Coronavirus scare: Dushyant goes into quarantine, other MPs follow suit

NEW DELHI: The coronavirus scare spread to Parliament as well as Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday with Lok Sabha MP Dushyant Singh going into self-quarantine after having attended a dinner on March 15 in Lucknow with singer Kanika Kapoor who has tested positive for the virus.

Since Singh attended a breakfast meeting of MPs with President Ram Nath Kovind on March 18, Rashtrapati Bhavan has cancelled virtually all engagements of the President as a precautionary measure. So far, however, the President has not been advised quarantine by the health staff. Regular health checks for the President will be conducted as a preventive measure, sources told ET.

The Parliament, however, has been thrown into a tizzy.

Soon after Singh’s mother and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje tweeted about the self-quarantine with her son, several MPs who had interacted with Dushyant Singh announced decisions to self-quarantine.

Till press time, BJP MP Varun Gandhi—who was seated next to Dushyant Singh in Lok Sabha—Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel, Trinamool leaders Derek O’ Brien, Sukhendu Shekhar Roy and AAP’s Sanjay Singh too wet into a preventive selfquarantine.

Derek O’ Brien also lambasted the government for keeping the Parliament working despite the virus scare. “This govt is putting us all at risk. The PM says self-isolate yourself but Parliament is on. I was sitting next to Dushyant the other day for 2.5 hours. There are 2 more MPs who are in selfisolation. The session should be deferred,” Brien tweeted as he went into a self-quarantine.

Sanjay Singh too had written to the Lok Sabha Speaker as well as the Rajya Sabha chairman earlier this week advocating adjournment of Parliament .

“I was present with Dushyant at an event yesterday. As a precaution, I am going into self-isolation," tweeted Anupriya Patel.

The list, however, of susceptible cases could be much higher.

It is gathered that about 20 MPs had attended a two-hour standing committee meeting with Dushyant Singh.

Several other MPs interacted with Singh at the Central Hall over the course of the week.

Congress’ Jitin Prasada and Deepinder Hooda are also learnt to have met the Jhalawar MP. Hooda is too has gone into self-quarantine.

Still others attended a dinner with him. While DMK’s Kanimozhi is also learnt to have interacted with the fellow MP, she had flown to Chennai to Friday and it is not yet clear if she has also gone into self-quarantine.

There is also the added risk that several Parliament staffers may have been put to through the week.

At the President’s breakfast, several MPs from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana were present. Besides Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwa, Hema Malini, Mary Kom, Rajyavardhan Rathore and Kumari Selja attended the gathering.

Sources in Rashtrapati Bhavan, however, told ET that the safety protocol was followed strictly at the breakfast meet with thermal checking of every MP as well as sanitiser use before they came in and there was no suspected case found at that point.