Why defend the indefensible act of Jamaat attendees?

By Rajesh Mishra

The Tablighi Jamaat attendees have failed India’s mission to keep the spread of Covid-19 in check and now by going into hiding they have proved that they are a threat to the society. They are not just behind the spike in Covid-19 cases in India constituting almost half of the Covid-19 cases,

they have also imperilled lives of scores of people by not responding to the government’s call to allow themselves to be quarantined. And I think those who are trying to defend them by bringing communal angle to it are harming the interests of the Muslim community in general, because I refuse to believe that they represent billions of Indian Muslims.

I am unable to understand the mindset of those Jamaat attendees who spit at doctors and nurses, attack them, urinate and defecate in the corridor of quarantine centres as well as make lewd gestures at nurses. No Covid-19 suspect except them has done any such nasty thing, though some individuals here and there have tried to run away from quarantine centres. Are these Jamaat attendees so dumb that they cannot understand that issue is serious and the health personnel are there to save their lives and the lives of others who have got into contact with them? Or, is it some sort of a conspiracy hatched by Jamaat? Whatever may be true, but the fact remains that they have endangered lives of many and have caused deaths as well from Covid-19 and I fully support their being booked under the National Security Act. They are criminals and deserve no mercy.

But, there is a section of intellectuals in India which is a habitual defender of the indefensible when it comes to Muslims. Imagine the reaction of the same group had there been some Hindu group instead of Tablighi Jamaat. They would have gone hammer and tongs seeking urgent action against the group. That reminds me of the lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq by a mob in a Dadri village five years ago. The same group did all that that it could to vilify the Hindu community on the basis of a single case. Intellectuals started feeling unsafe in India amid growing Hindu intolerance and India suddenly became totally inhospitable. But, since it is Jamaat, they are either maintaining studied silence over the issue or appealing to people not to communalise. In fact, it’s they who are communalising by making Jamaat a representative group of billions of Indian Muslims.

Recently, a video of a Muslim fruitseller went viral on Facebook in which the man is seen licking his thumb and applying saliva to fruits after which people in different parts of the country stopped buying fruits and vegetables from many Muslim fruit and vegetable sellers though not all Muslim fruit sellers do it. When someone does a wrong thing, it is only wise to call that person out or else, the wrongs get bigger with more serious repercussions.

(Rajesh Mishra is a senior journalist)

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