Quarantine has snowballed into the hottest political issue in Kerala, with the opposition parties forcing the Pinarayi Vijayan government into a corner over the state government decision to make the evacuees pay for their care in isolation.
Anything involving non-resident Keralites (NRK) is a highly emotive issue in the state as a large percentage of families have at least one member working abroad. The opposition has succeeded to play on these sentiments by exposing the state government’s double stand on aiding the return of people stranded in some of the heavily infected countries in the Arabian Gulf.
The opposition is citing a submission by the government in the high court earlier that the government was prepared to provide free quarantine of the evacuated people, including testing and treatment when necessary.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced a couple of days earlier that those coming back will have to bear the cost of quarantine and care as the state government was not in a position to finance the operations.
The apparent U-turn provided the opposition its best opportunity to corner the state government by asserting that only about 10,000 people have so far been evacuated and the government is already reneging on its commitment.
To add to the government’s embarrassment, the opposition parties offered to organise sponsorship for paying the money on behalf of the returnees, most of who were in a miserable condition as they lost their jobs in the wake of lockdown in their respective countries of residence.
The offer forced the chief minister to claim that his announcement earlier about the evacuees being made to pay was being misconstrued and that the government was examining the modalities of working out the criteria to determine people who are eligible for free quarantine.
The chief minister and his ruling CPI-M were quick to realise the potential political fallout of a decision that would be considered as going against non-resident Keralites, who have been the mainstay of the state’s economy by way of contributing a major chunk of the state coffers.
The opposition parties are exposing the dichotomy in the government’s stand towards the non-residents by recalling how the chief minister had opposed the decision by the central government to insist on a covid-negative certificate as a precondition to take any evacuation flight from Italy, where a large number of Keralites are living and working.
Pinarayi Vijayan opposed the decision, questioning the propriety of the Modi government preventing Indian citizens from coming back when they are in trouble in a foreign country.
The opposition used the same argument against Pinarayi Vijayan when he wrote to the Centre saying evacuees should be allowed to board the flight only after undergoing a test to prove that they were not suffering from covid.
The state government has managed to do some face saving by beating a retreat for the time being, but the opposition is in no mood to give up a trump card which will come very handy for them in the elections, first to the local bodies this year and later to the assembly next year.
