With the forthcoming Assembly elections in several States, BJP may play up national security issues to drown local concerns.
Voters seldom make up their minds based on one campaign or even a successful roadshow that politicians are known to organise in crowded bazaars.
In some States governments failed to provide medical care when the pandemic was in full flow. Horrific images of people quarantined being served food like stray animals or dead bodies piling up at mortuaries had gone viral on social media.
The unrelenting increase in fuel and LPG cylinder prices over the past several months have triggered fierce criticism of the BJP government from the Opposition and members of the public, crores of whom are struggling to make ends meet during a pandemic.
Besides, there was a bizarre undercounting of the dead and infected. Even the raids which have been used by tax authorities for investigation of suspected evasion and irregularities have now become weapons in the hands of the government for use against political opponents, critics or anybody to whom it wants to send a message or a warning.
Newspapers and public personalities who are critical of the government and its policies have also been raided. The agencies themselves give publicity to their actions and even disclose the extent of the alleged wrongdoing, for impact.
The government has not been deterred by criticism and is even expanding the scope of its actions to include the BJP’s own squabbles. That is a dangerous trend that undermines all norms of governance and rule of law.
