On 10 March, the BJP replaced its chief minister in Uttarakhand because he wanted to restrict the Kumbh Mela coming up the following month to a purely ceremonial and symbolic one, i.e., without physical attendance by the masses. This was vetoed and he was replaced overnight.10 He would later say that he had worried about the Kumbh becoming a super-spreader event.11 The Kumbh Mela takes place every 12 years and should ordinarily have happened in 2022. However, astrologers convinced the BJP government that April 2021 was more auspicious.
