Coronavirus cuts through political divides. And then cuts like the political scalpel. As several leaders—including Union ministers—are hospitalised or are in home quarantine, another political drama too has gone viral. And it all began when Union home minister Amit Shah, and later Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, fell ill.
Senior Congress leader and former MP CM Digvijaya Singh tweeted that Shah and Chouhan have been afflicted for “ignoring the beliefs of Sanatan Dharma”. BJP leaders hit back at Singh for mocking those infected by the virus. Singh, however, didn’t explain for what sins his party colleague and former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah tested positive. Then came the news that Rajya Sabha MP and former chief justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi too has been tested positive. But the news turned out to be fake. Gogoi denied it.
These dramas came in between a steady rise in the number of positive cases in India, with the number now over 19 lakh, the third highest in the world after the US and Brazil. And also rising in India is the number of political leaders down with Covid.
Uttar Pradesh minister Kamal Rani Varun, who had earlier tested positive for coronavirus, died in Lucknow recently. There are other notable fatalities too. Bihar BJP MLC Sunil Kumar Singh, Trinamool MLA Tamonash Ghosh, DMK legislator J. Anbazhagan and CPI’s Bihar state council secretary Satya Narayan died after contracting the contagion.
Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan too has tested positive and is undergoing treatment to the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon, where home minister Shah has been recuperating. Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Babul Supriyo have gone into self-isolation.
In Karnataka, chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa has been admitted to Manipal Hospital in Bangalore, along with Siddaramaiah. Yediyurappa is the fourth member of his cabinet to test positive.
In UP, several ministers, including Mahendra Singh, Jai Pratap Singh and former cricketer Chetan Chauhan, besides state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh had tested positive.
Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit and Congress MP Karti Chidambaram have also contracted the disease. West Bengal CPI(M) leader Mohammed Salim said he has been hospitalised.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the first CM to test positive, has been treated at Chirayu Medical College and Hospital in Bhopal since July 25. Water resources minister Tulsi Ram Silawat, minister of state for panchayat and rural development Ramkhelawan Patel, BJP State general secretary (organisation) Suhas Bhagat and Ashutosh Tiwari, organisation secretary, Gwalior and Bhopal division, had also tested positive. In June, Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Kunal Chaudhary, who had COVID-19, voted for the Rajya Sabha elections in PPE.
Most politicians have gone to private hospitals for treatment. There are a couple of exceptions—former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh went to AIIMS Patna; Raman Patkar, a minister in the Gujarat government, got admitted to U.N. Mehta Hospital in Ahmedabad; and Congress MP Susmita Deb sought treatment at Silchar Medical College in Assam. The leaders requested those they had come in contact with to get tested or self-quarantine.