Union Home Minister Amit Shah finally addressed the havoc that the crowd present at Kumbh Mela created as hundreds of thousand people gathered in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar to take holy dip. He also added that people visiting Kumbh Mela as well as those observing Ramzan festivities failed to follow the protocols and maintain covid-19 appropriate behaviour. While the current spread is “certainly problematic”, the government had taken the right decisions to ensure the victory in the second fight against covid-19.
” Whether it was Kumbh or Ramzan, there has been no Covid-appropriate behaviour. It cannot happen. That is why we had to appeal and the Kumbh Mela has now turned symbolic,” he said in an interview with Times Now.
He denied that the Centre wasn’t focused on the pandemic after tackling the first wave which have now led to the scarcity of medicines and oxygen cylinders.
“Wherever there has been a second wave or third wave, each new wave has been at least twice the size of earlier one. The new variant of the virus spreads quicker. It is less lethal but it spreads faster,” he said citing global situation.
“The speed at which the virus is spreading today is certainly problematic but I have full faith that we will win the second fight against the pandemic, ” he added.
On the most asked question that whether the country will go under a lockdown as the number of cases continue to mount, he said, “For the last three months, we have allowed states to impose restrictions as per their analysis. Every state is fighting a different battle. Evaluation will have to be done by state governments, and they have the right to impose restrictions. It is up to states to decide what needs to be done to curb the spread. If the situation is normal in Assam even after the elections, what is the need to impose lockdown there,” he said.
