Coronavirus: Kerala sprayed migrants with soap and water, not disinfectant, claims fire department
The Kerala government was accused of doing what the UP government did to migrant labourers returning home.
The Kerala govt claims that these pictures from March 23 are of soap solution being used without any chemical disinfectant. pic.twitter.com/0VCnp1bzKW
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) March 30, 2020
After a video of migrant labourers who arrived in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly being sprayed with disinfectant went viral on Twitter, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national spokesperson Amit Malviya tweeted a similar video from Kerala. “All the outrage is reserved for UP, because a saffron-clad monk of the BJP is the chief minister and is doing a good job,” Malviya wrote.
This is Kerala, where agencies are mass ‘spraying’ people crossing borders. But all the outrage is reserved for UP, because a saffron clad monk of the BJP is the Chief Minister and is doing a good job!#IndiaFightsCorona while ‘The Lobby’ fights India...pic.twitter.com/FWCUxWbl5z
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) March 30, 2020
The fire department in Kerala, however, said that the spray they used was a mixture of soap and water, NDTV reported. Almost a week ago, around 40 people were sprayed with a liquid at a checkpost on the Kerala-Karnataka border in Muthanga, the report added.
“This was being done irrespective of religion, caste or background, as a strong precautionary measure since Wayanad at that time did not have even one case,” a police official was quoted as saying.