RJD's Shivanand Tiwari says Indians can't follow COVID norms as 'society lacks discipline'

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Shivanand Tiwari claimed that the Indian society had 'no discipline' and that it was impossible for a country like India to comply with COVID safety norms. The RJD's leaders shocking remark about India comes amid a steep surge in the number of COVID cases and related deaths reported throughout the country. RJD's Shivanand Tiwari, on Monday, claimed that '80-90% of India's population was poor' and asked how they could follow COVID norms such as wearing masks, practising social distancing and washing hands. 

'Indian society lacks discipline': RJD's Shivanand Tiwari

The RJD leader opined that it 'was not practical' to ask people to follow the norms as there was no 'awareness' created in rural areas and that hence it was 'not possible for Indians to follow such solutions'. Shivanand Tiwari asked why Indians should follow COVID protocols while the rest of the world was not doing so and reiterated that the Indian society lacked discipline. It is pertinent to point out that the use of face masks, maintaining social distancing and personal hygiene has been vociferously advocated by the Centre, state governments, political parties, local administration and others since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year in 2020.   

"This does not look practical. There is no awareness at rural areas. So these solutions are not possible to be followed by Indians. People from other nations are also not following these rules so how will people here follow here because there is no discipline in our society at all", RJD's Shivanand Tiwari said on Monday.

Bihar records over 12,000 cases in 24 hours

Bihar recorded 12,795 new COVID cases as part of a continuous surge in the second wave Sunday, taking the toll of positive cases past the four lakh mark, the health department bulletin said. The state reported 68 new fatalities taking the death tally to 2156, it said. Out of a total of 12,975 fresh infections, capital Patna saw a maximum of 1848 cases followed by Gaya with 1340 cases, Saran (707), Aurangabad (682) and Bhagalpur (681).

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during the day ordered to bring 14,000 Remdesivir medicines by a special plane from Ahmedabad, Chief Minister's Office said in a tweet. Among fresh casualties, Patna accounted for maximum of 23 deaths followed by Muzaffarpur where nine patients succumbed to the virus, Nalanda (7) and Bhagalpur (4). The state saw 7530 patients recovering from infection Sunday while a total of 3,14,986 have been cured of the disease since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. The recovery rate has dipped marginally to 77.87 per cent.