Thiruvananthapuram: The Pinarayi Vijayan government may have erred on the side of caution by demanding that Keralites coming from foreign countries be allowed to board chartered flights only if they produce Covid-negative certificates.
There is a groundswell of resentment over the government stand, which is being interpreted as reluctance to accept more people coming by repatriation flights for fear that it will lose control of the fight against the pandemic.
Both Congress-led opposition United Democratic Front and BJP have joined the anti-government bandwagon, seeking to capitalise on the public resentment against the government stand.
The opposition knows that this is bound to have implications for the Pinarayi government, in its fifth year, and seeking a second term, as anything involving NRIs is a highly emotional issue in the state, which has been surviving with the support of remittances by the overseas workers.
In a similar emotional issue relating to the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple, the LDF government had been taught a bitter lesson in the Lok Sabha elections for taking a line that was at variance with the public mood.
Ironically, it was Pinarayi Vijayan, who had first written to Prime Minister Modi, asking for scrapping the requirement of Covid-negative certificate, when the Centre had organised evacuation flights from Italy and South Korea in the run-up to the Vande Bharat mission.
Now, he is asking the Centre to re-introduce the requirement as voluntary organisations in the Gulf countries are organising chartered flights to bring more affected people. The Kerala government has granted permission for 800 such chartered flights but insists that only passengers with a certificate to prove they are free from Covid be allowed.
Curiously, flights of regular airlines as part of the Vande Bharat mission do not have this requirement. Although the central guidelines allow chartered flights on the same conditions as that of the Vande Bharat mission, the Kerala government has demanded a departure in the case of the chartered flights, obviously with a view to limiting the number of people coming in.
This has led to widespread protests by the overseas Keralites, who are complaining that the government is disowning its citizens in distress, although the government used to go out of its way to woo their investment in happier situations.
They say that many of the people desperate to come back have been without a job for months and they are not in a position to afford the Covid test due to the high cost in their country of residence. In many cases, even air tickets have been provided by voluntary agencies.
The NRIs allege that the state government’s decision is politically motivated as many of the voluntary agencies organising the chartered flights have political affiliations, particularly to the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League, constituents of the UDF.
State health minister Shailaja Teacher has defended the state government decision on the ground that uncontrolled entry of people from Covid hotspots could jeopardise the state’s campaign against the deadly virus, which has so far been highly successful. She said that if potential virus carriers are allowed to travel in the same flight, the rest of the passengers would also be at risk.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has now written to the Prime Minister seeking central help in organising Covid tests in embassies and consulates so that the returnees can secure the required Covid-negative certificates. He has also requested the Prime Minister to organise special flights for Covid patients.
The overseas Keralites are, however, sceptical about such a possibility as the diplomatic missions are not equipped to hold such tests; they have neither the medical infrastructure nor the manpower to organise such tests.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala described the government move as ‘brutal’ and pointed out that it was against the resolution moved by the chief minister himself in the state assembly in March against the order of Union Ministry of Civil Aviation that only those who test negative for COVID should be repatriated from Italy and Korea.
