BJP Files FIR Against Congress Leader, Former MP CM Kamal Nath For 'Covid' Strain Remark

The BJP has also accused the Congress of making frequent statements to "insult" the country and weaken its fight against COVID-19.

Bhopal: An FIR has been filed against former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh & Congress leader Kamal Nath for his remarks on the B.1.617 Covid variant tagging it as the "Indian Variant" following a complaint by the Bharatiya Janta Party.

He was charged under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the IPC and section 54 (making or circulating a false alarm or warning as to disaster or its severity or magnitude, leading to panic) of National Disaster Management Act 2005.

The case against him was registered based on a complaint lodged by Bhopal BJP district president Sumeet Pachouri and two BJP MLAs - Vishwas Sarang and Rameshwar Sharma, among others a police official said according to PTI. The BJP has also accused the Congress of making frequent statements to "insult" the country and weaken its fight against COVID-19.

According to PTI, while addressing a press conference, Kamal Nath had said the world knows the B.1.617 strain - first found in India - as the "Indian variant".

"Indians in the world have become synonymous with corona and 'Mera Bharat' (Our India) has turned into Covid (epicentre)," he was quoted as saying by PTI.

Allegedly, Nath also accused the government of hiding figures Covid deaths, which according to the complaint was highly objectionable and spread fear.

Union Minister and senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar on Saturday slammed former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and said, "Kamal Nath is insulting the country by calling the B1617 variant of the Coronavirus as the Indian variant. He further said, according to IANS, 'Hamari Pehchan, Mera Bharat Covid'. Many other Congress leaders also gave similar statements. While WHO clarified that no country's name has been attributed to any variant."

He further alleged that instead of playing a constructive role the opposition has weakened the fight against Covid and created doubts about the vaccines. "When Covaxin was developed, they called it the BJP vaccine. Now opposition are spreading doubts and fears that there will be a travel ban because Covaxin is not in the list of globally recognised vaccines. As far as I know, WHO has not taken any such decision. Congress's statements show the party is not only insulting the country but also weakening the fight against Covid," Javadekar was quoted by the report.

In a series of tweets, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan criticised Kamal Nath and questioned whether it does not "amount to sedition?"

"Does using words like, ''Mera Bharat Covid'', ''Indian Corona'' suit the Congress? Won't the morale of Indians living in other countries dip with such statements? Won't it hurt the country's respect? Does such a statement not amount to sedition?" he asked.

"We are working day in and day out to combat COVID -19 and I hoped that all political parties would be onboard given this national crisis. But I am deeply saddened that former MP Chief Minister Kamal Nathji was destroying the morale of the country and the state (with his remarks)," Chouhan said.

The Centre had recently object the use of "Indian variant" for the B.1.617 Covid strain which was first detected in India in October 2020 stating the World Health Organization had also refrained from calling it so. The UN body had also tweeted that viruses or variants should not be identified by the names of countries they were found in.