Even as the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been hospitalised with COVID-19 infection, the ‘habitual violation’ of preventive norms by Home Minister Narottam Mishra is in the eye of storm.
Mishra’s antipathy to use of masks, and failure to maintain social distancing at public functions and interactions, have been a topic of discussion in Madhya Pradesh for quite some time. With Chouhan infected with COVID-19, senior Congress leaders, including Rajya Sabha member Digvijaya Singh, pointed out the repeated violations by Mishra.
Narottam Mishra, among most powerful ministers in the Chouhan cabinet, who represents the Datia constituency in one of the most COVID-19-affected Gwalior region, has always been seen in public functions and interactions without the mask and not maintaining the physical distancing norms. Also, most of the time, his supporters and personal staff around him are without the mandatory mask.
Mishra, who was also the health minister of the state till July 13 distribution and reallocation of portfolios, constantly shares his photographs and videos without the mask and mingling with the crowd on his social media accounts.
Even on Saturday when the CM was hospitalised, Mishra shared photographs of him participating in public functions in his constituency Datia, without mask. Interestingly, one of the photographs he shared on Twitter shows him sanitising the hands of beneficiaries receiving government relief material, while he himself and those with him are not wearing the mask.
On Sunday, too, Mishra participated in an inauguration function of a by-pass road in Datia without the mask and amidst large crowd.
Using a news clip of his programme on Twitter, ex-minister and Congress leader P.C. Sharma questioned the irresponsible attitude of the home minister. Sharma also questioned the dual attitude of the government saying that there cannot be two laws in one country. “On one hand, common people cannot go out and get fined for venturing out without mask, and there is no action on the home minister himself for violating the norms,” he said.
He also tagged the Chief Minister Chouhan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J.P. Nadda to ask whether all the rules were only for the opposition and the common people.
Quoting Sharma’s tweet, Digvijaya Singh tweeted to say that on Saturday six Congress workers were booked for violating lockdown. “They (BJP leaders) take oath of impartiality and then show total bias to violate the oath,” Singh tweeted.
Other Congress leaders including MLA Kunal Choudhary also took up the issue. Choudhary quoted a tweet of CM Chouhan where he (Chouhan) speaks of some people violating COVID-19 norms to put others’ and own lives at risk, to point out that his own home minister was always roaming around without the mask. Other social media users also pointed out the constant violation by the home minister.
Despite repeated attempts by THE WEEK, Narottam Mishra could not be contacted for comments.