More on Covid-19

In the March 18, 2018 issue of “The Guardian”, Jonathan Quick had written an article which opened with these poignant lines - “Somewhere out there a dangerous virus is boiling up in the bloodstream of a bird, bat, monkey or pig, preparing to jump to a human being. It is hard to comprehend the scope of such a threat, for it has the potential to wipe out millions of us, including my family and yours, over a matter of weeks or months. The risk makes the threat posed by Islamic State, a ground war, a massive climate event or even the dropping of a nuclear bomb on a major city pale by comparison. A new epidemic could turn into pandemic without warning.”Quick’s Nostradamus-like prophecy came true rather quickly. Springing out of China, Covid-19 in two months spun a viciously virile web of infection around mankind. Thousands have perished. A vast population is under threat. Rest are cowering behind locked doors. Cities that bustled with activity don a deserted look. In this grim situation, the heart gives out to doctors and healthcare staff who are risking lives to wage a relentless war against the virus, still eluding a specific cure.Compared to the rich and scientifically advanced West, India’s battle against Covid-19 was appearing to be more effective than the resistance it had offered to invading Mughals led by Babur at Panipat, nearly 500 years ago. And then, Tablighi Jamaat congregation happened at Nizamuddin in Delhi.When coughs scared people, Tablighis congregated, coughed and laughed away protective social distancing norms with impetus from clergy’s illusory promise of protection from angels in mosques. Had it stopped at that, one could have condoned it as idiocy bred by bigotry. It went far beyond, into the crime zone.While being evicted from the premises where Tablighis were crammed like sardines, some spat at police and medical staff. In quarantine, they outrageously congregated for prayers and deliberately spat around. Asked to follow norms, some spat at doctors and displayed obscene behaviour.In another shocking criminal act in a Muslim colony at Indore, medical personnel ran for their lives when chased by a stone and stick armed mob protesting attempts to identify suspect Covid cases.Like everyone, Tablighis too knows that Covid-19 spreads through droplets from spit, sneeze and cough of an infected person. Deliberate spitting by an infected person would be a malignant act to infect another with a disease dangerous to life and is punishable with upto two year imprisonment under Section 270 of Indian Penal Code A possibly Covid-19 infected Tablighi, spitting defiantly, could be charged for attempting to infect policemen with a disease dangerous to life. Impact of such spitting will not stay confined to policemen, who if infected would have to be quarantined, thus weakening lockdown enforcement. Additionally, infected persons may spread the virus to many others, even to doctors and healthcare staff. In sum, it would considerably weaken citizens’ collective fight against Covid-19.For such a malignant act - spitting and driving away doctors with stone-pelting, is a two year imprisonment just and proper punishment, especially when it puts lives of so many perilously close to death? Is this not a more heinous crime than carrying out a murderous attack on an individual?For the offence of attempt to murder, where an individual escapes unhurt or with injuries, Section 307 of IPC provides a maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment. By some strange logic, a provision in a 160-year-old law provides only a two-year jail term to punish one who attempts to spread deadly Covid-19 infection, which could put many in the throes of death.When Quick two years ago was prophesying in the UK newspaper about an incurable virus readying to jump from bloodstream of an animal to human being to seriously threaten mankind, an court Ohio was sentencing a hepatitis C infected man to 18 months in prison for spitting saliva mixed with blood repeatedly at Cleveland police and medics while being taken to hospital on a stretcher.Far less virulent than Covid-19, hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes inflammation of the liver leading to scarring, liver cancer and death. It is passed from person to person mainly through sharing of needle and blood transfusion , but rarely through sexual intercourse.In 1998, Iowa state in the US passed a law providing for up to 25 years in jail to those knowingly exposing others to HIV/AIDS, a sexually transmitted disease. Burden of proof was put on the accused to show that he/she had disclosed his/her HIV positive status to partners prior to indulging in sexual acts. Use of condoms was no exception to the mandatory disclosure clause. Later, hepatitis, meningococcal disease and TB were added to the list.In India, Section 269 and 270 of IPC prescribing mild punishments for malignant acts to spread life threatening diseases needs teeth. Parliament could revisit the 160 year-old provision in the backdrop of Covid-19. More so, when science and research is in dark about unknown viruses that could potentially threaten the human race, aided by culpable spreading by persons brainwashed by religious bigotry.