Mysore/Mysuru: Noted spiritual thinker, Dr. Shelvapillai Iyengar has bemoaned over the manner in which COVID-19 victims were cremated or buried ever since the second wave of Corona has struck the nation.

Speaking to SOM, he said he was very much pained to see how the last rites of the Covid victims were performed by the authorities without handing over the dead bodies to family members fearing spreading of virus. In the process, a big pit was dug with earth-moving machine and the body was thrown into it. 

‘I had seen such disturbing videos in TV channels during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic and was pained the manner in which last respects were shown to the departed souls,’ he said.

‘In the current second wave, people were dying of breathlessness due to Coronavirus and a number of ambulances carrying the bodies were lined up in front of the crematoriums. Some were battling for life in hospitals. India has a history of 5,000 years with rich cultural heritage. Rituals have been specified even for dead. The way in which the victims bodies were disposed, were inhuman,’ he observed.

‘When scientists have failed to prove that for how many hours the virus will remain in dead bodies, why such a treatment was meted out to departed souls? If experts say virus will not remain in bodies after the specific hours, then it was better to handover the mortal remains to their family members instead of performing last rites by others,’ he noted.