Huge gatherings at India's Hindu festival as virus surges

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Tens of thousands of Hindu devotees gathered by the Ganges River for special prayers Monday, many of them flouting social distancing practices as the coronavirus spreads in India with record speed.

The Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival, is one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. ดาวน์โหลด และ ติดตั้ง slotxo The faithful congregate in the northern city of Haridwar. Pilgrims take a dip in the waters of the Ganges, which they believe will absolve them of their sins and deliver them from the cycle of birth and death.

The Kumbh Mela runs through April and comes during India's worst pandemic surge, with a seven-day rolling average of more than 130,000 cases per day. Hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with patients, and experts worry the worst is yet to come.

Critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party say the festival was allowed at a time when coronavirus cases are skyrocketing because the government wasn't willing to anger Hindus who are the party's biggest supporters.

They compare the government's response to that of last year when Indian Muslims faced rising Islamophobia following accusations that an initial surge in infections was tied to a three-day meeting of an Islamic missionary group, the Tablighi Jamaat, in New Delhi.

Some leaders from Modi's party and India's freewheeling TV channels, which have long favored government's Hindu nationalistic policies, labeled Muslims as “jihadis” and “super spreaders” in March 2020 when the seven-day rolling average of coronavirus cases in the country was