At a time when the second wave of Covid-19 is wreaking havoc the country, several BJP leaders have been coming up with stupid, funny and almost unscientific solutions to defeat a scientific Coronavirus. Gopal Sharma, a BJP leader from Meerut, joined the list by taking to streets, blowing shankh and carrying holy smoke on a rickshaw cart.
In a video shared on social media, a few followers along with Sharma were seen blowing the shankh and chanting Jai Shriram and Har Har Mahadev. Sharma claimed that the holy smoke will stop the virus spread in the air as it will kill the bacteria roaming in the atmosphere. He also claimed that the shankh and holy smoke will add to the oxygen concentration in the air and in turn will help people recover fast from the disease.
This comes after BJP MP Pragya Thakur sparked a controversy after she suggested that drinking cow urine will protect from the virus infection. In a party gathering, Thakur was heard saying that drinking cow urine cures lung infection from Covid. This was not the first time Thakur has been propagating unscientific claims. Two years ago she had said that a mix of cow urine and other cow products had cured her cancer.
A few days ago, Madhya Pradesh Culture Minister Usha Thakur suggested conducting a yagna chikitsa to prevent the third wave of Covid-19. She advised people to perform yaga to purify the environment in order to stop Covid spreading. Thakur added that performing the yaga for four days straight will purify the environment and that the third wave of Covid-19 will not even touch India.
Earlier, Thukar had said virus will not attack her owing to her vedic lifestyle as she recites Hanuman Chalisa regularly and drink Kaadha even as she performs havan. She had claimed that performing havan using cow dung will keep a particular area sanitised for 12 hours and mixing ghee made out of cow milk with rice on a cow dung cake to perform havan at sunset and sunrise will help keep the place sanitized. Calling these therapy science, she said that her suggestion might appear strange to people but it was not imaginary.
In another instance, a BJP MLA in Uttar Pradesh, Surendra Singh, had claimed that drinking cow urine protected him from the coronavirus. He advised people to consume a mix of 50 ml cow urine with 100 ml water. He also claimed it works even against heart disease.
BJP leader and former Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat was recently criticised for his comment that coronavirus is a living organism that has a right to live but humans think of themselves as superior and are trying to eliminate it. He had said it is constantly mutating itself.
This is not the first time the country is witnessing that the BJP leaders are making such outlandish claims to beat Covid. Earlier, during the first wave of Covid-19 pandemic in India, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had claimed that consuming Bhabhiji papad would help in producing antibodies to fight the coronavirus.
Madhya Pradesh pro-tem speaker Rameshwar Sharma had claimed that building the Ram temple in Ayodhya would bring an end to coronavirus.
Cow urine against coronavirus infection was also suggested by Suman Haripriya, a BJP MLA of Assam.
Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey had suggested sunbathe and said that standing in sunlight for 10-15 minutes helps produce Vitamin D which will kill coronavirus.
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Doctors and scientists in India and across the world have repeatedly warned against practising alternative treatments for Covid-19, saying they can lead to a false sense of security and complicate health problems. The doctors had also predicted to the risks of spreading other diseases as there is no scientific evidence for its effectiveness.