The communal virus

Muslims should not be targeted for Tablighi Jamaat's errors

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the spread of India’s rarely dormant communal virus. The proximate cause this time is the admittedly irresponsible behaviour of the Islamic missionary movement, Tablighi Jamaat, in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin area. Data shows that Tablighi accounts for about a third of the cases in India. This statistics, repeated ad nauseum  by central and state officials, has served to obscure the facts and inflamed public opinion. The event took place on March 15, well before the nationwide lockdown or ban on international travel. Many Hindu temples held gatherings around this time with thousands of people violating social distancing norms. The large numbers that continued to inhabit the mosque and, worse, travelled throughout India undoubtedly points to gross negligence by Tablighi members, some of whom have misbehaved with health officials and the police. There is no doubt that the gathering was an instance of negligence of basic civic irresponsibility and the Tablighis did spread the virus in large parts of Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. But no less reprehensible is the manner in which this incident, involving an obscurantist sect, has been conflated to demonise the entire Indian Muslim community.

In parts of the country, Hindutva vigilantes are urging Muslim boycotts. In a hospital in Ahmedabad, Covid-19 wards have been segregated for Hindu and Muslim patients. The hospital authorities said it was following state government orders (which officials have denied, saying it only stipulated wards segregated by gender). In Meerut, meanwhile, the police has booked a private hospital that announced that it would only admit Muslim patients who showed negative test results for Covid-19. The owner claimed a “conspiracy”, said the ad had “typing errors and misprints” and that his objective was to promote testing (since he also referred to the Jain community as “miserly” in the same ad, he may well be an equal opportunity offender).

Importantly, many leading Muslims have publicly come out and squarely held the Tablighi responsible for the accelerated spread of the virus but have been at pains to explain that the organisation does not represent the mainstream. These moderate voices have, however, been drowned out in the increasingly shrill communal cacophony. The issue has gained enough traction for the Organisation of Islamic Countries, with whom India has traditionally enjoyed cordial relations, to express concern over alleged incidents of “Islamophobia” and urge the government to protect the rights of Muslims. The government could have certainly come up with a better response than Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s claim that “India was heaven for Muslims  and those trying to vitiate the atmosphere of prosperity cannot be the country’s friends”.

The febrile national mood owing to uncertainties over the post-Covid-19 future demanded some decisive intervention from leaders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet seeking “unity and brotherhood” to fight a virus that “does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking” fell short of an explicit condemnation of the viral Islamophobia. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was quick only to censure the Tablighi. There is dissonance in state actions too. Some Tablighi organisers have shown letters that suggest that neither the police nor the local administration responded to appeals for help to clear the mosque after the lockdown was announced. These claims should be investigated with the same vigour with which the state’s penal apparatus is being brought to bear on the organisation. History has repeatedly demonstrated the correlation between economic stagnation and communal polarisation. This is the last thing India needs at this juncture.