Unfortunately when the slogans “ stay home, stay safe” is the advice of health specialists to the people across the country, the Jammu & Kashmir Government plans to go ahead with the annual amaranth yatra amid intensifying COVID-19 spread . While the government has imposed a total ban on religious congregations at holy muslim shrines and mosques attracting comparatively very small gatherings than the huge crowds gathering on amaranth yatra route, the unwise decision of going ahead with the annual amaranth yatra is obviously an attempt to polarise the societies in Jammu & Kashmir as muslim populations play the role of hosts on the yatra route and without their active engagement in the availability of facilities for the yatris the yatra won’t be a success. Even if the no of yatris is reduced to 500 per day as claimed by the Jammu & Kashmir government, the gatherings of yatris at some significant places on the yatra route can’t be disallowed by the yatra management run by the top and middle rung officials of the Jammu & Kashmir Government. While the huge crowds on the yatra route have to be necessarily allowed to gather at several places as per the religious protocol set for the yatrris by the hindu religious preachers, the fear of more intensification in the fast spread of the COVID-19 would give sleepless nights to the civil populations of Kashmir valley on the yatra route for two long months till the completion of yatra . It may be recalled here that the muslims who had gathered in hundreds but not thousands at the holy shrine of Hazrat Nizam Ud-Din (RA) before the announcement of lockdown in March this year were demonized by the central government and many of them were pushed into police lock ups in Delhi and forced to undergo judicial trials after cases were registered against them by Delhi police.
Since amaranth yatra would be vulnerable to the safety of both the yatris and as wells as the yatra management run by government officials of all cadres, the conduct of yatra amid intensifying COVID-19 spread could prove dangerous for the health safety of both the yatris and as well as the local populations on the yatra route.
While Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala cancelled in April this year a host of religious rituals that include Sri Dharma devathe, Sri Annappa swami nema and kola, rathotsava of Sri Manjunatha Swamy, the presiding deity of Sri Kshetra and ‘vihara’ of the deity to various ‘katte’ and as well as ‘avabratha vihara’ to the Nethravathi River, the Jammu & Kashmir Government has surprisingly choosen to go ahead with the conduct of annual amaranth yatra to risk the lives of not less than 30-40 lakh souls on the yatra route. Even health certificate declared mandatory for every yatri as per Supreme Court directions could become a major issue for the yatris, as hospitals are overcrowded and doctors are overburdened with the heavy rush of COVID-19 patient. Spread of the COVID-19 on the yatra route could trigger even a large scale human catastrophe. Since amaranth yatra would be vulnerable to the safety of both the yatris and as wells as the yatra management run by government officials of all cadres, the conduct of yatra amid intensifying COVID-19 spread could prove dangerous for the health safety of both the yatris and as well as the local populations on the yatra route.
