Bini Dahal

Kumbh Mela, considered to be one of the most important festivities of India, is celebrated on the banks of the Ganges River in several sacred places, including Haridwar, a gap of every 12 years. Owing to this, the Hindus attach a great value to this unique pilgrimage. While the great religious festival is recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of India, it lately has notoriously become a 'coronavirus superspreader’ there.
India was doing well when it comes to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic until the outbreak of a second wave of the killer virus disease there. Yet, the Indian government was juggling with different tasks like the holding of Kumbh Mela and the elections. It decided to cut the festival short to one month beginning from April 1-30 this year. But the festival did not stop or control the number of pilgrims attending it. Records have shown that around 3.5 million pilgrims from different parts of India visited Haridwar of Uttarakhand state during the festival. They gathered on the banks of the Ganges River to take a holy dip known as ‘Shahi Snan'. It is believed that this dip in the holy water of the Ganges River acquits them from all the sins they had committed.
Numerous media reports have highlighted the lack of awareness among the pilgrims about the impact that the virus and its new variants have caused. Also, those people who had participated in the pilgrimage were found to be indifferent and busy stating how the dip in the river could let go of any possibility of being infected by the virus. But thousands of pilgrims were found infected with the virus disease and many even died due to complications. A lot of devotees from Nepal, including former King Gyanendra Shah and his spouse Komal, were also part of the festival. The couple returned home after being infected with the virus.
The Indian government's apathy and inability to put a ban on the celebration of the festival has made a greater number of people infected with the virus, putting a particular strain on the general public, healthcare system and vaccine makers. Reports about the lack of oxygen cylinders in hospitals of several states, including Maharastra, Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh and the consequent deaths of people because of lack of timely treatment indicates how much of a crisis the country has now been going through.
Situation in Nepal is also getting terrible. With a dramatic rise in new infections in major cities like Nepalgunj and Kathmandu, hospital beds are now full of COVID-19 patients. Hospitals are reported to be running out of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, oxygen and ventilators. India's Kumbh Mela is responsible for the alarming increase in the number of fresh COVID-19 cases in Nepal, too.
Now that multiple variants are emerging, it is a quite challenging task even for Nepal to deal with this situation. India and Nepal should now focus their energy on putting the pandemic under control as doing so is much more important than trying to deal with the political agenda. Saving people's lives must be prioritised. All the cultural and religious groups also must give up their snobbery and put off all the festivals and gatherings to avoid a bigger emergency. Only when we recognise, understand and be aware of the intensity of the damage that COVID-19 can cause, can we become more rational in our decision making.