S.A. Ramdas, Mysuru’s BJP MLA, has invited ridicule by claiming that coronavirus will die when candles are lit on Sunday night.

While making an appeal to the people to light candles at 9 p.m. on Sunday as suggested by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Ramdas said the viruses in the house will be “drawn towards the candle and die from the heat just like insects fly towards light to burn themselves to death.” He claimed that his observations were “scientific”. He also sought to lend a “scientific” angle to the Prime Minister’s call for clapping on April 22. He claimed that the virus would be “killed by the heat generated in the body by clapping and through the sound.”

Mysore Science Foundation, an organisation working towards promoting scientific temper, regretted such misinterpretations of the Prime Minister’s appeal. Secretary of the foundation G.B. Santosh Kumar said the Prime Minister’s call to clap or light candles was aimed at instilling confidence in the minds of the public. Unfortunately, efforts are being made to misinterpret the same for promotion of superstition and obscurantism, he said.