MUMBAI: Indian authorities clamped down on one of the country’s biggest Hindu festivals on Monday as the country passed 12 million coronavirus cases with financial hub Mumbai recording its highest-ever rise in daily infections.
Public celebrations to mark Holi — a popular festival where people smear colour on each other — were banned in some states and territories, including the capital Delhi, over fears they could become ‘super-spreader’ events, with police patrolling streets in Mumbai to prevent large gatherings.
Despite the restrictions, revellers still gathered in neighbourhoods across the country, banging drums and hurling coloured powder at each other.
“We are aware of the pandemic, but we can not ignore the wishes of the people who want to celebrate the festival of colour,” TV actor Debdut Ghosh, who is campaigning for an election in West Bengal state, told AFP in Kolkata.
Many people also took to the streets in the northern city of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh state, the country’s Hindu heartland of 1.3 billion people.
“Had it not been a festival, I would not have stepped out,” septuagenarian B.K. Tiwari told AFP as he carried his colour-smeared facemask.
The muted celebrations went ahead despite a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases.
India reported 68,020 new daily infections on Monday — a significant rise from below 9,000 in early February — taking the total number of cases to more than 12 million.
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