SHILLONG, July 26: Stepping out of your home and walking on the streets of Shillong, or for that matter any other part of the country, without wearing a mask is likely to draw the attention of authorities and result in a fine, but if you are a VVIP and that too the Home Minister of India, there is no no such restriction on you or so it seems.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during his two-day visit to the state on Saturday and Sunday, went to several places to attend a host of programmes and inaugurate several projects.
However, barring one or two occasions, the visiting dignitary was seen and photographed without a mask despite being surrounded by the chief minister, cabinet ministers, MLAs and others, all with masks.
Some Union ministers, who accompanied the Home Minister, were also wearing masks.
Shah landed at Shillong Airport on Saturday wearing a mask. However, when he proceeded to the North Eastern Space Application Centre (NESAC) he was not wearing a mask.
After the programme at NESAC, he reached Mawiong to inaugurate the ISBT and was spotted wearing a mask. Once he disembarked from his vehicle, he removed his mask and did not wear it throughout the duration of the function.
Prior to his arrival at the ISBT, his chair and the inaugural stone podium were duly sanitised.
Later, he moved to Umsawli to inaugurate the cryogenic oxygen plant. Here again, Shah was the only person without a mask.
During the meeting of the Northeastern chief ministers, Shah entered the State Convention Centre wearing an orange mask but took it off as soon as the function started.
On Sunday when he visited Sohra, he was first wearing a mask but removed it later. Even during the Sohra afforestation programme, the Union Home Minister was without a mask but someone from his entourage handed his a mask and wore it.
The Health Department, which has been voraciously advocating people to follow SOPs like wearing a mask, was silent on the Union Home Minister’s mask fiasco.
