On April 30, West Bengal declared that it had 744 Covid-19 cases. On the same day, the State principal health secretary, in a letter to the Union Health Ministry, said there were 931 cases. The mismatch re-ignited a political debate about Bengal’s handling of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry, Lav Agarwal, said the Centre had found gaps in reporting Covid data in some States (without naming any) and persuaded them to bridge this gap.
Agarwal’s statement came just 24 hours after the West Bengal Chief Secretary, Rajiva Sinha admitted to “lapses” in collating data on Covid-19 cases and deaths. He claimed the gaps have “now been plugged”, the State has “retrieved missing information” and resolved “problems relating to real time collection of data”.
This admission by Sinha came 40 days of lockdown and amidst a raging political controversy, particularly with the BJP repeatedly alleging that the true extent of the infection and mortality were not being reported accurately.
The Arogya Setu app says West Bengal has 1,344 confirmed cases and 140 deceased. On a 24 hour basis, there has been 85 new cases and seven deaths.
“Handling Covid was an administrative issue. For some reason, we made it political. Naturally, the BJP seized the opportunity,” a senior Trinamool Congress leader said, requesting anonymity.
According to BJP MP, Swapan Dasgupta, things were being done in such a “brazen manner” that it was for everyone to see. The collapse of the health system and panic amongst the public could not be over-looked either.
“She (the Chief Minister) thought making this issue political would help. It did not. Moreover, the State has now practically owned up that there is a goof up,” he told BusinessLine.
Bitter political war
Over the last 40-days, what began as a war of words over shortage of testing kits soon turned into a full-fledged political turf battle.
“It was suicidal of Mamata Banerjee to get into a direct confrontation with the Centre over Covid. She wanted publicity. She wanted to highlight herself. Gain more popularity. But it backfired completely,” Bishwanath Chakraborty, a poll analyst, said.
In early April came intimation that “an audit committee” was set up to determine the number of deaths that could be directly linked to Covid-19 or attributed to co-morbidities. Bengal saw two-three deaths being confirmed every two-to-three days as the committee began working.
The BJP attacked the Chief Minister and the Trinamool by accusing the State of downplaying “Covid-related deaths”.
Subsequently videos surfaced on social media regarding alleged poor management in the State’s flagship Covid hospital, MR Bangur. A knee-jerk reaction to ban mobile phones in Covid hospitals, saw the move being linked to a purported video expose.
This was followed up by another purported letter that got circulated on social media where a senior health functionary had asked hospital staff not to report “Covid as the cause of death”. The opposition went hammer and tongs at the State government. The functionary ended up being transferred. Claims by the State like faulty test kits or corrective action being taken in many cases were falling to deaf ears.
According to Chakraborty,“The BJP used social media in a very coordinated manner. They built pressure on the State government. This forced the State to admit mistakes or reconsider multiple decisions,” .
Turf battle with Centre
To make matters worse, Banerjee did not take lightly the fact that two Inter-ministerial Central Teams (IMCT) were sent to study “red zones” - affected districts of Bengal – and report on the State’s handling of the pandemic. Letters were shot off with the CM accusing the Centre of keeping her in the dark. In fact, there was initial resistance to movements of these teams. This prompted another series of “strong” letters from the Cabinet Secretary Ajay Bhalla,
A series of reports were then made public with the teams making different observations about Covid-19 handling. In its final observations, on May 5, the IMCT mentioned that of a total reported number of 816 Covid patients, the mortality rate of 12.8 per cent and it “is by far the highest in the country”. “This extremely high mortality rate is a clear indication of low testing and weak surveillance and tracking,” it said.
Visible changes
Following all round pressure, the Bengal government made changes to its reporting patterns and fine tuned its strategy to fight Covid.
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor was also brought in for crisis management; different twitter handles came up to disseminate information.
But, the most visible change was when Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, took a step back and said all Covid-related issues were to be handled by an “empowered Committee” and the Chief Secretary, Rajiva Sinha.
The next big change was two reports of the audit committe were made public, in a bid to bring in transparency. The first report said there were 57 deaths in Bengal – of which 18 were “directly related to Covid” and in another 39 instances, “Covid was an incidental finding”. The report was subsequently revised, and on April 30, it said there were 105 death of which 33 were linked to Covid and in 72, Covid was an incidental finding.
Banerjee, who is also the health minister, disavowed this committee on April 29. A day later, the Chief Secretary, gave the first hint towards shelving it.
Beginning May 6, information flow on Covid has increased drastically. For starters, there is a list of “district-wise containment The Chief Minister’s nephew, Abhishek, also took to Twitter to clarify that the State was in the “bottom 10” on many counts.
“Banerjee’s political advisors have clearly asked her not to be at the forefront. She was the one facing criticsm and the Trinamool’s poll prospects were being hit,” Chakraborty said.
Assembly polls are due in Bengal in 2021 while municipal elections which were due in 2020 has been postponed indefinitely in view of the Covid outbreak.
Losing support base
According to Chakraborty, there could be a strong erosion in Trinamool’s support base, across both urban and rural areas. The alleged discrepancies in Covid numbers and deaths have led to people losing faith in it, especially in urban areas.
“If Mamata was gaining a support base with her anti-CAA stand, she has lost quite a bit of such support with the Covid crises. A number of urban voters are unhappy with her now. The misappropriation of rations is another thing that has gone against her in the rural areas,” he pointed out.
Chakraborty, however, adds that Trinamool should have “protected their trumpcard” - in this case Banerjee – earlier. “Mamata is your trumpcard. As a party you would not want to use it at the drop of a hat. Rather you have to protect it for big occasions like the 2021 polls,” he said.