Politics over vaccine
The promise of free distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine for Bihar in exchange of votes for the BJP is not only politically immoral and unethical but also constitutionally flawed as well.
It is absolutely immoral and unethical because such a conditional offer of a life-saving vaccine still in different stages of trials amounts to a trade-off on critical issues of public health care. It is constitutionally flawed because such an offer cannot be made to one particular State going through an election process to the exclusion of others. This is unabashed exploitation of people’s genuine paranoia in a State well known for the appalling state of its public health-care infrastructure. The party’s vision document also promises a job bonanza even as lakhs of people from this State with chronic unemployment have been migrating in desperation to the rest of India in search of a livelihood. In this context, voters in the State would do well to remember the Prime Minister’s unfulfilled promise of creating two crore new jobs annually in his election speeches in 2014. It is for the people in Bihar to take a final call.
S.K. Choudhury,
Bengaluru
Manual scavenging
The spate of letters reflecting shock and surprise on seeing a scavenger in a manhole provokes me to ask these questions. Were municipal authorities aware of the flagrant violation of the rules laid down that manual scavenging should not be permitted under any circumstances? Was any supervisor nearby to oversee this operation? It is a stark fact that none in charge of clearing manholes pays attention to the provisions of the regulations laid down.
Mani Nataraajan,
Chennai
