Should the UP CM, cabinet and bureaucrats in Lucknow go into a quarantine?

Even as Dushyant Singh, MP and his mother, former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, put themselves in self-quarantine after the singer tested positive, health minster Jai Pratap Singh, who was also present at the same party hosted by former BSP MP Akbar Ahmed Dumpy, has done no such thing.

Even after the 41 year old singer tested positive, the mnister has been doing business as usual, attending cabinet meetings, attending office and meeting people. According to sources in his own department, he is yet to be tested.

Indeed, while the Health Department claims Kanika Kapoor had come in contact with 68 people since she arrived in Lucknow, they also admit that till Friday, only 20 of them had been tested.

A senior doctor in King George’s Medical University (KGMU), which is the only hospital in Lucknow equipped to test for the coronavirus, said on condition of anonymity that the chief minister, other ministers and senior bureaucrats who came in contact with them, should have voluntarily gone into self-quarantine by now.

“It is unfortunate that the health minister is still meeting people and attending official meetings,” he said and added,“Even the Chief Minister and other ministers should go for testing and go for self-quarantine.”

The Health Minister had attended a cabinet meeting on Tuesday and the next day had attended a function to mark the completion of the Yogi Government’s three years in office.

The Bollywood singer, who had performed in London in 2015 during PM Modi’s interaction with the diaspora and is known for her chartbuster song Baby Doll, attended three high profile parties at the state capital on March 13,14 and 15. Vasundhara Raje Scindia later tweeted that she had attended the party along with her son Dushyant and had placed herself in quarantine after learning that Kanika Kapoor had tested positive for the virus. Two other MPs, Derek O’Brien and Anupriya Patel, who had come in contact with Dushyant Singh in Parliament, also opted for self-quarantine.

“If these leaders are so candid what is preventing UP’s Health Minister to go for self-isolation and start public contact only after he comes clean,” says the KGMU doctor.

Yogesh Raghuvanshi, spokesperson of Health Department said that the government is tracking those who came in direct contect with Kanika Kapoor. If any of them tests positive then we will track their close contacts too,” he said.

The singer had landed in Mumbai from England and thereafter visited both Kanpur and Lucknow. She had come in contact with not just political leaders but also with bureaucrats, doctors and businessmen.