As the coronavirus outbreak intensifies, two unusual factors in Indiaare making it difficult to contain it. One is the large numbers of pot...
As the coronavirus outbreak intensifies, two unusual factors in Indiaare making it difficult to contain it. One is the large numbers of potentially infected returning passengers who are fleeing isolation wards or choosing not to report themselves at all. The other is the rising number of cases where influential people have used their power to evade quarantine.
Both factors have sparked to popular outrage, leading to strident calls for legal punishment for anyone who fails to observe quarantine norms.
The most visible example of this trend is the Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor, who arrived in Mumbai from London on March 9. Unknown to her, she was carrying the coronavirus. But because she had not displayed any symptoms yet, she passed through the airport’s detection mechanisms.
Since Kapoor was returning from the United Kingdom, as per Union government rules, she should have gone into self-quarantine. Instead, she appeared at a spree of parties in Lucknow, attended by the cream of Lucknow society – which also included business and political elites from Delhi.
The singer set off a chain of events which ended up exposing India’s parliamentarians, top bureaucrats and even the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath. Perhaps most troublingly, since then Adityanath has even met Prime Minister Modi.
Kanika Kapoor claims...
