Night Curfew During The Festive Season Is Not Right
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
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By Linus Garg
First publised on 2020-12-23 10:40:07
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
The hospitality and event management sector never had it so bad. Even as it was gearing up to provide some Yuletide and year-end cheer to people battered by the pandemic and the lockdowns in 2020, first Maharashtra and now Karnataka have imposed night curfew during the festive days to kill the initiatives. These restrictions are being imposed due to the discovery of the new mutant strain of coronavirus in the UK. Other states are likely to follow this.
No event of any kind is permitted from 10 pm to 6 pm in both the states. That effectively throws water on whatever plans the sector had of allowing people to celebrate Christmas and New Year in style, leaving aside the tensions and worries of the year that has gone by. Since the restrictions have come very late, most event organizers will suffer immense losses for booking of halls and celebrities. Since these events are theme based, they cannot be postponed but have to be cancelled.
But is this action good? The government has said that the new strain has not been found in India yet. The best way to curb its entry is to stop flights from the UK, trace and isolate people who have already arrived in the country from the UK since the end of November and also try to bar the entry of people who have come from other places but have visited the UK before that.
But imposing night curfew to kill the festive spirit and not allow the hospitality sector to attempt to revive itself after a horrendous 2020 is not the right way to go about combating a health scare. The government could have imposed restrictions on the festivities. But a night curfew is not right, especially when no other events - social or political - are banned during the day. A marriage with 200 people crowded in a hall or a political rally with 500 people in a park is more dangerous than a paid event where responsible people go to celebrate.
