Until Modi’s “Janta Curfew”announcement on March 21st nobody inIndia took COVID-19 seriously. It was only after that announcement that peoplestarted staying indoors and avoided unnecessary travel. Even religious leadersand masjid Imams were not taking COVID-19 seriously in spite of the fact thatGrand Mosque in Mecca was closed around March 1st week. In Kashmir there werepeople who continued to go to visit Masjids and in fact rejected the healthadvisories. Ajaz ul Haque had written a beautiful piece titled ” The virusdoesn’t know that ” (GK March 22nd) wherein he had lambasted religiousleaders for not understanding the gravity of the situation. When COVID-19positive cases started increasing day by day in J&K, people got to know theintensity of this viral infection. With regard to spread of this viral pandemicthrough members of Tableegi Jamat, one needs to understand the whole situationright from March 13th on-wards when Delhi Government issued its firstadvisory.
March 13th order
Delhi government has described thecongregation at Tableegi Jamat Markaz Nizamuddin as a criminal act that wascarried out in violation of prohibitory orders.
The Delhi government on March 13th 2020exercising powers conferred by the Delhi Epidemic Diseases, COVID-19,Regulations, 2020, and the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897—prohibited all sportsgatherings, including IPL matches, as well as conferences and seminars having200 or more people. The congregation at the Nizamudin Markaz was a clearviolation of the order and an FIR against Ameer of Tableegi Jamat Moulana Saad Kandhivelihas already been filed. A law abiding, and the largest Islamic religiousmovement of the world, Tableegi Jamat elders should have taken March 13thorders of Delhi Government very seriously. On the other hand who was toimplement that order? Why didn’t concerned District Magistrate of the area oreven Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) came to Tableegi Markaz to enforce theorders of Delhi Government on March 14th or 15th? Even the SHO could haveenforced the order as Nizamudin Police Station is located just across theTableegi Markaz (less than 100 meters distance). TV channels are running avideo footage shot around March 23rd wherein local SHO addresses the TableegiMarkaz delegation but wasn’t that too late?
Intelligence reports
Whosoever goes to Tableegi Markaz for onenight or more has to get himself or herself registered. A visitors dairy ismaintained on daily basis wherein all the persons spending a night or moreenter their name, address and mobile numbers. Local intelligence unit of Delhipolice gets regular details about the daily dairy from the Tableegi markaz. Whydidn’t Intelligence unit of Delhi Police alert the Government from March 13thto 22nd? The reason is because nobody was aware about the intensity of theCOVID-19 infection in India? Leave aside Tableegi Markaz, thousands of peoplewere traveling in Delhi Metro until Janta Curfew (March 22nd). There weredozens of religious, social and cultural gatherings taking place in Delhi andother cities from March 13th to 23rd. Tirupati Balaji temple which has anaverage footfall of 40,000 devotees was open until March 18th. More than 700courts in India were working until March 21st and 20,000 trains were runninguntil this time. An atmosphere has been created that makes people believe as ifonly Tableegi Jamat markaz was open from March 13th to 24th, all otherreligious & cultural centers were shut and the coranovirus has been spreadby Tableegi people in India.
Markaz a Transit center
Tableegi Jamat Markaz at Hazrat Nizamudinis like a transit center. As per my information there was not a religiouscongregation but a meeting (mashwara) of the elders of the Jamat also calledZimedars. The Tableegi Jamat congregation, conference (Ijtema) is otherwisethronged by millions of people. After Hajj, the biggest annual event of Muslimsis organised by Tableegi Jamat at Tongi in Bangladesh every year in December.More than 20 lakh people participate in this annual Ijtema. In December 2018all previous records of people coming to a religious congregation were brokenwhen around 1 crore Muslims participated in Alami Tableegi ijtema (WorldTableegi Conference) at Bulandshahar in UP. In Bhopal also lakhs of people comefor Tableegi ijtema every year. So to say there was an event like Ijtema etc atTableegi Jamat Markaz is wrong. I have been told that it was an Aalmi Mashwarawhat can be called International Executive Committee meeting of around 1500persons. The participants were from different states of India and othercountries especially Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal, SriLanka etc had come. Most of the people who go for a Jamat (religious trip) for40 days or 4 months in India do pay a visit to Nizamudin Markaz for one or twodays especially those groups who travel around North India. The foreign groupsdefinitely come to Nizamudin Markaz when they land in India. After completingtheir religious tour of 40 days or 4 months and even 1 year (for religiousscholars), the Jamat members are again supposed to visit the markaz for one ortwo days. There is not even a single day when Nizamudin Markaz is not visitedby at least 3000 to 4000 people daily.
Issue of foreigners
I am not able to understand why there issuch a hue and cry about the foreign Jamat members found at Nizamudin markaz orother cities of India? They are held responsible for spreading COVID-19 at theNizamudin Markaz. Did these people come to India illegally? No, not at all, asall of them have a valid visa issued by Government of India through itsrespective High Commissions. If Government apprehended spread of COVID-19through these foreign Tableegi Jamat members why were they given the visas? Whythey were not quarantined while landing at New Delhi airport or any otherairport in India? Why didn’t Delhi Government keep a medical team outside theTableegi Markaz in view of the fact that many foreign nationals visit theMarkaz daily? Why didn’t airport immigration cells not maintain a list of suchnational who came to India around February and March for ensuring COVID 19infection isn’t spread ?
These are important issues which Governmentneeds to answer. The sudden 21 day national lock-down from March 24th created achaos across India. More than 30,000 people were seen at Anand Vihar busterminus on Delhi UP border during the lock-down why? How did that happen? TheTableegi Jamat members numbering around 1500 or more followed PMs orders…..stay where you are – “Jo Jahan hai Wahee Rahee”. Train serviceshad been cancelled, many foreigners had return tickets after March 24th, whereshould have they gone during that chaos ?
Conclusion
I again reiterate that Tableegi Jamatelders should have cleared Markaz between March 13th to March 24th but at thesame time Government officials like the concerned District Magistrate (DM), SubDivisional Magistrate (SDM) and even SHO are also to be blamed who didn’t cometo Markaz to enforce the March 13th order of Delhi Government. Why didn’t theyprovide necessary assistance to the members of Tableegi Jamat who had got holdup inside the Markaz building?Lastly why didn’t media alert the authorities atthe appropriate time? Had the news channels filed reports about presence oflarge number of people especially foreign nationals at Tableegi Jamat Markazpost March 13th order such a chaotic situation would not have arisen? I am notan advocate of Tableegi Jamat but at the same time one cannot remain quite whenmedia wants to tarnish the image of Muslims through a sustained trolling ofmembers of Tableegi Jamat.