Yesterday I happened to see a post from a Kerala MLA asking people to “wear masks, practice social distancing and stay safe to fight COVID together”. All I wanted to do when I saw the post was to throw something at the screen out of anger. In the weeks leading up to the elections in multiple states, almost every political leader of every goddamn political party and their blind followers broke every COVID protocol possible, had huge gatherings, super-crowded election rallies, open news debates on the streets – no masks, not even a hint of social distancing. They did everything they could to make sure that the spread would become impossible to handle, killing thousands and thousands more. And one week after elections, morons like this MLA have a sudden urge to impart words of wisdom on how to fight the pandemic. Just wait and see how this urge dwindles and goes out the window on the day of the election results – because what is an election win without massive success rallies!

For so long now I have felt angry and helpless at the same time watching people take this pandemic so lightly, or bend the rules based on their convenience. They keep repeating the same words – “We can’t let the virus stop us from having a normal life”, “We will eventually get immunity against the virus; so it’s okay even if we catch it” and so on. But just how much of a normal life they were planning to go back to, I had no idea until I actually saw them go all out in doing all the things they were doing before the pandemic struck. For those people who have no option other than to go out and work to earn their livelihood, to not starve to death – yes, they can’t let the virus stop them. Although not quite normal, with all precautions in place, they have to do what it takes to survive. But what about those beings who think normal is going on trips to crowded places, frequenting malls, watching movies at cinema halls and simply roaming around in the midst of the pandemic, as if everything is absolutely okay? Forget the low mortality rate because that is based on the huge number of people who have contracted this disease. Just think of the number of people who have lost their lives to this virus – that ought to put things in perspective for you. But no, that is too much to ask for, isn’t it? Especially from people who were having ridiculous premature victory celebrations of “defeating COVID” as early as in March 2020, when the pandemic was just getting started. I guess they are still living in that bubble.

Everyone wants everything the way it was before. I won’t lie – I do too. But that doesn’t mean we do what we please. And that is exactly what these idiots are doing. In the name of “normal”, they have no shame in endangering the lives of others. Worse yet, they all act like they are saints and blame others for doing exactly what they are doing. If it is a protest you support, then you say it is a necessity; if it isn’t, you say it is wrong. If it is a religious gathering you support, you say it is tradition; if it isn’t, you say it is wrong. If the leaders breaking COVID protocols belong to a political party you support, you find justifications for their actions; if they belong to a rival political party, you abuse them. In the name of elections, majority and minority appeasements and political gains, every single one of them, from the topmost leaders of the country, to the topmost leaders of every state, to the lowest rung of their political pawns kept demonstrating a complete disregard for the seriousness of the situation. They keep taking digs at each other for breaking COVID protocols, while doing the very same thing themselves.

And then these shameless people go ahead with their sermons on “fighting COVID together”, for which I have only one response – Are you fucking kidding me??? There is no together! If there was even the slightest sense of “together”, we wouldn’t be in this pathetic a mess right now. If they had any respect for “together”, so many innocent people wouldn’t have paid the price for other people’s mistakes and lost their lives. So do not fucking talk about “fighting this together” – I repeat, THERE IS NO TOGETHER ANYMORE!

Also published on Medium.