Coronavirus: How politics is hampering efforts to deal with COVID-19 in West Bengal

Blame game and petty politics between the Centre and the West Bengal government have pushed the much-needed coordinated administrative measures to the backseat. Every step taken by both sides to deal with the COVID-19 crisis has met with adverse opposition from the ruling parties at the Centre and the state.

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The latest in this regard being West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s reaction to the Centre’s special economic package. Her comments on the Centre’s package dubbing it as a “big zero” and attempt to fool the people sounded more like a speech at an election rally than criticism from an administrator.

While she has been urging opposition parties especially BJP not to indulge in politics as the Assembly elections are almost a year away, her own actions seem like a smack of politics. Her opposition to the visit of Inter Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) to Bengal for reviewing the implementation of lockdown measures has done more harm than good to her image as an administrator.

On April 2, within hours after the state government’s expert committee said that seven COVID-19 patients died in the state and 16 tested positive for the virus, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha issued an elaborate explanation stating that so far there were three confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the state. The mismatch in the COVID-19 toll data put the state government on a spot.

The widely reported letters of the IMCTs to the state government alleging non-cooperation raised further questions about the state government’s COVID-19 data. IMCT leader Apurva Chandra in one of his letters to the state Chief Secretary pointed out that while a communication from the Health Secretary to the Centre on April 30 indicated that there were 931 COVID-19 cases in Bengal but the government bulletin on the same day put the figure at 744 including discharged and expired patients.

It dented the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government’s image to a great extent. The BJP quickly latched on to the issue alleging that the TMC government was obstructing the IMCTs’ visit as it was fudging COVID-19 data in Bengal.

However, it is not just the TMC supremo’s combative relationship with the Centre over the COVID-19 issue which is hampering the efforts to curb the spread of the virus. BJP’s allegations such as Banerjee is upset with the Centre’s package because her party will not have any opportunity to get “cut money(bribe for accessing government facilities) and that her government was blocking Centre’s aid in fear of losing in the 2021 Assembly elections are also political in nature.