These are testing times. Home minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh and Karnataka CM B.S. Yediyurappa have all been diagnosed with Covid-19 within hours of one another.
In a sobering turn, the only woman in the UP Cabinet passed away a day after another senior party leader in Andhra Pradesh also succumbed to the coronavirus.
The SARS-CoV-2 is indeed the great leveller or not with Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram and Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit found positive among others. India’s Covid-19 tally has risen to 18 lakhs the daily case count surpassed 57,000 on successive days.
Over in Ayodhya, 15 policemen and a priest had contracted the coronavirus and by Monday, the number rose by five. But that and the pandemic raging has not deterred the Prime Minister and his loyal entourage from their bhoomi pujan agenda.
At any rate, only five people will be on the dais including RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the PM.
Commendably, a few are distancing — despite receiving an invitation even while Babri demolition co-accused L.K. Advani and M.M. Joshi were only asked over telephone, Uma Bharti will not attend — she would be at another spot on the Saryu bank. She would arrive only after “everyone has left, in order to protect the PM and thousands others”.
No one can find fault with Ms Bharti’s intentions this time. Nor of information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who went into self-isolation having met Mr Shah over the weekend.
Mr Shah’s decision to get himself admitted in Medanta, Gurugram, has drawn flak. Opposition leaders wondered as to why he chose to give reputed facilities like AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital a miss since public institutions need the patronage of the government to inspire trust.
But conversely, when the country’s home minister chooses private hospitals over public ones, it does say something about, if not the latter’s efficiency, but the government’s own investments in and expectations from public healthcare.
The virus has completely exposed it. India simply does not have the infrastructure to tackle the coronavirus.
These are testing times. Home minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh and Karnataka CM B.S. Yediyurappa have all been diagnosed with Covid-19 within hours of one another.
In a sobering turn, the only woman in the UP Cabinet passed away a day after another senior party leader in Andhra Pradesh also succumbed to the coronavirus.
The SARS-CoV-2 is indeed the great leveller — or not — with Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram and Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit found positive among others.
India’s Covid-19 tally has risen to 18 lakhs the daily case count surpassed 57,000 on successive days.
Over in Ayodhya, 15 policemen and a priest had contracted the coronavirus and by Monday, the number rose by five. But that and the pandemic raging has not deterred the Prime Minister and his loyal entourage from their bhoomi pujan agenda. At any rate, only five people will be on the dais including RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the PM.
Commendably, a few are distancing despite receiving an invitation even while Babri demolition co-accused L.K. Advani and M.M. Joshi were only asked over telephone, Uma Bharti will not attend she would be at another spot on the Saryu bank. She would arrive only after “everyone has left, in order to protect the PM and thousands others”.
No one can find fault with Ms Bharti’s intentions this time. Nor of information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who went into self-isolation having met Mr Shah over the weekend.
Mr Shah’s decision to get himself admitted in Medanta, Gurugram, has drawn flak. Opposition leaders wondered as to why he chose to give reputed facilities like AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital a miss since public institutions need the patronage of the government to inspire trust.
But conversely, when the country’s home minister chooses private hospitals over public ones, it does say something about, if not the latter’s efficiency, but the government’s own investments in and expectations from public healthcare.
The virus has completely exposed it. India simply does not have the infrastructure to tackle the coronavirus.
