India has launched a massive search to track down those who attended an event organised by a Muslim missionary movement after dozens of people test positive for coronavirus and at least seven reportedly die. Authorities in the Indian capital on Tuesday sealed off the premises of Tablighi Jamaat, accusing it of organising a religious gathering from March 13-15 and ignoring the threat of the COVID-19 outbreak. (Source: www.aljazeera.com)
Comment:
Nearly 1.1 million people have been infected with the coronavirus across the globe in 209 countries, with global death toll rising to 58,620 as of 05 Apr 2020. WHO reported on 04 Apr 2020 that US topped the infection/death counts with 241,703 / 5854. China where COVID19 is presumed to have been originated reported 82,875 / 3335. Italy topped in the European region with 119,827 / 14,681 and Iran topped in the Eastern Mediterranean with 53,183 / 3294. India topped South East Asia at 2301 / 56.
The first confirmed case of Novel Coronavirus was reported from the Indian state of Kerala on 30 Jan 2020 where a student studying in Wuhan University, China returned. From then, the progression rate of infections/deaths reported for India had been 1/0, 3/0 and 724/17 by the end of 31 Jan 2020, 29 Feb 2020 and 27 Mar 2020. In the last week of Mar 2020, Indian Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba reminded states emphasizing the need for closing probable gaps in screening and monitoring of international passengers who entered between 18 Jan 2020 to 23 Mar 2020. The instruction reminded the earlier notice issued to screen international passengers effective from 18 Jan 2020 and cited a gap between the number of passengers monitored by states versus those entered, that stood well over 1,500,000 passengers. By the time, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, declared a 21-day lockdown of 1.3 billion people effective from 27 Mar 2020, over 1.5 million people had entered from around the world where nearly 202 countries had reported COVID19 as reported by WHO. On Tuesday, March 31, New Delhi Health minister, Satyendra Jain, told The Wire that 1,033 people have been taken out of the Tabligi Jamaat Markaz (Centre) at Nizamuddin (in Delhi) and 24 of them have been found to be covid19 positive. Within a day, Indian news media started to polarize the covid19 coverage projecting an incoherent view that the Jamaat was a key factor in the increasing number of infections from end of Mar 2020.
By 27 Mar 2020, India had reported cases of 724 infections, significantly lower than other countries in many regions. The lockdown left stranded millions of informal sector workers who amount to more than 60% of India’s working population, most of them are migrant workers from different Indian states. The untimely lockdown left 1000s of migrant workers stranded without food and shelter and was evolving into a disaster for the Modi government. The migrant workers carried a high 30% risk of transmitting the infection. The desperate government just found it convenient to blame it on a single factor with an extremely communal bias to save its face from the disaster it created in the first place. They further covered-up the many transmission amplification events such as Namaste Trump on 24 Feb 2020 attended by over 70,000 people and several other religious festivals throughout Mar 2020 in different parts of India.
Tabligi Jamaat founded in 1926 in Mewat region of India (in the north) have made their sole objective to reform Muslims in their personal lives. The organization has membership from many parts of the world with their global center at Nizamuddin. The 1000+ delegates attending an international convention at the center were themselves caught in the crossfire of Modi’s sudden lockdown. Despite the Jamaat’s best efforts to protect themselves and others from covid19, the entire Muslims have been slandered. We advise them with the glad tidings of Allah (swt), يُريدونَ لِيُطفِئوا نورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفواهِهِم وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نورِهِ وَلَو كَرِهَ الكافِرونَ “They desire to extinguish Allah’s Light with their mouths but Allah will perfect His Light, though the disbelievers hate it.” [Surah Saff: 8]
Bahrudeen bin Shamsudeen
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