Political rallies in West Bengal
The political parties fighting for power in the state of West Bengal are taking rallies. Hundreds and thousands of people ignore the mask mandate and the social distancing rule and stand in close proximity with each other. BJP is especially in the focus for breaking the Covid rules and regulations.
The logic seems to be: if the opponents are taking rallies and we don’t, then we will surely lose. That is why we must take rallies and throw mud and dung at the opponents.
But what if the parties gave a public message that they won’t be taking any political parties for the safety of the people they are trying to win over for some votes? What would happen if the message portrayed them in a “higher than thou” light and told the people that for them appropriate response to the pandemic was more important than holding rallies?
Would that impress people? Would people experience a change of heart if the party they hate did this?
And more important, if one party did this and went public with the message, and people liked it, then the opponent parties would have a pressure to follow them and stop taking rallies themselves. Won’t this help the people and the first party to do this would hold the benefit of the first move?
I am curious whether this strategy would work. But it can only be tested if real people take real decisions in line with what I have suggested. This chance will not come again once the power grab of the pandemic on the people loosens.
