Accountability, yes; hate-spewing, no

It is unfortunate that at a time the country is besieged by an unprecedented public health crisis, right-wing elements are communalising public discourse. At the centre of it is a gathering organised by the Tablighi Jamaat (TJ) between March 13 and 15 at its headquarters in Nizamuddin in Delhi. Some 2,000 people, including many from Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Malaysia, participated in it. Days before the Delhi event, some 16,000 TJ followers had held a similar one in Malaysia. It resulted in the emergence of one of the biggest COVID-19 clusters in South-East Asia and Malaysia banned such gatherings immediately. That TJ-India went ahead in Delhi despite all this was highly irresponsible of it. Those running the organisation must be held accountable for their actions. Many in the Nizamuddin centre have now tested positive for the virus and a few have died as well. Hundreds of those who were at the Delhi centre have since travelled to other parts of the country. They could be infecting others. The least the Tablighi Jamaat and its members can do now is to voluntarily identify themselves to the authorities and cooperate with the efforts to trace, treat and quarantine them.

Yet, selectively scapegoating TJ-India or painting the whole Muslim community as irresponsible or worse is wrong and dangerous. TJ-India did not violate rules. There was no lockdown in place or even a ban on large gatherings when the event happened. In fact, on March 13, the Ministry of Health issued a statement that India was not facing “a health emergency.” Across India, followers of different faiths were still congregating at places of worship and holding mass celebrations at the time. The Tirupati temple closed its gates only on March 20. In Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government cancelled plans for a massive Ramanavami celebration only on March 21. Indeed, even on March 25, in the midst of the 21-day lockdown, the UP chief minister held a religious gathering in Ayodhya. Yet, none of that makes the Tablighi Jamaat right, especially since it continued to keep a large number of people at the Nizamuddin centre despite advisories and a ban on such gatherings.

While the Tablighi Jamaat should be held accountable, so must the Delhi and central governments and Delhi police, who were aware of the events and yet did not act as they should have. The foreign participants at the TJ-India event were allowed to enter the country even after Malaysia had drawn the world’s attention to the TJ event there. The TJ-India in Delhi is located right next to a police station, yet the police did not act at any point of time. Neither did the Delhi and central governments. Why?