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