Situation of the Covid19 is getting worsened at the Kumbh Mela. It has been twelve days into the Kumbh mela at Haridwar amid a Covid resurge when the Uttarakhand government is struggling to put in place practices like wearing masks and carrying out of the thermal screening. By Monday evening, over 28 lakh devotees had turned up for the second shahi snan in the Ganges. As per officials from the medical department, over 18,169 were tested between 11:30 pm on Sunday & 5 pm on Monday, in which 102 cases were found positive.
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On Tuesday, NCP leader and Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik said that the central government should be concerned and that it should take things seriously as the Kumbh Mela and the elections can worsen the Covid19 situation in India. On the steps taken by Maharashtra, he added, “Strict restrictions are imposed in Maharashtra. Malls, religious places, shops, cinema halls, and social, political, and religious functions are banned. There is a mini-lockdown situation in the state. Arrangements are being made so that there should be no lack of beds and oxygen cylinders in hospitals. The situation is being monitored. We held discussions with other parties for further course of action.”
It was reported that from the Haridwar station to Har ki Pauri and other places like Ghats, there were no arrangements for thermal screening anywhere. Although there was a barrier of the entry norm of Covid negative RT-PCR report, which is witnessing huge rush, many people are arriving without the reports, but are being let through. Even the challans for not wearing masks were being avoided at many places. Many people arriving from outside the state mentioned that no thermal screening or mandatory asking for the submission of the negative RT-PCR reports was being carried out anywhere, visibly to avoid the issue of crowd and possible stampede. An official at the site, in fact, confirmed that the main focus was crowd management and not containment of the pandemic.
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Let us consider three statements which were doing rounds of various platforms of the media last year. “This is not a negligence. It’s a serious criminal act.”
“Spreading Covid-19 is also like terrorism, and all those who are spreading the virus are traitors.”
“The government should not sit quiet. It should gun down a few to ensure they follow lockdown norms.”
The above three are just a few of the comments by ministers and other members of Bharatiya Janata Party members from 2020. These statements were referring to a gathering by the Tablighi Jamaat group in Delhi that turned out to be an early Covid-19 hotspot. The Jammat had begun their congregation before the Coronavirus was declared a health emergency and many believed that the acts of the Jamaat can be considered condemnable.
In this perspective of looking at a public gathering in the context of a health emergency, a question arises for those who condemned Jamaat. The question is: Is not the act of gathering at Kumbh Mela equally condemnable especially during the second wave, or does one religion have more leverage than the others?