One of the most poignant moments in the coronavirus crisis came when Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry refused to attend the National Assembly (NA) session after two lawmakers tested positive for covid-19. The two lawmakers were both representing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and had achieved a height of personal commitment and sacrifice that had eluded even party Chairman Imran Khan. Fawad has become so cautious about the disease that he refuses to be in the same hall as them.
That seems like how his party chief behaved towards other parliamentary party leaders, when he addressed them on closed link, and then went out before they could speak. The coronavirus might not be catching electronically, but catch Imran taking risks. Or maybe he was not taking any risk of getting caught by the corruption bug.
I wonder if this social distancing might not lead to some form of the caste system making a comeback. It does seem that the old days of declaring certain people untouchable and whose touch is to followed by anti-infection measures is making a return. I can even understand some really hygienic people insisting that even infected peoples’ shadows are infectious.
Of course, that might mean that corrupt people are actually Dalits, and treating them as such is actually fairly and squarely within the ethos of both Narendra Modi’s India and the PTI. And here we have Fawad behaving towards fellow MNAs the way his leader behaves towards corrupt politicians.
But then, as a politician once told me, “We do not go into politics to get arrested.” This was when a lot of prominent people were getting it in the neck after martial law had been declared. One might add, ‘to the peril of one’s life.’ Politicians the world over do not get into it to risk their lives. No one wants to fall victim to a political assassination. Maybe you spend your entire political career knowing that you could get killed, as the late Benazir Bhutto did, but that is not why you get into electoral politics. Otherwise, you become a suicide bomber. Now that is deciding to die for a cause. Misguided? probably? wrongheaded? certainly. But that is debatable. What is not is that you end your career scattered all over the place.
Some politicians may accept the risk of being killed. But none go into the profession with that in mind. Attending the NA is a great privilege. Fawad should know. Initially defeated in 1985 by a few votes, he won his election petition. He turned up to take oath, but his now unseated rival went around the lobbies persuading colleagues to stay away. Quorum was pointed out, and the House was adjourned. Ch Altaf’s rival got a stay, and Ch Altaf had to go way. It is another story that he won at last in 1990, that he was then appointed Punjab governor, an office in which he died. But Fawad seems to feel that he should not be made to sit in the same hall with coronavirus-positive people, no matter the social distancing.
Fawad must realise that social distancing is not all that counts. What matters is infected people leaving their germs on smooth services. Hmmm… That means desk thumping is risky, as is members crowding around a minister to get his signature on an application.
Crowding, it seems, is out. No more constituents treating Parliament Lodges as a sort of hostel. And in the wider world, no more violence during shopping. Here we had Fawad taking so many precautions in the NA, but in the markets, the reopening showed that people simply do not care. Or maybe they feel that social distancing is only meant for the home. So long as one is buying, it is okay to push, shove, jostle, bite, gouge… And we would not talk about when schools are re-opened, and there are breaks, when the school grounds provide the best example in modern urban life of the struggle for existence, when Nature is ‘red in tooth and claw.’
Someone who gave up the struggle for existence was Athar Shah Khan, the creator of the beloved character ‘Jaidi’. Yet another comedian gone. With the departure of Baboo Bral, Mastana, Dildar Pervaiz Bhatti and Amanullah, the cupboard had grown bare. Now it is barer still. It is not quite empty, but I will not mention who is still there. With so little to laugh about, (and so many fewer men to provoke that laughter), there is no way I am going to tempt fate.
