Masihuzzama Ansari | India Tomorrow

NEW DELHI, JUNE 28—Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has, too, confessed that it is not the Tablighi Jamaat activists, but people returning from abroad, responsible for coronavirus spread in the country.

He made this admission while addressing mediapersons here on Saturday.

But Kejriwal’s admission is too late because the damage has already been done. The Muslims all over the country became target of attack from anti-social elements after the health departments of Delhi state government and the central government doled out figures of coronavirus infections on basis of religion in March and April this year.

The Muslims are still suffering from the after-effects of anti-Muslim campaign by the “Godia media” that held Muslims responsible for coronavirus spread referring to the information provided by the Delhi and Central health departments on religious lines.

Kejriwal’s statement corroborates the findings of NGO ANHAD’s(Act Now for Harmony and Democracy)  survey that had straightway rejected the propaganda.

The survey titled as “Pulse of the Pandemic” conducted by NGOs-ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) and PM Bhargava Foundation proved that majority of the people believe that Covid-19 was spread in the country by those coming from abroad, and not by Tablighi Jamaat and Muslims as was wrongly propagated by the media and a section of the government agencies which doled out coronavirus positive figures  on basis of religion in initial days of the spread of the pandemic.

“About 75 per cent of the respondents clearly stated that, it has come with those who have travelled into India from abroad”, the survey report said.

CM, in his press conference, said that the chief reason for coronavirus spread in Delhi was 35,000 people who returned from abroad, particularly from countries that were severely hit by coronavirus infection. It is, however, a different matter the Delhi police, in a chargesheet with regard to Tablighi congregation in Hazrat Nizamuddin in March this year, described some of the foreign Tablighi Jamaat members from Malaysia and Indodnesia as “carriers of the coronavirus”.

In his briefing to the media, Kejriwal revealed that only a few from 35,000 people returning from abroad were quarantined. The coronavirus spread due to human-to-human contact by the remaining foreign returnees who were not quarantined though Kejriwal had himself initially held Tablighi Jamaat activists responsible for coronavirus spread and also demanded registration of an FIR in the issue.

Kejriwal candidly admitted that till March, his government was not at all prepared to deal with coronavirus. The Delhi government neither had testing kits, lab nor bed facilities to isolate the Covid-19 patients.

“Only few persons coming from abroad were quarantined. The rest went to their homes. The coronavirus spread because of these 35,000 persons. We neither had labs nor testing kids at that time”, Delhi CM confessed.

But it is really very strange that when neither the Delhi state government nor the Central government had even testing kits, they along with the ‘Godi media’ put the entire blame of corona infection in Delhi and other parts of the country on Tablighi Jamaat at a time when the central government had come under strong criticism from the general population due to its unpopular and sudden decision of lockdown that resulted in miseries to labourers and poor people many of whom lost their lives while going back to their villages on foot using railway tracks and walking on roads. Undoubtedly, the strategy helped the government in restoring its image but it resulted in an atmosphere of hatred against Muslims all over the country. Muslims were held responsible for spreading coronavirus and many Muslims became target of mob violence. They were also subjected to trade boycott and its effect is still visible in many parts of the country.

The Delhi government has accepted its weaknesses when the false propaganda unleashed by “Godi Media” convinced a large section of the population that Tablighis, meaning Muslims, are responsible for coronavirus spread in the country.

One can guess the deep agenda of hate and communalism from the fact that the Delhi health department as also the central government’s health ministry provided Covid-19 data on basis of religion, separating the figures of Tablighi Covid-19 positive from the rest of the figures. This mischief stopped only after an objection to this was raised by Delhi Minority Commission chairman Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan. He had alleged that such actions of the government would encourage the agenda of Islamophobia in the country. He had demanded to stop releasing figures on Covid-19 positive people on basis of religion.

He had also pointed out that this action of the central and state health departments was responsible for mob attacks on Muslims in several parts of the country and Muslims were subjected to trade and social boycott. Muslims were being sarcastically dubbed as “corona” by mischief makers.

Dr. Khan had also referred to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) letter which had objected to linking coronavirus infection with religion.