Enter turmeric, exit protocol

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli leads the country in flouting Covid-19 safety guidelines.

On June 18 this year, while addressing the National Assembly, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli claimed there was no need to panic, and that a regular dose of turmeric, warm water and strong willpower would do wonders against Covid-19. He also said the virus could just be sneezed away, and that there was no cause for alarm. That the chief executive would make such unfounded claims at a time when the pandemic was gaining a foothold in the country had shocked many people. But many others thought Oli was just joking, as is his wont, or even trying to calm down an already panicking people, and that he was pretty serious about the potency of the virus and the magnitude of the pandemic.