Letter to the Editor: Punjab Cops and Sidhu Moose Wala Draw Flak for Blaming Common People and NRIs

As cases of Covid-19 are continuing to rise in Punjab, the Punjab police is looking for a scapegoat. With the recent death of an NRI named Baldev Singh, who had returned to India from Germany via Italy, the blame is being shifted towards the common people of Punjab as well as the NRIs for not staying home.

As the naming game and cases of coronavirus go up, some unexpected names are also drawing flak for aiding Government’s propaganda.

Sidhu Moosewala, a popular rapper, is drawing attention through his recent song relating to Baldev Singh. This song is getting viral on social media and the Punjab police logo has been also used in this video. Moosewala’s song starts with Punjab police logo and it appears many times thereafter. Clips related to steps taken by the Punjab government are also seen many times. Late Baldev Singh’s picture also appears some times in the video but his name has been changed as Gurbaksh Singh in the lyrics of the song. Baldev Singh has been fully blamed for spreading this virus in Punjab in this song whereas the government is acquitted. 

But question remains that three persons including Baldev Singh had come from Germany via Italy to Delhi on March 6 and on the base of the list of Delhi Airport, the team of Civil Surgeon of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar had also performed his checkup by going to his village.

Suffering from heart disease Baldev Singh went to a private hospital on March 16 and next day, he went to civil hospital, Jalandhar but nobody took care of him. Question should not be asked from NRI Punjabis, but from the government who did not take this disease seriously till one month.

Those, who are blaming and accusing Baldev Singh of spreading this disease, why don’t they think that when Baldev Singh had landed in India, until then, apart from measuring fever, the government had not run any campaign to inform the people about this deadly disease and asked to use precautionary measure and isolate themselves in their homes.

After being checked at the airport, general people thought that they are alright and healthy. Similarly, Baldev Singh reached his village Pathlawa with his two colleagues. A list of people, who landed from in India, was received by district health officers on March 13. It was sent by the foreign ministry through the state home department and above mentioned three persons were included in this list.

It should be noted that this process took six days (would you blame Baldev Singh for this now?) and the Inspection team sent by the health department reached Baldev Singh on March 14, and after examining, they declare him fine and healthy.

Baldev Singh also visited Sri Anandpur Sahib on the occasion of Hola Mahalla before this. If, the government would have started a campaign by alerting people about coronavirus and people who had recently landed in India would have been asked to stay at home separately and stay away from crowded areas then perhaps Baldev Singh wouldn’t have taken the risk to go to Anandpur Sahib.

If Baldev Singh was not feeling well on March 14, then the health department who had done his checkup should be held responsible for that. It seems that Baldev Singh did not face the symptoms of this disease till then and the health department did not find anything wrong with his health.

Do you expect from a seventy-year-old rural person to be so careless that he would keep the information, shared by the experts regarding this disease, secret when the policymakers were so careless to take action to tackle this epidemic?

There will be many more outsiders, even younger and more educated than Baldev Singh, who may also have visited Hola Mahalla and attended the events held in the families of their relatives.

Baldev Singh did not feel well on March 16 and went to Civil Hospital, Jalandhar after getting a checkup in some private hospitals. If the civil hospital fails to find coronavirus how can you blame Baldev Singh for willingly spreading this disease as being said in a viral audio clip?

He was examined by the health department’s team on March 14 and arrived at the hospital two days later. Till now, his doctors believe that he died of a heart attack and when they came to know about his arrival from abroad, their doubt of the coronavirus in him increased.

Let’s say he knew about his disease, as is said in the audio clip viral on the Internet, can you believe that a seventy-year-old would intentionally infect his children and grandchildren? (This audio is also being transmitted by many “educators”).

Try to guess the mental pain of his family members, considering that their entire family, including a two-year-old child, has been infected with the coronavirus.

In fact, what is being said in this audio is ridiculous. The audio makers also claimed that Baldev Singh attended many events in the village of Mehatpur. The administration has discovered, after a scrutiny, that this is absolutely false.

A day after Baldev Singh’s death on March 19, when his report came out, the other two passengers who came with him were meeting people and one of them said that they had been asked on the same day for the first time to isolate themselves.

Should Baldev Singh be blamed for this as well?

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