Olympic Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra has shut up BJP’s Yogeshwar Dutt for defending the Kumbh Mela, which has become a superspreader amidst the latest wave of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic in India. The religious gathering by Hindus drew worldwide criticism as experts said that the event had the potential to contribute to the dangerous spread of the pandemic, which is wreaking havoc in several parts of India.
Dutt, who unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls on a BJP ticket in Haryana in 2020, had controversially tweeted, “No one in the Kumbh Mela is reaching there illegally, people are following all protocols, no one is spitting at the security and medical staff, no one is running away after hiding from the administration. Stop defaming the peaceful devotees at Kumbh.”
He had concluded his tweet by thanking the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat.
Without mincing words, India’s shooting icon Abhinav Bindra replied, “Should the Khumb mela even be held while an infectious pandemic lays waste to india? A virus does not discriminate between religions.”
Should the Khumb mela even be held while an infectious pandemic lays waste to india? A virus does not discriminate between religions.
— Abhinav A. Bindra OLY (@Abhinav_Bindra) April 17, 2021
Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered in Haridwar in Uttarakhand to attend the Kumbh Mela. Several Hindu seers later decided to withdraw from the congregation after a top seer died of COVID-19. Dozens other Hindu saints had tested positive for the virus.
The governments in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi have said that those returning from the Kumbh Mela would be required to quarantine themselves for 14 days failing which they would face legal actions.