Do not single out communities over coronavirus: Jagan

Jagan mentions spiritual gatherings held by Mata Amritanandamayi, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Paul Dinakaran and John Wesley to claim that such contamination could have happened anywhere

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy has asked the public to unitedly fight the COVID-19 pandemic, irrespective of caste, creed or religion, while appealing not to single out one sect as the cause for the virus spread.

The state has, as of Saturday evening, reported 190 positive cases, with around 90% of them linked to the Nizamuddin Markaz congregation.

Reddy’s remarks are made in wake of a few people purportedly attributing the alarming situation to one religion, especially the Tablighi Jamaat cult.

“Such contamination could have happened in any other congregation of any faith. There is no reason to discriminate against a section of our own people and attribute motives. The spread was not intentional,” Reddy said on Saturday in an address to the public.

“Some people from our state went to a religious congregation at Delhi attended by members from foreign countries. Some of them are said to be infected and the coronavirus has spread from there. But there is no reason to attribute it to a community.”

The CM went on to say that large scale religious congregations are held in the country even by other spiritual leaders like Mata Amritanandamayi, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, or Paul Dinakaran and John Wesley.

“We should not discriminate against people as it happened unfortunately and was not premeditated. We must put up a united fight as Indians allowing no room for caste or religion-based differences,” Reddy said.

He asked people to join the nation in lighting lamps at 9 pm on Sunday as called for by Prime Minister Narendra Modi “to show unity as Indians and to drive the darkness away.”

Out of the 190 cases, Nellore and Krishna districts are on the top with 32 cases each, followed by Guntur at 26 cases. On Friday the state reported its first COVID-19 death of a 55-year-old Vijayawada man, whose son had returned from the Markaz.

The chief minister has announced that the frontline departments—medical and health, police, sanitation—working relentlessly for containing COVID-19 would get the full month’s pay and “there would be no deferment, unlike other employees.”