A police complaint was against former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and CEO of the Congress Kamal Nath. For his remarks, this identified B.1.617 as the ‘Indian version’ of the Coronavirus. He was charged under the Disaster Management Act and Section 188 for distributing selective material (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant).
The BJP who filed the complaint requested a case be registered by the Crime Branch of the state police.
Kamal Nath said at a press conference Friday that the planet is known to be “The Indian variant” for the strain B1.617 – first discovered in India.
“Indians in the world have become synonymous with corona and ‘Mera Bharat’ (Our India) has turned into Covid (epicentre),” Mr Nath was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India.
The former Chief Minister of the Congo said that in fact, 1,02,002 patients in Covid died in Madhya Pradesh alone in the period March to April, asking what he termed the number of deaths “projected by India” by the COVID-19.
The BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan, his comments upset his successor.
In a series of tweets , Chief Minister Chouhan questioned if Mr Nath’s statement will not “hurt the country’s respect” and whether it does not “amount to sedition?
“Does using words like, ”Mera Bharat Covid”, ”Indian Corona” suit the Congress? Won’t the morale of Indians living in other countries dip with such statements? Won’t it hurt the country’s respect? Does such a statement not amount to sedition?” he asked.
“We are working day in and day out to combat COVID -19 and I hoped that all political parties would be onboard given this national crisis. But I am deeply saddened that former MP Chief Minister Kamal Nathji was destroying the morale of the country and the state (with his remarks),” Mr Chouhan said
The BJP’s central leaders have chastised Kamal Nath’s remarks.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar had said that even the World Health Organization had explained that every version is not named after any region, pointing out that Mr Nath used the word “Indian corona.”
“He (Mr Nath) did not stop there and said ‘hamari pahchan mera Bharat Covid’… This is an insult to India. Many Congress leaders are making such statements. Many leaders said this is an Indian variant,” Mr Javadekar said.
The government objected to the B.1.617 Covid version being labelled as a “Indian variant” earlier this month. According to the nation, the term was not used by the World Health Organization. Viruses or mutants should not be known by the names of the countries where they were discovered, according to the WHO.
According to Reuters, the Information Technology ministry has written to social media companies, requesting that any material that points to an “Indian version” of the coronavirus be removed.
