- Anurag Pathak
The Delhi police has sealed off the Nizamuddin slum area on March 30 after a number of COVID-19 positive cases have been reported from the residents of the region. This came after a convention was held in the place earlier this month and was attended by Islamic preachers and followers from many states of India as well as other Asian countries. The convention was conducted by Tableeghi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin’s Markaz. It is claimed that as many as over 2,000 people had attended the religious gathering, of which, some left the place before the announcement of the lockdown on 25 March.
Today, the Delhi Police raided the area again and sent around 950 people including some foreigners to quarantine on the suspicion of being infected by the Coronavirus. The people were sent to said ‘quarantine facilities’ in Delhi’s various locations. Few of them, from other states of the country, who found to be infected were later identified to have attended the gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz. Around 280 people from Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh were identified to be there at Markaz during the congregation. The Andhra authorities have spotted 110 out of those 280 and shifted them to isolation wards and in areas around Marakapur and Chirala. Besides Andhra, people from Telangana, Kerala, Bihar, and even Andaman and Nicobar came to Nizamuddin Markaz gathering. Ten people who attended the event including one foreigner have been reported dead till now due to the infection. Following all these events, the Delhi police have cordoned off the Nizamuddin area and closed all the entry/exit points. Drones are also being deployed to ensure that the lockdown is being followed seriously.
The rigthwing Indian media, without taking any sigh, jumped into to give the entire incident a religious angle and have since then, started blaming the Muslim community for their ‘ignorance’, ‘fundamentalism’, ‘not following the lockdown’, and whatnot. Debates are being conducted on TV channels to make the attendees of the function responsible for this. The liberals also started singing in the same chorus and are blaming the Muslims for ‘choosing faith over humanity’. To make this more clear, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had ordered the authorities to register FIR against Tableeghi Jamaat. The Delhi police action of raiding the entire slum was nothing but the follow-up of the CM’s order. An FIR was also registered against Nizamuddin Markaz’s maulana for defying the lockdown and gathering people against it.
However, the truth is completely opposite to the picture being created to put the total responsibility of the spread of the pandemic on the poor in general and on the Muslims in this particular Nizamuddin case. Recently, there has surfaced a letter that was sent to the Delhi government and the police a few days ago by the Maulana Muhammad Saad of Banglewali Masjid (head of the sect who attended the religious event). The letter states “it is requested that due to lockdown and non-availability of transport, approximately 1,200 Tableeghi Jamaat workers have been stranded inside Tableeghi Jamaat Markaz at Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin.”
When the COVID-19 virus was taking the whole world in its blanket, the India Heath Ministry on 13 March said that “Coronavirus is not a health emergency”. Many international flights were duly been welcomed, and everything was running more or less at the same pace. The religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz also started on the same day. It went for two days before ending on 15 March. The following day (March 16), the Delhi government ordered to close all religious institutions of the state when the number of coronavirus cases finally rang the bell. Not to miss, March 16 was also the date when Hindu Mahasabha leaders organised a Goumutra party to fight the Coronavirus. Notably, this event went unreported. Next two days, on March 17 and 18, more than 40,000 people visited Tirupati, which was later closed following Indian PM’s dictation of Janata Curfew on March 22. No reporting was done in this case too.
Till this time, some people had already left the Markaz and some were locked down either in the nearby areas or at the Markaz itself owing to the orders given to the police for strictly implementing Janata Curfew. Amidst this, BJP after horse-trading Congress MLAs formed government in Madhya Pradesh and hosted a celebration event with no less than 200 people. Surprisingly, this also drew no attention from the media, which had been thumping its chest to convince people for adhering to Janata Curfew.
On March 25, India’s PM Narendra Modi announced countrywide lockdown for 21 days and notified all state governments to implement the decision with the utmost strictness. This left the poor, particularly the migrant labours all over the country addled in the chaos. Police, started beating people in the streets and the media, as one can expect, threw the entire responsibility of preventing the spread of Coronavirus on the poor. The people who attended the religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz were also among those who were left with no other option than staying where they were. The aforementioned letter by Maulana Muhammad Saad of Banglewali Masjid, which requested authorities to rehabilitable the people inside the Markaz was completely ignored by the Delhi government as well as the Delhi police.
Today, the Delhi Police raided the area again and sent around 950 people including some foreigners to quarantine on the suspicion of being infected by the Coronavirus. The people were sent to said ‘quarantine facilities’ in Delhi’s various locations. Few of them, from other states of the country, who found to be infected were later identified to have attended the gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz. Around 280 people from Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh were identified to be there at Markaz during the congregation. The Andhra authorities have spotted 110 out of those 280 and shifted them to isolation wards and in areas around Marakapur and Chirala. Besides Andhra, people from Telangana, Kerala, Bihar, and even Andaman and Nicobar came to Nizamuddin Markaz gathering. Ten people who attended the event including one foreigner have been reported dead till now due to the infection. Following all these events, the Delhi police have cordoned off the Nizamuddin area and closed all the entry/exit points. Drones are also being deployed to ensure that the lockdown is being followed seriously.
