By Karan Thapar

Let me start with an admission. I accept what I’m about to state could be coloured by the fact I have Covid. I would like to believe it’s not but I can’t be certain. Each of you must judge for yourself.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bihar manifesto promise of a free vaccine if it wins is immoral and I’ll soon explain why. The manifesto proclaims: “It is our promise that when a vaccine for Covid is available … every Bihar resident will be given free vaccination.” Nirmala Sitharaman, who released the document, went further. “This is the first promise in our Sankalp Patra”, she said. So it follows it’s the most important. And it’s made “with responsibility”. In other words, the Party has carefully thought it through.

Now the promise does not breach India’s carefully defined electoral laws or rules. Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act states that “a declaration of public policy or a promise of public action” are acceptable manifesto promises and not an attempt to gain undue influence. Congress’s NYAY scheme of 2019, the DMK’s and AIADMK’s repeated cornucopia of goodies in Tamil Nadu elections and countless loan waivers for farmers by several parties are justified on this ground.

However, it’s when you consider what these promises amount to – what they’re, in fact, saying to voters – that you will realize the ocean-like gap between waiving farm loans or giving gratis TVs and promising a free vaccine. These manifesto promises are transactional. Although no money is changing hands it’s not incorrect to say they’re ways of soliciting people’s votes. Colloquially we call that ‘buying’. A party is saying to the voters if you vote for me in sufficient numbers and I win I will do A, B and C for you.

Now promises of free TVs or loan waivers cater for peoples material needs. A promise of a free vaccine, in the middle of a pandemic raging for ten months, plays upon peoples fears. Not for their country, state or community but of their own lives. In these circumstances, the unstated part is if you don’t vote for the BJP your life could be at risk. Metaphorically speaking, that feels like a gun to the head.

What makes it worse is this promise has been made by a party that’s ruling the entire country. The BJP is not just committed but also obliged to do its best for every Indian. At this time every citizen is afraid of Covid and anxious for a vaccine. I would add the majority are not just hoping for but also dependent upon a free vaccine. Yet the BJP has only promised it to the voters of Bihar.

Let me, however, go one step further. There’s a critical difference between the British Labour Party promising a National Health Scheme in the 1945 elections and the BJP promising a free vaccine in Bihar in 2020. There wasn’t a pandemic in 1945 and certainly not the worst for a century. Tens of millions were not infected by disease. Hundreds of thousands were not in danger of dying. The NHS created a system to cater for a long-felt need. The vaccine is an urgent solution to a pressing and, perhaps, worsening crisis. The British people had lived their lives waiting for a NHS and, if necessary, could have waited longer. Many Indians – perhaps a majority? – could die if the pandemic sharply escalates and they can’t afford a vaccine.

Ultimately, it’s not the immorality of this promise that distresses me. It’s the distastefulness of it. It’s unbecoming. It’s beyond the pale. I didn’t think people would stoop so low to get someone’s vote. There are some limits you do not cross. Isn’t that what they mean when they say there’s honour even amongst thieves?

As I end I’m reminded of the title of Alan Paton’s book ‘Cry, the beloved country’. If you substitute the definite article with the pronoun ‘my’ it could apply to us.