Relentless social media slander included the use of hashtags like #CoronaJihad. TV news channels like ABP Live called members of the Jamaat “manav bomb” or human bomb, a sentiment echoed by BJP leaders, including former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Sudhir Chaudhary of Zee News said on his show that the “Tablighi Jamaat betrayed the nation.”
New Delhi siyasat.net
A Delhi court on recently acquitted 36 foreigners, who were chargesheeted for attending a Tablighi Jamaat event, allegedly in violation of the Covid guidelines. The court acquitted the foreigners from 14 countries of all charge.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg acquitted the foreigners from 14 countries of all charges on Tuesday
On August 24, the court had framed charges against the foreigners under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3 (disobeying regulation) of Epidemic Act, 1897. The charges were also framed under section 51 (obstruction) Disaster Management Act, 2005.
However, they were discharged for the offences under section 14 (1) (b) (violation of visa norms) of Foreigners Act, sections 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 271 (Disobedience to quarantine rule) of IPC.
The court had also discharged eight foreign nationals from six countries of all charges under which they were chargesheeted in the absence of any record or any credible material against them.
The foreigners, who attending Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi at Nizamuddin area, were accused of allegedly violating visa norms, indulging in missionary activities illegally and violating government guidelines issued in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak.
Coronavirus had slipped into India through the back door, without check and without proper screening and quarantining people, who came to India from January 2020 onwards, and also close to Namaste Trump event, before and after Trump’s visit, as pointed out by a veteran Shiv Sena leader, attended by a huge gathering, not all from locals.
But the blame is put on someone else (Tablighi Jamat), to eclipse the lacuna, divert the attention of public, and bury the fact on the ground, and common poor people are blamed for not adhering to safety measure and not staying at home, after robbing them of their jobs and livelihood.
When the media (the via media between government and people and mirror of both) is silent, tight-lipped, deaf, dumb, blind and partisan, not having the wisdom and the spirit of duty, not endearing the ethics of journalism and reportage, not performing it’s duty, but looking the other way, not spreading the Truth, but something else, then, the death of the soul of this great country and of democracy is sure and certain. This so called journalism in guise of freedom of expression suffice communal hatred and spoil nation’s plural fabric.
On April 1, the government first claimed – with little evidence – that the Tabligh meet was a major national Covid-19 source, sparking a tide of Islamophobia, hate speech and crimes against Muslims, as Article 14 reported on May 11.
Researchers Soundarya Iyer of the French Institute of Pondicherry and Shoibal Chakravarty of the Divecha Centre for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science, who analysed media reportage about the Jamaat from March 20 to April 20, found 11,074 stories published from 271 media sources with the term “Tablighi Jamaat”.
They found that though the most frequently appearing words alongside “Tablighi” and Jamaat” were “coronavirus”, “Delhi”, and “lockdown”, words with negative connotations such as “violating”, “crime”, “spitting”, “terrorist”, and “jihad” also showed up repeatedly. “These stories fed into an epidemic of Islamophobic fake news and hate speech,” they wrote in The Hindu BusinessLine.
After this verdict, it is now cleared that witch-hunting of people in the Tablighi headquarter by certain media houses and police was uncalled for, and nothing but communalization of Indian atmosphere even in this tough time when we all need to stand together and help each other in the fight against outbreak of Corona Virus.
(www.siyasat.net is Ahmedabad,Gujarat, India based website, powered by Gujarat siyasat, a fortnightly)
