is blaming it among other mass gatherings as the reasons for the alarming spike of COVID-19 in India.

Reuters

On Wednesday, amid the growing criticism about the elections, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said that elections cannot be stopped in a democratic country like India.

"I wish it wasn't so but what I can say is when it happened in other countries including UK, when the pandemic hits our society very hard, there are questions there are arguments, there is a lot of second guessing. You should have seen it coming and it is not unique to India. It happens in other societies as well. In our case, yes, I am very conscious of our own debate that's something I hear and (am) involved in everyday. People have spoken about elections. Obviously we are a democratic country. You don't stop elections in a place like India," he told ANI in an interview.

BCCL

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had come under some very heavy criticism from the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court recently for holding the polls.

The Madras HC even went on to make a verbal observation that the EC was "singularly" responsible for the spread of the viral disease, called it the "the most irresponsible institution" and even said its officials may be booked under murder charges.

The ECI later approached the HC, followed by the Supreme Court to get the media to refrain from reporting the comments saying that a remark of murder charges against a Constitutional body was unwarranted and such conclusive remarks should not have been made without hearing the poll panel.

AP

Other than the state elections the local bodies' polls in Uttar Pradesh had also run into troubled waters after the teachers association there alleged that around 700 of its members who were on election duty had died recently and many had either tested positive for COVID or had COVID-like symptoms.