Titas Chowdhury (HINDUSTAN TIMES; March 23, 2020)

On March 9, Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor landed at the Mumbai airport from London, UK. After spending a couple of days in the city, she flew to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, on March 11 to help her family move into a new house. According to her father, Rajeev Kapoor, she took a trip to Kanpur on March 13 and then came back to the Capital to attend two parties.

But the date that upset the applecart was March 20 when she was tested positive for Covid-19 (Coronavirus). Ever since, the Baby Doll singer has received massive backlash on social media where many have labelled her actions as “criminal negligence”. On March 21, an FIR was lodged against her at Sarojini Nagar Police Station, Lucknow. “An FIR might be an overreaction albeit understandable because the price for her negligence will be paid for by several innocents,” says singer Sona Mohapatra.

Ashoke Pandit, director IFTDA, says that he has spoken to Ashok Dubey, president of FWICE, and they’re going to take an action against the singer. “Our office is shut, but the members have had an internal discussion and we are planning to take a strict action against Kanika. Her behaviour isn’t acceptable,” he says.

Pandit adds that the FIR filed is justified. “In a hypothetical situation, if any person present at the party gets infected and passes away, she should be held responsible for murder.”

Musician Jasleen Royal believes that the problem lies with organising a party at a time like this. “All of us need to stay indoors and not meet people. I believe that it was wrong to be organising a party in the first place,” she says.

Divya Kumar who collaborated with Kapoor for a song in Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon (2015) asserts that attending a social gathering amounts to “criminal offence”. Reverberating Royal, Kumar says, “She went to a party that was also attended by politicians who have constantly been telling us to not go to any social gathering. All of them should be accused of criminal negligence and not just Kanika ji. The ones to be blamed the most are those people who’ve organised the gathering.”

For Mohapatra, the larger problem lies with how the cream of the upper class societies functions. “The real problem lies with our toxic celebrity and VIP culture which mollycoddles famous, rich and powerful people into thinking that they can operate by different rules. Senior politicians and leaders, who ought to have been ‘walking the talk’ of social distancing, attended these parties.”

Veteran music composer and vocalist, Bappi Lahiri, who has worked with Kapoor, opines that attending a party with the symptoms of Covid-19 makes for “irresponsible behaviour”. He says, “It’s an unfortunate incident. She should have taken precautions, but the same time, it’s a medical emergency and I hope she recovers soon.”

Nikhita Gandhi, singer, in a similar vein, says, “People are shaming her on social media. If it’s really that way, then it’s careless and irresponsible of her to socialise.”

Mohapatra adds that celebrities not obliging with airport officials for a medical check-up is also an issue that needs to be addressed. “The privileged and entitled elite of this country misbehave with officials in the airports if inconvenienced for a check. They complain about quarantine facilities as if they deserve to be kept in a five-star hotel,” she shares.

When contacted, music director Tanishk Bagchi says, “I don’t want to comment on it. I want these things to get over as we need to work. We have to be safe and at home.”

(With inputs from Sonil Dedhia)