There can be no better proof of the tragedy an anti-scientific mindset can wreak than the scale of the pandemic in the country today. Recently, the World Health Organization put down the resurgence of Covid-19 infections in India to three factors: the emergence of a more transmissible variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a number of extended political and religious gatherings and a relaxation or abandonment of Covid precautions. Although WHO said that the exact proportion of the contributions of each could not be determined, certain points stand out too distinctly to be ignored. While scientists the world over are still fighting to control the virus, it must be remembered that the more transmissible variant considered to be of global concern by WHO was detected in India in October 2020. There was plenty of time to strengthen the medical infrastructure and implement precautions; the country had already experienced widespread illness and death. The political leadership, which habitually ignores expert advice in every sphere, appears to have turned its back on the potential of the virus variant and gone ahead with its own agenda.

That agenda included permission for the Kumbh Mela. According to government figures, around six million devotees visited Haridwar to take the holy dip in the Ganga for Mahakumbh in April alone, when the infection had accelerated sharply. Overcrowding and violations of Covid precautions led to its rapid and massive spread. Added to this were the panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh and assembly elections in four states and one Union territory, all of which meant rallies and processions which the most powerful political leaders conducted through the months of virus resurgence. Social distancing and masks seemed to have been forgotten. If the Indian establishment flaunts the notion that, as the prime minister declared, India has defeated the virus, the people are likely to believe it. All a scientific attitude needs is trust in expert guidance, and the humility to know that a majority government does not mean it is possessed of magic that will put down the virus with a spell or drive it away with conch shells. The analysis of factors by WHO demonstrates that India, with some of the best scientists in the world, is being forced back into a deadly morass of false beliefs.