Hindu organisations and even individuals have accused a Muslim evangelical event of turning New Delhi into a hotbed of coronavirus infection.
Will this snowball the debate into a Hindu-Muslim warcry?
Millions of Indians find themselves at high risk of getting afflicted by the fatal corona virus
as a Muslim-dominated Nizamuddin West region in the national capital has emerged as
a hotspot for organising a three-day mass Muslim evangelical event in March.
Residents of a colony in Delhi's Tughlakabad raised concerns of their safety after 167 people evacuated from
the coronavirus-hotspot Tablighi Jamaat centre at Nizamuddin were quarantined at a nearby makeshift facility.
Officials said adequate steps are being taken to ensure safety and security of the people.
Government authorities, officials in the autonomous commissions and socio-political
organisations including a few known for Hindu fundamentalism and overzealous anti-Muslim stance
have blasted the organisers of Tablighi Jamaat, a global Islamic missionary movement.
National Commission for Minorities chief Syed Ghayorul Hasan Rizvi said "strict action" should be taken against those
responsible and directed all 29 states/provinces to ensure strict compliance of the lockdown at Madrasas, educational
institutes run by Muslim clerics and other religious places.
The influential Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has described the Nizamuddin meet as 'corona factory' and demanded
that "the Muslim society itself should come forward and close with immediate effect all the Mosques in India those are still open".
"A Corona infected deceased must be mandatorily cremated irrespective of religious affiliation to stop the spread of
corona infection".
Six people, Maulana Saad, Dr Zeeshan, Mufti Shehzad, M. Saifi, Younus, and Mohd Salman have been named in the FIR in the case. Incidentally, police say it took four to five days to vacate the place.
Worse, what has baffled many is that despite efforts from Delhi police, Maulana Saad, head of Nizamuddin Markaz, had
refused to vacate the Banglewali Masjid and finally no less than Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trusted Man Friday
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval was ordered to reach out to the Maulana at around 2.00 am on March 28-29
night at the markaz.
The number of COVID-19 cases across the country increased by 375 in last 24 hours to 1,637.
The nationwide death toll rose to 38, according to federal Health Ministry.
There have been six fresh deaths in Maharashtra and also one more from Kerala and two from Telengana.
About 1000 from Telangana visited Delhi and attended the highly controversial meet.
The Health Ministry said 154 new positive cases of the disease have been reported due to the transit-related history
of those who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation.
Till April 1 late evening, the casualty figure in Maharashtra rose to 9. Other death figures include Gujarat (6), Karnataka (3) Madhya Pradesh (3), Punjab (3), Telangana (3), Delhi (2), West Bengal (2), Jammu and Kashmir (2) and Kerala (2).
However, the Markaz has issued a statement and tried to explain that it had "compelling circumstances" to accommodate the "stranded visitors (the participants at the congregation) with prescribed medical precautions" as Prime Minister Narendra Modi
on night of March 24 "suddenly" announced the three-weeks nationwide lockdown.
As the issue is gradually snowballing into a communal Hindu-Muslim warcry, a prominent Christian leader A C Michael
has sought to downplay the 'characteristic anti-Muslim angle' on the issue and says: "....police which was empowered
with special powers have failed in their responsibility but I would not like to blame a religion for a human error.”
“Sadly, currently we have people in power who likes show Minorities, especially Muslims in bad
light — given a chance they will not waste time to declare them “terrorists," he told UCAN News.
So far the number of those likely to have affected by corona virus for attending the Nizamuddin meet
have shot up in most states.
From Telangana, there were at least 1000 attendees to the meet. All 107 people from Madhya Pradesh
who attended the congregation were identified and quarantined.
The number of coronavirus cases in western state of Maharashtra increased by 33 within a day to 335.
As many as six patients died taking the death toll in the state with sizeable Muslim population to 16.
There were reports that a number of Muslims from places like Ahmednagar and Nashik had attended
the Nizamuddin congregation.
In Prime Minister Modi's native state of Gujarat, that saw intense anti-Muslim carnage in 2002, it was reported that
at least 1500 people from Gujarat were present in Nizamuddin.
