Assam health and finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s rationalisation of cancer as “divine justice” for sins committed is callous and insensitive. It may be that there are limits to what governments can do to relieve the suffering of cancer victims. But it doesn’t follow that a health minister should proceed to rub salt into their wounds by blaming them for their plight. Rather than withdraw these irrational comments and express regret, Sarma took misplaced refuge in Hindu philosophy and karmic beliefs to hold his ground. In the current political climate where disease is mystified and vaccination is being vilified, science is becoming the casualty.
We have seen that politicians often resort to blaming the victim in cases of crimes – such as lynchings by cow vigilantes or assaults on women – as a rationalisation of their own failure to uphold the rule of law. If Sarma’s statement is meant to be a rationalisation of state failure in upholding public health, then it is a bizarre extension of the same principle to matters of disease as well. If indeed cancer, and by extension other diseases as well, is punishment for sins committed in past lives, providing public health services is tantamount to disrupting the course of divine justice. And Sarma doesn’t need to pay any attention to the health part of his portfolio at all.