Thousands of people have gathered by the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar for the Maha Kumbh Mela, literally one of the largest religious gatherings in the world.
Even though India is presently witnessing its most severe COVID-19 outbreak since the onset of the pandemic. Photos and videos from the event show that COVID-19 protocols like physical distancing and wearing masks are not being followed at the event.
If we recall the 2020 tabhligi jamaat crisis that saw all the media houses shouting from their cosy studios and calling the participants of the jammat as “super spreaders”, one is forced to count on the heaps of hypocricy and utter bias by the Indian media when it comes to the “Kumbh Mela” that witnessed thousands of people not following the SOP’s to prevent coronavirus from spreading in the country.
Not to talk of lashing out at the huge gathering at “Kumbh Mela”, Indian media instead tried to defend the gathering and created a false narrative of “no comparison between tablighi Jammat and the Kumbh Mela”.
A news carried by “TFIPOST.COM” shamelessly defended the mela and carried a news item that said, “No spitting, no holing up, no violence: Comparing Tablighi and Kumbh devotees is liberal tomfoolery at its best“.
“All entrants into Uttarakhand travelling from across the country to attend Kumbh are required to produce a negative Covid RT-PCR report conducted not before 72 hours of arrival“, was one catchy line in the news item that could put even science to shame because science and medical research has not even been able to explain a little percentage of its reaserch about as to how we can effectively control the spread of the virus.
For the sake of an example, if an individual is tested on 10 of March and the virus has infected him on the same day, the Rapid Antigen Test is not going to detect the antigens immediately. The same individual is given permission to enter into the gathering and in the due course of time the virus load is going to increase and hence he can spread the disease with ease.
Whatever happend in the Tablighi Jammat in the year 2020 too deserves condemnation because there is no doubt in the fact that when the Tablighi Jamaat attendees tested positive for Covid-19, some of them refused to isolate themselves and the concerned religious authoritiy did’t report it to the health officials which in fact may have spread the virus into a specific locality or the trains or buses they travelled in later on.
PS: Religion should not be a matter of concern when it comes to protecting the life of individuals in a muti-religious and secular country like india.
