Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Migrant labour and the unemployed will be demanding their rights, not our mercy

By Dilip -
Dealing with a pandemic requires high levels of solidarity. It is, however, becoming equally clear that expressions of solidarity risk devolving into a sentimental charade. There is an incredible number of people across different sections of society who have, often at great risk to themselves, and under difficult circumstances, helped prepare us to fight the pandemic and mitigate a looming humanitarian disaster. The widespread cooperation with the gruelling demands of the lockdown, on some interpretations, can also be seen as expressions of solidarity. But this should not blind us to the fact that solidarity, in the true meaning of the term, is failing us, just at the moment we need it most.


It is failing us because at the core of the idea of solidarity is not pity, compassion, or even care. It is justice. The harrowing scenes of grief and injustice that are now emerging call for an immediate response. Pity, compassion and care, as morally worthy as they might be as sentiments, are not fundamentally related to solidarity. Solidarity presupposes something like the idea of commonality, some form of identification. Pity, compassion and care are acts of kindness that can often presuppose distance and power. Even the act of helping, as necessary as it might be, underscores someone’s privilege. This is why, in normal circumstances, it is an affront to the dignity of people to make them depend on someone’s compassion. Compassion as an expression of solidarity presupposes power, because it appeals to someone’s discretion, not to their obligation....
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/coronavirus-covid-19-india-lockdown-migrant-labourers-6367384/
India coronavirus: The underpaid and unprotected women leading the Covid-19 war
Sanjay Srivastava - India’s anti-COVID strategy is premised on a mistaken idea and a pretence
India's poorest 'fear hunger may kill us before coronavirus'
Mike Davis on COVID-19: The monster is finally at the door / Impact on the global poor / Capitalism vs human survival

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