Who's afraid of COVID-19-voting?

No one's talking about it, and no one probably will. But voter apathy, on the wane of late with everyone 'doing their democratic duty', may have got a booster shot in a new excuse - fear of contracting Covid. While the majority of India's electorate will, if all goes well, go out in droves to exercise their democratic right, there will be at least some who usually go to the hustings because of the social indignity attached to 'not bothering to vote'. The NOTA option - none of the above - the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission to provide in polls in 2013, put paid to the standard excuse of not voting because of a purported lack of choice among contesting parties or candidates. With the third wave on, and likely to stay when five states go to the polls, Covid may provide those wracked by electoral ennui a handy defence.

As an excuse, the novel coronavirus (nCov) is quite novel. Who would dare wag a finger at someone 'too concerned about contracting Covid' by lining up to vote? The beauty of this alibi is that neither will it be recorded in any psephologist's equivalent of an RT-PCR test after votes have been cast, nor will anyone believe that something as serious as a pandemic can be used to dodge the 'sacral' business of voting. Of course, we condemn this tactic. But it could well be there for the taking in February-March.