#123 Lost In The Kumbh 🎧

Yabi Lali

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While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. Audio narration by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ad-auris.com/">Ad-Auris</a>. - RSJ By now many of you must have seen the <a target="_blank" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/at-kumbh-mela-covid-guard-slips-no-thermal-screening-few-masks-102-test-positive-7270853/">pictures from the Kumbh at Haridwar</a>. Till last evening, almost 3 million devotees had congregated at the Har ki Pauri for the shahi snaan (how long before we change the word ‘shahi’ there?). A lot has been made about the Covid protocols that were put in place for the Kumbh. It is safe to say it is almost impossible to maintain those protocols for such a crowd. Like always this has drawn predictable responses. The ‘liberals’ have compared the way media and many from the current dispensation demonised a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52131338">markaz</a><a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52131338"> that was organised by the Tablighi Jamaat last March </a>and how differently they are covering the Kumbh today. A lot of commentary in the early days of the pandemic last year was about the irresponsible members of the Jamaat who congregated at the time of a pandemic and then blamed them for the spread of the virus in the country. The ‘liberals’ contrast that with the cautious, almost benign, coverage of the Kumbh that has millions risking their lives in a likely ‘superspreader’ event. The defenders of the Kumbh (right-wing, conservatives or any other label you might apply to them) have their arguments ready. The parallels with the Jamaat event are false. This is a planned event with the administration taking al

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