Couple back from Wuhan says Indian govt serious, but not people
LUCKNOW: Ashish Yadav, 35, an associate professor from UP returned to his native village in Etah on Saturday, following two weeks’ quarantine at the ITBP camp in Haryana after the government rescued him, his wife and many others from China’s Wuhan city where all of them were stranded amid the outbreak of coronavirus.
He teaches physics at the Wuhan Textile University while his wife Neha is pursing PhD in computer science from the same institute. Their videos soliciting their government’s help in getting rescued from Wuhan had gone viral last month.
Though not found positive, the couple is quite scared even today. They appeal to people to take the threat posed by coronavirus seriously even as cases are on the rise.
“The government is doing an excellent job here to prevent spread of coronavirus, but people, I feel are not that serious,” he said while speaking on phone from Jalesar.
The couple has been advised not to venture out from the house for next 20 days as a precaution. He said China also committed the mistake of ignoring the threat when the first case was detected in December.
“In India, many people believe the virus will disappear automatically after the rise in temperature. I do not think this is the right assessment because the virus has attacked countries like Iran and UAE where the temperature always remains high,” he argued.
The couple was flown back from Wuhan city to Delhi on February 27 and from there taken to the ITBP camp the same day.
“Of total 112 passengers rescued from Wuhan that day, 76 were Indians and the rest were nationals from other countries and all were kept at ITB camp,” he said.
“We are very thankful to our government and others who helped rescue us from Wuhan where we were so terrified seeing the situation,” said Neha.
Ashish, however, says the picture of China being presented to the world outside as a ‘cruel’ nation is not correct. “There are a lot of videos showing Chinese police gunning down coronavirus-infected citizens but they are all fake,” he claimed.
According to him, the Chinese government did force some foreign nationals to stay inside a multi-storey residential complex where they were already residing, when they were found not following instructions. But Chinese authorities were providing food and other help too.
He said it was largely because of the strictness with which Chinese government dealt with the situation that not many new cases were now surfacing there.
When asked will he go back to China to resume his job? Ashish said that he was not quite sure. “The Wuhan Textile University where I have been teaching since March 2019 has advised me to not return for 3-4 months. I will try to get an equally good job in India,” he said. The best thing for the couple is that their government-run university has promised to continue to pay their salary during their quarantine in India.