In southern state of Tamil Nadu also numbers have gone up. State Health Secretary said as many as 110 people
who attended Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi did test positive for coronavirus.
A Muslim leader Muhammad Arif, chairman of the Center for Harmony and Peace, Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh,
says: "Supporters of the ruling BJP-led riotous crowds in Delhi in the month of February. When the opposition leaders
were warning about the danger of impending pandemic due to Covid-19 in early February, the
central government was mocking them".
Panic spread across the country including in far-flung north east and states such as Nagaland with negligible Muslim
population as reports went viral that some citizens from such places also attended the now infamous Tablighi Jamaat event
at NIzamuddin in Delhi.
Two people from Nagaland's commercial town Dimapur too reportedly attended the meet. A panic driven
district administration on March 31 ordered total bandh for next three days by stating in an order that
"all shops, commercial and private establishments shall remain closed" from April 1 (0600 hours)
to 12 mid-night of April 3.
In Delhi, another locality with substantial Musim citizens - the Dilshad Garden - too had multiple
positive cases.
Health department officials say a woman with a travel history to Saudi Arabia tested positive for corona virus.
In fact two of her relatives also reportedly got infected.
Sources said the woman also came in contact with a mohalla' clinic doctor in Maujpur, who has been also infected with the disease.
PM Modi enjoys 'highest popularity' globally in fight against Wuhan virus
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to enjoy the highest popularity among all democratic leaders in their combat against Wuhan or Corona virus, according to a report in London-based 'Financial Times'.
The report also says that despite the fact that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is himself afflicted by the virus and has been
working from isolation, his ratings have gone up significantly.
Though the coronavirus pandemic has caused the most number of infections in the US, and President Donald
Trump’s handling of the crisis has been criticised, through March 2020, Trump’s popularity has improved.
The US President's net approval stands at 49 per cent, with 44 per cent disapproving, as per the poll and this comes
in a year when he is seeking re-election to the prized post.
While Modi tops the rank; he is followed by Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
India has pursued active diplomatic efforts amid corona virus pandemic with Mr Modi leading the charge on several
fronts interacting with world leaders.
In recent times, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke over phone to discuss a coordinated effort by both the democracies to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reports also say 42,000 lives have been lost globally.
How does one cope with the poverty, the complacency and the ignorance?
"I will manage"...or "The virus will not affect me" -- are general callous approaches being shown by Indians when it comes to following the rules of social distancing.
India's poverty is more often scandalised. So are the woes of the lower middle class. These bitter facts -- inherent part of Indian lifestyle are like inevitable darkness that lies underneath the lamp.
These came to the fore during the ongoing crisis sparked off by the fatal corona virus after the government of 'popular' Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, ordered a straight 21-day lockdown commencing March 25.
Poor and those at the lower economic strata of the society were left at the mercy of fate and God.
With no jobs and food and cash crunch for three weeks, thousands of workers decided to return home.
A nationwide chaos prevailed for at least two days when a large number of migrant workers took to the streets deciding to leave national capital Delhi and other hyper active commercial and industrial hubs like Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru for back home -- small hamlets in under-developed rural India.
There is often a debate on the merits of Chinese communism and liberal democracy in India, however faulty the latter might be. It is generally accepted that communist China has provided its citizens with better health services and more food and clothes than democracy has done in India.
With its often callous approach to citizens' welfare and high political sensitivity, Indian democracy fails to inject elements of self-discipline and social regulation. Indian social behaviour always remains the totality of ignorance, insensitivity, poverty and arrogance.
The fear of the dreaded coronavirus spreading across India is now real after thousands of Muslims met in New Delhi and moved out to all parts of the country. Some of them have since died of Covid-19.
Their gathering ignored all government restrictions, while authorities in Delhi failed to stop it. A baffling question remains: Why did the government fail to stop it?
Thousands of people — anywhere between 2,000 and 8,000 — gathered from March 13-15 in New Delhi’s predominantly Muslim Nizamuddin area for the annual conference of Tablighi Jamaat, a noted Muslim missionary group.
