It’s hard to believe there’s no animosity between the BJP and the Congress. That the communists have won over rivals Trinamool. And scored big against the BJP with the robust handling of ‘Kerala’ by the Pinarayi Vijayan Government, the only communist-ruled state in all of India.

But, for all the camaraderie Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fostering with videoconferencing and telephone calls, there still remains an undercurrent of unease. There’s lurking suspicion of other – political – motives. It’s but natural. What’s the guarantee Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi believes Modi’s transformation or she has she herself lost her political genes?

There’s no guarantee. You can take the politician out of politics but not the politics out of the politician. Of all hues and affiliations. Congress or BJP.CPM or Trinamool Congress. The truce is temporary. And the ceasefire will last till the virus remains active and the lockdown continues.

Those of us who think Narendra Modi – clad in ‘mundu’ and kurta, lighting a brass lamp at 9pm for 9 minutes – has taken ‘sanyas’ from politics must be in La La Land. Modi, like the leopard, will not change his political spots/dots. Ditto Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and Sitaram Yechury.

Definitely not Amit Shah and Mulayam Singh Yadav.MK Stalin and Pinarayi Vijayan. That undercurrent of lingering suspicion is there because of these political chipmunks, diehard members of the politi-‘Cos’. Their registered offices haven’t closed. Yet.

Political parties must in fact be praying hard to return to politics. And revel in the kind of discord that marks politics. Why, it’s only after the lockdown that there appeared a lull in politics. The ‘Namoste Trump’ event was out and out a political event that Modi and the BJP milked with a Denmark milkman’s expertise, social distancing be damned.

Why, the politics played over social distancing is endemic to the world. Modi and the BJP are just another politician and political party to be afflicted. Sonia Gandhi struck back at Modi’s lockdown a few days after Modi sprung it on an "unprepared" nation.

And she wasn’t mincing on the rough and tumble of politics. The messaging was 100 Carat political. The cheek-by-jowl presentation at Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s swearing in as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and the unaccounted for “bhakt” numbers at a Ramnavami event in Yogi Adityanath’s presence were also political.

Since then politics may look like it has disappeared altogether. But the truth is no attempts at political distancing will work. Politicians will ensure that. Without an iota of doubt, political parties must be, for sure, sketching plans that they would want to put in place post the crisis.

The shenanigans of the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz in Nizamuddin resulted in fresh bouts of politics being played under cover of present-day concerns. Both the BJP and the Congress played the fallout to the hilt with an eye on future political benefits.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi playing on the emotions of a people – under siege from a largely unknown entity – has political overtones. No less than talk that he is acting to a political game-plan built around ignorance and superstition that mark poor underdeveloped countries. But then this rebels against the “even a tea-seller can become Prime Minister” justification.

‘How can lighting a candle or ‘diya’ rid India of a pandemic?’ is the question. Along with the others: Is it to polarize and proliferate politically? Why was the Tablighi Jamaat not stopped in time? Why were foreign Tablighi allowed to enter India on tourist visas and then allowed to go their individual ways?

If these are not instances of playing politics, what are? In fact, everything about this crisis is political. All the questions and the controversies allowed to fizzle out. Like which should get primacy, economic growth or a chance at life for everybody? How long the lockdown; should it be lifted?

Is Modi not working for political legitimacy and currency with decisions linked to the crisis? If at all there is a lull in political brinkmanship and mudslinging, it’s because no politician and political party wants to appear anti-India and anti-people.

Modi, sounding all chummy-like, phone-calling a couple of former prime ministers and an ex-president, besides sundry other opposition leaders, smacks of more than bringing about a meeting of minds. It paints him in the winning corner with everybody saying, “Isn’t it nice of him?”

Others term it a ‘political masterstroke’. Modi is compelling rival political leaders and political parties to take a stand and it better be in line with his stand as it’s the only right stand even if it banks heavily on a diya and a candle to stay upright, shine bright. The lit face of a smartphone will also do.

Modi’s politics depends high on stiff doses of gestures and symbolism. Also on serial events. One for each decision and step taken. Loud. Next door. Modi is a genius event manager. With all the might of the state behind him.

There is politics in all of Modi’s gestures and symbolism. Given the opportunity, every politician will be the same. Let not anybody conclude that politics, as we know it, does not exist any longer. Politics will be around for as long as there are politicians and there are pandemics to politicize. (IPA Service)