The Tablighi Jamaat Case and How India Topped a Global Index of Religious Bias During COVID

The order of the Delhi high court asking the Delhi Police to hand over the keys of the Nizamuddin Markaz to its owners went unnoticed by most of us.

Close on the heels of this order appeared a report by the Pew Research Centre, a Washington-based think tank, that put India at the top of its index of COVID-19-related hostilities against certain religious groups by the state or a section of society in 2020.

In India it started with the Nizamuddin Markaz. An international congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat from different countries took place at the Markaz in March 2020. There was nothing unusual about the event. All foreigners had valid visas. The event was officially permitted. There was no restriction on any gathering before the event. There were no travel restrictions.

In fact, just before this gathering, a huge crowd, numbering more than one lakh, was organised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad to welcome the then US president Donald Trump.

The government had criticised Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi for talking about the threat of the coronavirus and said that there was no need to take any extraordinary steps. The parliament was convened. The then chair of the Rajya Sabha and the vice-president, Venkaiah Naidu, had threatened the MPs, who had come to the house with face masks, with disciplinary action.

March 2020, opposition MPs in Rajya Sabha were wearing masks to prevent Covid19 and the Chairperson, Vice President @MVenkaiahNaidu asked them to remove it, saying it’s not allowed & threatened of an action.

Just imagine! This was Govt’s stand 6 days before lockdown. No masks!🤦‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/dKltM3n63w

— Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) May 11, 2020

All this meant that no alarms were raised, no gatherings prohibited, no one traveling from other countries disallowed from entering the country. The government was not even discouraging travels or gatherings.

It was, therefore, not the fault of the Tablighi Jamaat that it went ahead with its programme and hosted the participants. When the government issued restrictions, the participants were already on the campus of the Markaz. Some of them had gone to other parts of the country. They were not defying or evading any travel ban or restriction.

Like many of us, who unknowingly went to their workplaces, the Tablighi Jamaat people might have carried the virus, and infected others, just like many of us might have done.

The government was not doing any monitoring, and had not issued any alert. There was no way for the common people to decide what to do in such a situation.

After the announcement of the restrictions, it was not possible for those who were residing at the Markaz to disperse and move to other places. It could have been more dangerous to do that. When testing started and some cases of infections were reported from those who had come in contact with the Tablighi Jamaat people, attention turned to them. And towards the Markaz at Nizamuddin.

No one even thought that there would be people from the Ahmedabad event who might have carried the virus with them. No media outlet thought it fit to examine this possibility. The only source identified was the Nizamuddin Markaz.

Suddenly, the Markaz gathering was labelled as the ‘super spreader’ of the coronavirus. The Union government blamed the Markaz for “acting irresponsibly”, nay criminally by hosting the event, and also the Tablighi Jamaat people for traveling across India carrying the virus with them.

The top officials of the health ministry identified the Markaz and the Tablighi Jamaat for the spread of the coronavirus. The Delhi government marked the Markaz as a major source of the virus spread.

The TV media started talking about ‘Corona Jihad’. It was as if the Markaz was the centre of a conspiracy to spread COVID-19 and infect Indians. However, it didn’t remain confined to the Jamaat. Very soon all Muslims became suspects. Both the Union and the Delhi government kept marking Markaz as the centre of this “anti-national conspiracy” of ‘Corona Jihad’.

Muslims all over India faced discrimination, violence, attacks by the police and the private citizens as well. All this because the government had labelled them as ‘spreaders’ of the virus and the media had spread hatred against them.

It was then that the Markaz building was sealed by the Delhi Police. Passports of the foreign nationals participating in the event were seized. They were confined to various quarantine centres. It took them a long legal battle to get back their passports. The courts had to intervene to make it possible for them to travel back to their home countries.

Meanwhile, the Markaz remained under possession of the police. The police tried to extend the seizure by expanding the scope of their action. It was taken away from the Markaz authorities citing the pandemic law.

Later, the police interrogated them about the money that the Markaz and the Tablighi Jamaat had received from various sources. It launched an investigation into that. The doors of the Markaz remained locked. Meanwhile, many other religious events were held.

Also read: From the Kumbh to Ramzan, Contrasting Court Orders in COVID Times

Only after much persuasion, one of the floors of the Markaz was allowed to open. But the rest of the premises remained out of bounds for the devotees.

The courts kept asking the Delhi Police why it was not letting the Markaz open. The police had a strange argument – that it had to preserve the premises as it was investigating foreign nationals who had stayed there. It was such a laughable excuse. The police had the Markaz keys with it for so long. It could have scanned the premises, gathered all evidence (only God and Delhi Police know what evidence) in this period. But the police wanted it closed under this pretext.

All religious places had started functioning normally. The prime minister himself invited devotees for the Kumbh Mela. Actually, it was an unpardonable act of irresponsibility. This mega gathering, before which the Markaz event looked tiny, was the real ‘super spreader’ in the second and deadlier phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. But there was no media outcry, no action against the organisers. No one was arrested, no house sealed in this whole period. On the other hand, the Delhi police refused to give the keys back to the Markaz officials.

When it became clear that the courts were not convinced by the arguments of the police, it tried to make the ownership of the Markaz an issue. It tried to buy time by saying that the legality of the Markaz was in doubt. The court remained unmoved and firmly asked the police when it would hand over the keys to the owners. The police told the court that Markaz chief, Maulana Shad, was absconding.

The lawyers of Markaz and the Waqf board called the bluff of the police when they told the court that the Markaz chief was very much on the premises itself. The Delhi high court had enough of this farce and it directed the police to release the keys.

Also read: Does Law Allow Calls to Boycott Muslims During the COVID-19 Lockdown?

This incident should shake us. We should ask why the police were so interested in not letting the Markaz open? Yes, it did have a duty to protect citizens during the pandemic and disallow anything which could be a cause for the spread of the virus. Beyond that, why should one develop an interest in finding new excuses to not let a Muslim religious institution function, then make its legality doubtful and finally seek to dispossess the actual owners? Why did the Delhi Police go beyond its duty, its mandate?

The answer lies in the Pew report. It says that India witnessed the highest number of hostile incidents against Muslims and Christians during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a score of 9.4 out of 10, India was the worst nation in the social hostility index. It even left behind Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The report was based on 13 questions that measured hostilities including mob violence, harassment for attire or religious reasons and other religion-related violence and discrimination or intimidation. The report took special note of the decision of the Ministry of Home Affairs to put 900 members of the Tablighi Jamaat in quarantine after the religious congregation at the Markaz in early 2020.

The Markaz was kept closed for more than two years. Finally, the Delhi Police and the home ministry were forced by the judiciary to end this injustice. During this period, there was hardly a non-Muslim voice to call out this gross abuse of power which the government gave to itself in the name of containing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The attitude of the Union and the Delhi government towards the Markaz in particular and the Muslims in general is a case study. It also tells us why the Delhi Police wove a fiction of conspiracy to put youth like Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid in jail, why it arrested Mohammed Zubair, and why it didn’t take any action against those who openly called for the massacre and genocide of Muslims.

Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University.