KUMBH V/S TABLIGHI

A report covered while keeping in mind of the selecting social-media outrage and the politics of selective COVID-19 policing.

Tablighi Jamaat - 2020

2020 Tablighi Jamaat hotspot was a controversial religious congregation that took place in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz Mosque in early March 2020 was a coronavirus super-spreader event with more than 4,000 confirmed cases and at least 27 deaths linked to the event reported across the country. All of the foreign nationals have been acquitted by Indian courts citing malicious intention of the Ministry of home affairs. The Tablighi Jamaat has received widespread criticism from the Muslim community for holding the congregation despite a ban on public gatherings being issued by the Government of Delhi on 13 March.

Criminal cases were registered against the congregation attendees in the courts across India. However, in a landmark judgement in August 2020, the Bombay High Court quashed three FIRs against 35 petitioners- 29 of them foreign nationals - who attended a Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin in March and travelled from there to different parts of India. Strict measures were taken against the Tablighi Jamaat and outrage on social media was high.

Kumbh Mela 2021

A year later, even as India witnesses its highest surge in COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic, visuals have surfaced of lakhs of Hindu devotees crowding in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, for Kumbh Mela, ignoring the most basic of COVID-19 protocols. However, this time, the central government has chosen to turn a blind eye. Read this tweet from the CM of Uttarakhand who was earlier known for his unconstitutional, orthodox mindset and oppressive tone of statements.

While Tablighis were CRIMINALISED, the Kumbh Mela devotees are being celebrated.

This exposes the politics of the selective policing of COVID-19, which allows the different treatment of different classes and communities under regulations which are in-fact religion-neutral on paper. It is either the ruling party fails too understand the constitutions are the rules set by it or they choose to ignore it.