The rigthwing Indian media, without taking any sigh, jumped into to give the entire incident a religious angle and have since then, started blaming the Muslim community for their ‘ignorance’, ‘fundamentalism’, ‘not following the lockdown’, and whatnot. Debates are being conducted on TV channels to make the attendees of the function responsible for this. The liberals also started singing in the same chorus and are blaming the Muslims for ‘choosing faith over humanity’. To make this more clear, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had ordered the authorities to register FIR against Tableeghi Jamaat. The Delhi police action of raiding the entire slum was nothing but the follow-up of the CM’s order. An FIR was also registered against Nizamuddin Markaz’s maulana for defying the lockdown and gathering people against it.
However, the truth is completely opposite to the picture being created to put the total responsibility of the spread of the pandemic on the poor in general and on the Muslims in this particular Nizamuddin case. Recently, there has surfaced a letter that was sent to the Delhi government and the police a few days ago by the Maulana Muhammad Saad of Banglewali Masjid (head of the sect who attended the religious event). The letter states “it is requested that due to lockdown and non-availability of transport, approximately 1,200 Tableeghi Jamaat workers have been stranded inside Tableeghi Jamaat Markaz at Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin.”
When the COVID-19 virus was taking the whole world in its blanket, the India Heath Ministry on 13 March said that “Coronavirus is not a health emergency”. Many international flights were duly been welcomed, and everything was running more or less at the same pace. The religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz also started on the same day. It went for two days before ending on 15 March. The following day (March 16), the Delhi government ordered to close all religious institutions of the state when the number of coronavirus cases finally rang the bell. Not to miss, March 16 was also the date when Hindu Mahasabha leaders organised a Goumutra party to fight the Coronavirus. Notably, this event went unreported. Next two days, on March 17 and 18, more than 40,000 people visited Tirupati, which was later closed following Indian PM’s dictation of Janata Curfew on March 22. No reporting was done in this case too.
Till this time, some people had already left the Markaz and some were locked down either in the nearby areas or at the Markaz itself owing to the orders given to the police for strictly implementing Janata Curfew. Amidst this, BJP after horse-trading Congress MLAs formed government in Madhya Pradesh and hosted a celebration event with no less than 200 people. Surprisingly, this also drew no attention from the media, which had been thumping its chest to convince people for adhering to Janata Curfew.
On March 25, India’s PM Narendra Modi announced countrywide lockdown for 21 days and notified all state governments to implement the decision with the utmost strictness. This left the poor, particularly the migrant labours all over the country addled in the chaos. Police, started beating people in the streets and the media, as one can expect, threw the entire responsibility of preventing the spread of Coronavirus on the poor. The people who attended the religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz were also among those who were left with no other option than staying where they were. The aforementioned letter by Maulana Muhammad Saad of Banglewali Masjid, which requested authorities to rehabilitable the people inside the Markaz was completely ignored by the Delhi government as well as the Delhi police.
A few days later, India witnessed a mass exodus of migrant labourers from Delhi to Bihar, UP, Haryana, etc. The state governments of Delhi and UP got engaged in a dog fight and none of them offered any help to the workers. Some of the workers even worked over 400 km without proper food and water to reach their home state. Several reports of police brutalities came to face and the workers were forcibly sent to schools, colleges, of their respective districts for 14 days isolation. Then cohorts of the government started cursing these people for coming out in disrespect of the lockdown orders and ignoring the seriousness of the threat of Coronavirus.
Ironically, very same people are now accusing the attendees at Nizamuddin Markaz who followed the lockdown orders and remained at the Markaz.
Trapped people had appealed to Delhi government but it did not come to their aid. The virus, thus infected a number of people from that area. Delhi government left them die despite receiving a formal request of rehabilitation.
The rightwing media is leaving no stone unturned to accuse the poor for the spread of this pandemic, while not raising the troubling questions to the ruling elite.
Tons of money has been pumped by the governments regularly in acquiring the weapons of mass destruction and luxuries for the ministers and bureaucrats. This has left the country with a crummy health infrastructure. However, the same doesnt impact the elites as they have all medical facilities at their disposal. Hospital chains like Apollo, Fortis, etc are in complete service of the rich, while the poor are kicked into school buildings, train compartments, shelter tents and last but not least, ‘self-isolation treehouses’.
It looks like that the media has been waiting for something that involves Muslims so that the entire focus can be shifted from lacklustre healthcare, inadequate testing facilities, police brutality, defence deals, and corporate bailout packages to ‘Muslims being responsible for Coronavirus spread’.
Ironically, very same people are now accusing the attendees at Nizamuddin Markaz who followed the lockdown orders and remained at the Markaz.
Trapped people had appealed to Delhi government but it did not come to their aid. The virus, thus infected a number of people from that area. Delhi government left them die despite receiving a formal request of rehabilitation.
The rightwing media is leaving no stone unturned to accuse the poor for the spread of this pandemic, while not raising the troubling questions to the ruling elite.
Tons of money has been pumped by the governments regularly in acquiring the weapons of mass destruction and luxuries for the ministers and bureaucrats. This has left the country with a crummy health infrastructure. However, the same doesnt impact the elites as they have all medical facilities at their disposal. Hospital chains like Apollo, Fortis, etc are in complete service of the rich, while the poor are kicked into school buildings, train compartments, shelter tents and last but not least, ‘self-isolation treehouses’.
It looks like that the media has been waiting for something that involves Muslims so that the entire focus can be shifted from lacklustre healthcare, inadequate testing facilities, police brutality, defence deals, and corporate bailout packages to ‘Muslims being responsible for Coronavirus spread’.
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