Kerala and Karnataka are at loggerheads over a new issue: COVID-19

For over half a century, Karnataka and Kerala have fought over language and land, but that fight was over with the death of poet-writer Kayyara Kinhanna Rai. Kerala is also fighting with Karnataka on the issue of allowing night traffic between the two states through the wildlife corridor. Then there was, of course, the allegation that Kerala had been dumping garbage in Karnataka. The two states are now sparring over the newest issue -- Covid-19. And sadly, over the issue of allowing people from the Malabar area to come to Mangaluru for medical treatment.

The interstate borders were sealed on March 21 following the rise of Covid-19 cases since March 10 after it became known that some people were coming from Kerala to Mangaluru for treatment and hospitalisation. This had left in Mangaluru four patients from Kasargod and one from Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada. Mangaluru itself did not have a single local Covid-19 case until March 27. That’s the day when the spread of Covid-19 began into Karnataka through its south-western border. As on March 28, Kerala had reported 178 cases, out of which 39 were from Kasargod alone, and 35 of them had arrived from the Persian Gulf region.

The Dakshina Kannada district administration was quick to initiate a total blockage of traffic from Kerala at a place called Talapady. Mangaluru is known for its medical facilities, and its airport is close to Kasargod and Kannur districts, whose residents use it as the preferred airport to travel to and fro West Asia. Authorities in Karnataka deemed it fit to close the borders as the possibility of an influx of infected persons into cities like Mangaluru and Mysuru grew.

“It is not just patients seeking medical attention but also students from Kasargod who were visiting Mangaluru in large numbers. If we were serious about containing Covid-19 cases being exported from Kerala, we had to close down the border at Talapady. It was resisted by the Kerala government initially but we stopped the vehicular traffic diligently and sent a strong message to them,” said Nalin Kumar Kateel, the Dakshina Kannada MP.

Kerala’s anger grew when taluk panchayats in Puttur, Sullia and the Nagar Panchayat of Vitla started blocking the interior roads by dumping huge quantities of mud and boulders at 24 different entry points into Karnataka. Arlapadavu, Jalsoor and Eshwaramangala were among the places from where ambulances used to come into the state using interior roads.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took exception to the blockade, saying it was “inhuman to not to allow ambulances.” Dr K Sudhakar, Karnataka medical education minister and the man in charge of managing the state’s Covid-19 challenge, also expressed the same sentiment, but at the ground level, things were different. His own party men were behind the blockade in the Mangaluru-Kasaragod border area.

Some BJP leaders in the area said that initially, they had allowed ambulances from Kasargod into Karnataka but, “our workers found that many of them were carrying passengers (not patients), which was not just unethical but also dangerous” because Kasargod had several cases of Covid-19.

Political overtones

Following Vijayan’s announcement that Kerala would set aside Rs 20,000 crore for the management of Covid-19 in his state, the blockade hit a high note. BJP leaders on the coast started a campaign on social media stating that with that kind of money, Kerala should be able to take care of its Covid-19 sick within its own borders. Karnataka did not have such resources to spend on the pandemic and so could not let cases spread from the neighbouring state through Mangaluru and Mysuru.

Last week, Union minister DV Sadananda Gowda, who has been put in charge of coordinating with Kerala on managing the pandemic, was dragged into the interstate and state-Centre standoff. Vijayan, who is keen on opening the roads between Kerala and Karnataka, tried his ‘pro-poor’ charm on Gowda, but the latter did not take the bait.

“I have reports that people from Kerala come to Mangaluru and stay there for a long time and refuse to go back. Since that state has a heavy load of corona infections, I cannot risk that being spread to Karnataka. All the interior roads leading to Madikeri, Chamarajanagar and Mysuru will remain closed indefinitely. However, one-driver-one-crew vans carrying rice and vegetables from Karnataka and vice versa from Kerala will be allowed,” Gowda said. However, he said his task was to mitigate the pandemic in Kerala.

On the other hand, coastal Karnataka also shares borders with Goa in the west, Andhra in the north, Tamil Nadu in the east. “We have not closed our borders with these states,” minister Sudhakar noted during a high-level review meeting in Bengaluru on the Covid-19 situation in the state.

Is this politically the right behaviour in a federal set-up? Is it medically ethical to block people from the neighbouring state seeking treatment? “Going strictly by medical ethics, blocking the movement of patients seeking medical attention is wrong, but in a situation like the pandemic we are facing now, we are constrained with the responsibility of stopping its spread. In such situations, it is appropriate to go by the local wisdom and action,” Mangaluru North MLA Bharat Shetty, himself a doctor, said.

“The idea of federalism does have a great role to play in circumstances such as national emergencies, but by closing the borders with Kerala, we have not committed sacrilege. Rather, we have done a service to the people by taking all steps to protect them from the pandemic. By doing so, we have tried to mitigate the virus from affecting a larger community of people,” Prof P L Dharma of Mangaluru University said. On Wednesday, the Kerala High Court ordered the Centre to remove the blockades from Kasargod to Mangaluru.