To a tweet by Subhashini Ali, Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] Polit Bureau member, with a picture of her ancestral home in Kerala’s Anakkara village where her 100-year-old aunt who lives alone is getting weekly visits by a doctor and a nurse from a nearby palliative care centre set up by the government, someone commented that it was socialism at its worst.
“Everything is free. No responsibility for individuals...” the critic said.
However, someone else replied to this comment: “And this is capitalism at its worst, expects responsibilities even from a 100-year-old. Everything comes with a price tag. Humanity is the last thing on their list (sic).”
In an interview with The Hindu a week ago, Ms. Ali spoke about the palliative care assistance given by the government, asking: “Can anybody expect anything like this anywhere else in India? Absolutely no. There’s no way the people’s lives are taken care of by a government as it is happening in Kerala.”
She believes that the work done by the government in the crisis-ridden period has been tremendous and recounts the words of appreciation of migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh, “who are not voters” in Kerala, who were given food, medical care and basic accessories for travel during the pandemic.
“That is because it has considered all human beings as deserving respect,” she says.
Diversionary tactics
Ms. Ali rubbishes allegations against the government calling them diversionary tactics. While the Centre is using its agencies to target political opponents all over India, unfortunately in Kerala, the UDF is just echoing the BJP, she says.
While crores of children in north India have been deprived of a year of education for lack of access to Internet, look at what Kerala has done to provide everyone access. What the government has done in the education sector is ‘phenomenal’, she maintains.
‘Love-jihad’ question
On the attempts by the BJP to get more than a toehold in Kerala, she says the whole Indian society has been caste-ridden where a section of people hanker after some old, golden age of privilege, which probably never existed. “They are prejudiced against the backward castes, women and minorities... But the BJP feeds on such retrograde tendencies.”
On the BJP’s promise of a law against ‘love-jihad’, she says the Uttar Pradesh example should be viewed seriously. “It is not against love jihad because there is no such thing and the courts have opined against it again and again. So, they have made conversion for the purpose of marriage impossible and it has been criminalised. Who are being arrested? Young Muslims and Christians! And Christians are being accused of indulging in conversion, which is not true at all. But it is difficult to disprove that. Nuns are under attack daily which is under-reported.”
Fundamental right
“The laws are stringent and wide-ranging. What we forget is that the right to choose a marriage partner is also a fundamental right for women. These are Constitutional rights getting attacked. They are doing away with these rights,” she says.