This junior resident doctor is raising voice against TN govt’s move allowing 100% occupancy in theaters

The Tamil Nadu government on January 4 allowed 100 per cent occupancy in theatres after Tamil actor Vijay requested Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami about the same ahead of the release of his movie ‘Master’.

Along with Vijay starrer Master, Silambarasan aka STR-starrer ‘Eeswaran’ are hitting the theatres on January 13 and and January 14 respectively.

This decision of the government has not gone down well with many people. With the pandemic still persistent, the rise in the number of people affected by the new COVID strain has only added more cases to the coronavirus tally.

On Monday, Aravinth Srinivas, a junior resident doctor from Puducherry on Facebook wrote a hard-hitting post addressed to Vijay, STR and the Tamil Nadu government. Here is his full post

Dear Actor Vijay sir, Silambarasan sir and the respected Govt. of Tamil Nadu, I am tired. We are all tired. Thousands of doctors like me are tired. Health care workers are tired. Police officials are tired. Sanitary workers are tired.

We have worked so hard at the ground level to make sure the damage done is kept to as low as possible amidst an unprecedented pandemic. I am not glorifying our work for I know there is nothing so great about it to the onlooker’s eyes. We don’t have cameras in front of us. We don’t do stunt sequences. We aren’t heroes. But we deserve some time to breath. We don’t want to fall prey to someone’s selfishness and greed.

The pandemic isn’t over and we have people dying till today to the disease. A hundred percent theatre occupancy is a suicide attempt. Rather homicide, for none of the policy makers or the so called heroes are going to put themselves under the pump, to watch the movie amidst the crowd. This is a blatant barter system, trading lives for money.

Can we please slowly try and concentrate on our lives and make sure we tide through this pandemic peacefully and not reignite the slowly burning out flame, that is still not completely put out?
I wanted to make this post scientific and explain why we are still in danger. But that’s when I asked myself, “what’s the point?”

Yours tiredly
A poor, tired resident doctor.

The Facebook post

Voices against Tamil Nadu government’s move are increasing with many citizens and doctors raising concerns. According to medical experts , allowing 100 per cent attendance in theatres may lead to more cases. Closed spaces can be an optimal situation for the disease to spread as social distancing can’t be maintained.