NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday was urged by the Delhi Minorities Commission to stop naming the Tableeghi Jamaat as a carrier of coronavirus in the government’s daily briefings.
The commission in its statement said the continued reminders created a false image about Muslims per se, which has triggered a growing number of hate crimes against the community. The fact, however, is that a vicious bout of anti-Muslim violence by BJP supporters was already being staged in Delhi for several days since February 24, independent of the coronavirus outbreak across the world.
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The country’s first Covid-19 case was detected in Kerala on January 30, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government kept denying the news way into March which ultimately resulted in posing a serious threat to the country. The Delhi violence was triggered by the BJP’s loss in the election for state assembly, and had little to do with the pandemic.
Racial assaults have been reported from different parts of the country against people belonging to the northeastern states abutting Myanmar and China. The logic in the bias in this instance is supposed to be linked to President Donald Trump’s callous comment about a “China virus” stalking much of the world. However, Indians from the northeast believe they are being targeted periodically out of some other deep-seated prejudice.
The chairman of Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC), Dr Zafarul Islam Khan, said in his letter to Mr Kejriwal: “Your bulletins of coronavirus victims are showing a separate column ‘Markaz Masjid’. Such thoughtless classification is feeding into the Islamophobia agenda of the lap media and Hindutva forces and has been easily turned into a handle to attack Muslims across the country.”
He said that as a result Muslims were being attacked in various areas, calls were being made for their social boycott, one boy had been lynched in the North-West Delhi village of Harewali, and others brutally.
The DMC letter further said: “World Health Organisation has taken cognisance of this phenomenon, unique to India. WHO Emergency Programme Director Mike Ryan said on 6 April, 2020: ‘Countries should not profile novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases in terms of religion or any other criteria.’”
“Further, the advisory requ¬ested citizens to ‘never spread names or identity of those aff¬ec¬ted or under quarantine or their locality on the social media’.”
