"If the centre apprehends that the Covid-19 impact may worsen between April 30-May 15, then the government must consider running special trains to send the migrants back to their native states, for which guidelines must be formed by April-end. I have already raised this issue with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi," says Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on April 21 urged the Centre to frame guidelines by April-end to send home the migrants stuck in the state due to lockdown, amid indications of an extension in the restrictions
Thackeray was interacting via a video-conference chat with the Five-member Inter Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) which arrived in Maharashtra for an assessment of the Covid-19 management and the lockdown implementation.
In fact, the crucial fight against coronavirus finds the Modi Govt engaged in tug of war against state satraps including Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal.
Shortly after they complained of non-cooperation from the Mamata-led Trianmool Congress dispensation, a central visited parts of Kolkata at arund 1700 hours.
Earlier, there was a stern letter from the Home Ministry directing the West Bengal government to cooperate with the teams.
Apurba Chandra, an additional secretary in the defence ministry and the leader of the team, had alleged in the morning that they were told they "will not be going out" during the day.
Mercurial Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has often had height of love-hate relationship with Modi government, has flayed the central decision saying her administration will not allow the on the spot visits. BJP sources in Delhi, however, insist the state is duty bound to extend cooperation to a central team which functions with the powers granted to it through Disaster Management Act.
In Maharashtra context, CM Thackeray says while the state has made adequate arrangements for food and shelter of the ''guests'' from other states, there have been occasions when the migrants have resorted to agitational methods, like the Bandra incident of April 14.
Even the centre was irked by the episode.
Under pressure as the western state is battling the unseen virus, the Chief Minister has urged that "end-to-end: precautions should be taken for migrants from the starting point till they reach their destinations and are sent to home quarantine.
The state has also asked the Central team to study the status of Covid-19 pandemic and patients in other countries like the UAE and the US, since 80 per cent of the patients here are asymptomatic.
Maharashtra has demanded additional stocks of personal protective equipment like masks, gloves, sanitisers, coats and ventilators.
The central team visited the Worli Koliwada fishing village, Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai and other locations in Pune, besides holding discussions on a wide range of subjects pertaining to the pandemic management in the country''s two worst-hit hotspots.
The Modi government's confrontation with Mamata Banerjee-regime in Bengal and communists in Kerala is nothing new as the BJP's well known pro-HIndu tilt is always stiffly opposed by these two dispensations. While Marxists are 'natural opponents' of the BJP as says CPI-M leader Mohammed Salim, Ms Banerjee often has tried in the past to emerge as 'a direct competitor' to Prime Minister Modi.In fact, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has also last week flagged off a great concern of governance issues in India saying on the pretext of fight against coronavirus the Modi government could turn out to be more dictatorial.
There is a real "possibility" that the structure of India's democracy may change after coronavirus, Rahul Gandhi had said in a video conference with journalists adding, however, that India is nevertheless capable to protect its "democracy".
Delhi Commissioner of Police S.N. Shrivastava is personally monitoring the Tablighi case.
The Crime Branch unit of Delhi Police, which is probing the case registered against Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad and others, is now looking for the names and details of tickets booked by the Tablighi Jamaat agent.
The sleuths are also taking IRCTC help after they obtained codes allotted to Tablighi Jamaat for booking of railway tickets. They are taking "details of railway tickets booked by the Jamaat in the month of March onwards".
Apart from the travel agent within Markaz complex, the sleuths are also probing the record of another travel agent based in Nizamuddin.
'Corona factory' & Tablighi leaders face money laundering probe
New Delhi: Long hands of law have started moving fast. The Enforcement Directorate has now registered money laundering charge against Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Muhammad Saad Kandhlawi.
Sources said the Income Tax (I-T) department has also started scrutinising the accounts of Saad - whose
role in organising the highly controversial evangelical meet at Nizamuddin had led to spread of the pandemic
in rural areas including Maharashtra, Telangana, UP, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
It may be mentioned that Muslim clerics and Tablighi members had gathered in Nizamuddin from all over
India and from at least 10 other nations.
Most foreigners who come for such programs reportedly apply only for tourist visas.
