PM Modi's Appeal For Symbolic Kumbh Mela: Too Late In The Day
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-04-17 07:37:00
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Prime Minister Modi
has done well to make an appeal to the akhadas to observe the Maha Kumbh Mela
symbolically this year in view of the raging second wave of corona virus. But
one feels that his appeal comes too late in the day. Two shahi snans, with over
10 lakh people taking a dip in the Holy Ganga, have already been completed and
more than 2000 pilgrims and many seers have already tested positive for
Covid-19 in the small number of random tests being conducted there. Swami Kapil Dev from Madhya Pradesh, who was the leader of the Maha
Nirvani Akhada, died while being treated for a coronavirus infection at a
private hospital in Dehradun.
While it is true that the government had
curtailed the event (it is held from mid-January to end-April) to just 30 days
in April and had directed that everyone attending the event had to come with a
Covid negative report with tests carried out 72 hours before reaching Haridwar,
the very idea of allowing such a huge congregation was risky, dangerous and
discriminatory in the first place. Since it was known from the second week of
March that a second wave of coronavirus had hit India and daily cases were rising
alarmingly all over the country, the administration should have given a second thought
to allowing the event. As Prime Minister and as a statesman who cared about
people's health, Narendra Modi should have made the appeal about holding a
symbolic Kumbh Mela in the third or fourth week of March and should have given
orders to cancel the event.
By allowing it and letting two shahi snans go by,
the government has made a blunder as this event is going to turn into a super
spreader. Since only about 20000 people are being tested every day in Haridwar
(as per reports in the media) it is certain that many Covid positive cases will
not be detected and these people will return home, spreading the virus all
along the route they take and in the city they reside. The only way to stop
this is to test each and every person leaving Haridwar and isolating those who
test positive. But the administration does not have the infrastructure to do
that. Hence, it is a given that most Kumbh Mela returnees will escape detection
and spread the virus all over India.
