Hyderabad (Telangana): As the story goes, King Parikshit of the famous Kuru clan was cursed to die of a snakebite within seven days. And, despite every possible effort to fortify his palace, Parikshit ultimately did die as he could not prevent the Takshak (the king of snakes) coming stealthily in a form of caterpillar in fruit to subsequently bite him.
The same way coronavirus is breaking into the fortified, sanitised and health-diet empowered lives of the rich and powerful across the globe, it could as well be called a proverbial Takshak of the 21st century, except for a fact that many of those bitten by it are, thankfully and happily, surviving the bite.
The list of those affected by Covid-19 is very long and continues to grow each day. From United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson to India's BJP leader Jyotiraditya Sindia, from Tom Hanks to Amitabh Bachchan and from Novak Djokovic to Shahid Afridi, the list of COVID-infected is full of such big and mighty names.
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In fact, in the near past rarely find any virus hitting so many people across the world at the same time.
Talking about India, in every state many political leaders including ministers, IAS-IPS officers as well as people from the judiciary system seem to have got affected by Covid-19.
Maharashtra:
Maharashtra is leading all the states in terms of the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the nation. Most of the Bollywood and television stars reside in capital city Mumbai. Hence, the celebrity list of COVID patients in the country is dominated by Maharashtra.
So far, two cabinet ministers, one former Chief Minister, a few MLAs, and almost two dozens of incumbent and ex IAS and IPS officers were turned out to be COVID positive. An entire building in South Mumbai, where top bureaucrats resides had to be quarantined. Most of them got rid of it.
But a few of them like Neela Satyanarayan, former Chief Election Officer in Maharashtra were not so lucky. The ex-IAS, known for her honesty and uprightness died on Thursday. Haribhau Javale, BJP's ex-MP from Marathwada, also died of Corona a few days ago.
The brush with COVID had been quite a tough experience for two cabinet ministers namely, former CM and current PWD minister Ashok Chavan and Housing minister Jitendra Avhad. Both of them had to spend more than 10 days each in the ICUs.
Former Chief Minister Shivajirao Nilangekar (88) was hospitalised in Pune on Thursday after having found COVID positive.
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Among others, Pune's mayor Muralidhar Mohol, BJP MLA Mukta Tilak (great-granddaughter in the law of Lokmany Tilak), a BJP MLA from Latur Abhimanyu Pawar has been infected.
Amitabh Bacchan, his son Abhishek, Aishwarya and her daughter testing positive became big news last week. But long before that the news of Baby Doll fame singer Kunika Kapoor testing positive had created a sensation because just before that she had partied in Lucknow where all the who's who of politics, bureaucracy and filmdom had also been there. Fortunately, most of them survived the scare and turned out to be negative.
Delhi:
In Delhi, the Health Minister Satinder Jain's battle with Corona also created a lot of flutters as he had participated in meetings with many central and state government officials who in turn were in contact with all the bigwigs.
Karnataka:
There had been similar instances in Karnataka as well and the list of politicians testing positive is very long.
- C.T Ravi, Minister of Tourism
- M. K. Pranesh couple, Vidhan Parishad member
- Bharat Shetty, Mangalore MLA
- Bhagavantha Khooba, MP of Bidar
- Rajkumar Patil Telkur, Sedam MLA
- Sharat Bachchegowda, Non-party MLA, Hoskote
- Sumalatha, non-party MP, Mandya
- Dr Ranganath- Kunigal MLA
- N. Shivanna - Anekal MLA
- Dr Ajay Singh- Jevergi MLA
- TD Rajegowda - Sringeri MLA
- Prasad Abbayya - Hubli-Dharwad MLA
- Janardan Poojary - Former Union Minister
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Telangana:
In Telangana, several VIPs including Home Minister and many bureaucrats and political leaders were seen coming in the spate of COVID.
- Mohammed Mahmood Ali, Home Minister
- Muttireddy Yadgiri Reddy, Jangaon MLA
- Bajireddy Goverdhan, Nizamabad Rural, MLA
- Ganesh Gupta, Nizamabad Urban, MLA
- Nallamothu Bhaskar Rao, Miryalaguda, MLA
- G. Sunitha Mahender Reddy, Government Whip, Aleru MLA
- Padma Rao, Deputy speaker
- V Hanumantha Rao, AICC secretary, Former MP
Tamil Nadu:
While four ministers from state cabinet - Higher Education Minister KP Anbalagan, Cooperatives Minister Sellur K Raju, Electricity Minister P Thangamani and Labour Minister Nilofer Kafeel have tested positive, Tamil Nadu is the first state to lose an MLA to the pandemic. DMK MLA J Anbalagan succumbed to the disease at a private hospital.
Several other MLAs and former MLAs have tested positive. Two District Collector Kancheepuram and Coimbatore, P Ponniah and K Rajamani. The list of those in power corridors affected by the disease also encompasses Judicial officers of the Highest Court in the state and senior IPS officers up to the rank of ADGP.
Luckily, most of these have got cured.