Of course, under passport rules vis-a-vis Ministry of External Affairs, there is an established guideline that
foreigners on tourist visas should not indulge in any missionary work.
The gathering started after Tablighi Jamaat had a meeting canceled in a Muslim-majority Indonesia.
Some 8,000 people were supposed to attend the meeting in South Sulawesi on March 19 but it was
canceled.
ED officials are now likely to summon the Maulana and direct him to join the probe.
The centre has already directed IT department and other official agencies dealing such offence
to initiate probe on the source of funding of Tablighi group in India.
One issue that is being examined whether Tablighi group has violated the Foreign Exchange Management
Act, FEMA of 1999 and FCRA rules.
The ED case against Tablighi group and the Maulana is essentially based on the FIR filed by the Delhi
Police and money laundering has been suspected.
There are other charges such as criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder
and for violating the lockdown rules enforced since March 24 mid-night.
In Andhra Pradesh, which has sizeable Muslim population, at least 40 children between the age group of three to
17 have tested positive for coronavirus. All these kids and teenagers have at least one family member who had
attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in south Delhi.
The influential Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has last month described the Markaz meet as a "corona factory"
and demanded that Muslims "should come forward and close with immediate effect all the mosques in India
that are still open."
Various questions have been raised against Tablighi leaders and their intent. Broadly the debate revolved
around queries such as - “Who was the person responsible? Who and how these people jeopardised India’s
fight against Wuhan virus".
While some say the Markaz participants were largely ignorant about the adverse impact such a gathering
could spread across India, a few did not rule out the conspiracy angle either.
In fact, there have been days when over 70 per cent of cases in some states were linked to Tablighi meet.
In UP for instance once out of 69 cases, over 50 of them related to the Nizamuddin evangelical conference.
Raj Thackeray, we are with you!!
written in 2014
Hospitality is perhaps more often not a permanent virtue to human nature. The vexed anti-outsiders’ movement in various states in the north east in general and the supposed conflicts of interest with regard the Inner Liner Permit (ILP) debate in specific is related to this human tendency. Migration is in effect a multi-edged weapon for north-eastern states.
Hospitality is perhaps more often not a permanent virtue to human nature. The vexed anti-outsiders’ movement in various states in the north east in general and the supposed conflicts of interest with regard the Inner Liner Permit (ILP) debate in specific is related to this human tendency. Migration is in effect a multi-edged weapon for north-eastern states.
My understanding of migration in the national context is that had our national founding fathers not provided the scope of free migration within the country, India would have collapsed as a united nation. The insurgency menace would have stuck at the heart of India – states like Madhya Pradesh as well as population wise vulnerable the cow belt or northern India .
But coming to north-east of India Bangladesh
The cost of entertaining thousands of Biharis and north Indians, Bengalis, Nepalis and even a large number of Marwaris from Rajasthan has brought the region to the brink of worst socio-economic crisis. Now, let us take the question often asked, whether the ILP rules as provided in the legislation framed in 1873 – the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act - if implemented properly could have helped the tribal cause. The answer is generally no.
Recently I interacted with a group of tribal students from the north-eastern states of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram – where ILP rules are enforced.
Unhesitatingly, I must say, some of them readily agreed that the alleged collapse of ILP mechanism to check ‘inflow’ of outsiders – Mayangs in Manipur, Dhwakher in Khashi (Meghalaya), Vai-Naupang in Mizoram and Plain manu in Nagaland - too has much of it contributed towards the gunrunning culture in the northeast. Without doubt, it’s the fear and subsequent hatred towards ‘outsiders’ that have often led to insurgency or anti-India campaigns.
One of the students was particularly more vocal when she said; ILP was a “bad in law” with tremendous scope for slackness in implementation that has further aggravated the ugly situation.
So, what’s the way out of the mess or the cob of complexities?
One solution, I thought to these vexed questions lay with a rather parochial and regional chauvinist man in Mumbai – Raj Thackeray.
Raj – heading his fledgling Maharashtra Nirman Sena – in a series of television interviews during last week had actually suggested a solution to India
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