What social distancing? Newly appointed MP Health Minister foregoes mask; receives grand welcome upon reaching his hometown

Since the fall of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, the state has been functioning without a Health Minister. This of course has stirred up quite the hornet’s nest, what with the country being in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government rectified this recently, appointing BJP leader Narottam Mishra as the Health Minister.

But if recent visuals are anything to go by, the state should not be relaxing just yet.

After a low-key appointment ceremony, Mishra returned to his hometown of Datia. There he was welcomed with open arms, and celebrations that appeared to include an aarti, even as shutterbugs looked on. It is quite the crush, and neither Mishra nor his associates are wearing masks.

According to an NDTV report, he did not wear a mask to his office either.

Going through Mishra’s Twitter profile, one can see that the political leader frequently retweets Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words. It is perhaps even more strange then that he chose to forego an item that the PM recently said was on its way to becoming “a symbol of cultured society” .

“If you want to save yourself and others from disease, you will have to wear a mask. My simple suggestion to everyone is to use a Gamchha or a towel to cover the face,” Modi’s website had quoted him as saying.

Not only that, the Madhya Pradesh government had recently made the wearing of masks mandatory.

Also Read: PM Modi interacts with CMs, says lockdown 3.0 may extend for Red Zones

Madhya Pradesh has so far recorded 2168 cases, as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s data on Monday evening. 106 people in the state have died.

Across India the total number of cases recorded thus far stands at 28,380.