At least nine people who attended the conference have been reported dead after they tested positive for Covid-19 in different parts of India. One person died in the Philippines.Some 440 people in the Nizamuddin area were hospitalized with symptoms of Covid-19 two weeks after the gathering. Since March 15, thousands of attendees have traveled back to their villages and towns.
The conference started and ended when government orders were in place against the gathering of people. It was not a secret meeting. It had all necessary police clearance, organizers claim.
People gathered in Nizamuddin from all over India and from at least 10 other nations. The federal government issued the foreign visitors with visas. Officials probably knew the purpose of their arrival and the place of their gathering.
Most foreigners who come for such programs reportedly apply only for tourist visas. Officials say there is an established guideline that foreigners on tourist visas should not indulge in any missionary work. But then this happens!
The gathering started after Tablighi Jamaat had a meeting canceled in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority nation. Some 8,000 people were supposed to attend the meeting in South Sulawesi on March 19 but it was canceled after authorities appealed to avoid an impending danger.
Authorities knew the gathering in Nizamuddin was a ticking Covid-19 time bomb. But why did they not act to stop it?
"It is sad that people are still complacent about coronavirus," says Virendra Sachdeva, a leader of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), widely seen as a pro-Hindu party. "The organizers of the Nizamuddin meet erred when anxiety was already there about the fatal malady."
He answers the question about federal failure to stop the event by saying that the government is acting now. "The government has started acting. All state police have been directed to track the movement of all those who attended the gathering and those who came in contact with them. We have also asked for medical screening of all such people," says Sachdeva, a member of the BJP's good governance unit.
But the scale of events shows a staggering issue. Take, for example, the case of Telangana, just one of India's 29 states. An estimated 1,000 people came from that state alone to the Delhi event. Most returned to their villages by taking trains and buses before March 24.
On March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown, shutting all modes of transport, shops and public activities. That means participants who are not now in Delhi have been back in their villages for at least a week.
But there were still some 1,200 people camped in a building called Hazrat Nizamuddin Markaz on March 26 when authorities suspected the spread of the disease. Organizers justified the cramped community living there by saying the lockdown forced them to do that as there was no transport available to move out.
Could the international prominence of Tablighi Jamaat be a reason for not taking stern action against its gathering? Hardly anyone would support that idea.
Indeed, it is an international group. Started in pre-independence India, this missionary group that stresses on pilgrimages and prayers has spread to other nations, particularly in Asia, in the past five decades.
The group claims 150 million adherents, mostly in South Asian nations such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It also has significant followers in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore besides having smaller groups in Thailand, Brunei and Cambodia.
However, dispersing the crowd, after convincing the organizers of the necessity of avoiding a gathering just as Indonesia did, would not have created any diplomatic fallout, particularly in these pressing times.
Satyendar Jain, Delhi's health minister, said the organizers "had done a blunder" in organizing such a mega meet. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called it a crime.
But what stopped Delhi's state government from acting? They say Delhi's police and law enforcement are under federal government control. They cannot order the police. They have now taken legal steps to register a criminal case against the event's organizers.
Political sensitivity looks like the real reason for the inaction of both the state and federal governments. Both governments did not want to be seen as acting against a Muslim event. Delhi state did want to be seen as anti-Muslim, and the federal government did not want to add to its list of anti-Muslim acts at this time.
In all probability, officials never expected the virus to hit India, and that too by mid-March. They never thought of any reason to put a curb on the event and create a problem that could cost their political bosses dearly.
The virus began to take a vicious turn in northern India only in the first week of March. By then, thousands had already gathered inside the Delhi building for the meeting.
As discussions rage, the unseen virus continues to spread. How many lives will be lost in India is anybody's guess.
It may not be an exaggeration to say that millions are now at high risk of being afflicted by the virus as many people could still be on the move towards their homes. Thousands of daily wage workers who became jobless because of the lockdown are also walking to their villages from cities like New Delhi and Mumbai.
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