Why Tablighi event became Covid hotspot

There is little doubt that the Tablighi Jamaat and the Markaz organisers were criminally negligent in persisting with their event and spreading the virus later. But religious fanatics are not known for responsible behaviour. In South Korea, Christian cult members of the Shincheo Church were primarily responsible for the coronavirus outbreak in that country.

Ajoy Bose

Ajoy Bose
Journalist and Author

With many Covid cases across the country being traced to the controversial congregation of the Islamic missionary sect, the Tablighi Jamaat, at Nizamuddin in New Delhi, a colossal intelligence and administrative failure by the authorities, most notably the Delhi Police, directly under the Union Home Ministry, has emerged.

This failure to scotch what has turned out to be the biggest of coronavirus hotspots in the country is twofold. First, despite the gathering Covid storm across the world from February onwards, the government made virtually no attempt to stop the entry into India of hundreds of foreigners, many of them from countries where the Covid epidemic had started by the end of February. Tablighi missionaries were also allowed to move freely all over the country, enlisting local participants for the Nizamuddin event scheduled for the second week of March.

Secondly, the authorities were slow to react even after the first warnings of the Nizamuddin bomb came, soon after the event finished. A Thai participant was spotted ill at the Coimbatore airport as early as March 13 and died a few days later, while six others who had attended it tested positive in Telangana on March 18. Yet, there was no urgent action taken to evacuate, test and quarantine, with the Jamaat participants allowed to disperse over the next few days and then after the lockdown continue to stay in the Tablighi Markaz premises at Nizamuddin for over a week.

The failure by the Delhi Police and other authorities concerned to cancel or postpone the Nizamuddin event is in sharp contrast to the response of the Mumbai police to a similar and even bigger event planned by the Tablighi at Vasai in the commercial metropolis from March 15. Although permission had earlier been given for the event, they were abruptly withdrawn by the police as early as March 6 on the specific plea of the growing risks posed by the global epidemic. The organisers, after initial protests, had no option but to accept the cancellation and it is quite baffling why the Delhi Police could not adopt the same tough attitude.

What is more surprising is that although the Home Ministry is supposed to have kept a close watch on all foreign arrivals from Covid-affected countries from as early as February 1, many of those preparing for and attending the Tablighi congregation at Nizamuddin appear to have slipped through the net. According to Home Ministry sources, many of the Tablighi missionaries, who technically require a special visa, managed to enter the country on a tourist visa. It is quite baffling that a highly publicised event by an international Islamic sect in a communally sensitive area like Nizamuddin was not monitored more closely by the Home Ministry or various Central intelligence agencies, apart from the local constabulary whose police station is just behind the Markaz premises where the religious congregation assembled.

There is also no easy explanation why the authorities took so long to react even after the event when it became apparent that Tablighi participants were spreading the virus far and wide in the country. Even though the Centre sent an alert on March 21 to various states, warning them of the danger from those who attended the Nizamuddin event, there seemed to be no hurry in either getting the Markaz premises vacated or taking stern action against the organisers. Well over a week passed before it required a personal visit by no less a personage than National Security Adviser Ajit Doval himself to persuade the Markaz head, Maulana Saad, to get his followers to evacuate and get tested and quarantined. Soon after, the Maulana, who along with some of his aides has been charged with violating several laws and endangering public safety, went missing and is still to be traced.

The confused and lackadaisical approach of the Central authorities is compounded by a territorial tussle and political battle with the local AAP administration over who calls the shots in the Capital while it is locked down. With the police are controlled by the Centre, the coordination required to swiftly resolve the stalemate at the Nizamuddin Markaz by the local magistrates, nominally under the Kejriwal government, was palpably missing. Although Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal does make a show on a daily basis of asking the citizens to follow the Prime Minister’s appeal for a total lockdown in the city, many AAP leaders are privately bitter about the Home Ministry not consulting the local administration. AAP leader Atishi Marlena has tweeted about the mishandling by the Delhi Police of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin.

It is this same lack of coordination that aggravated the recent crisis over the sudden exodus of migrant labourers who assembled in vast numbers near the border to Delhi after trudging through the streets of the Capital, violating the lockdown. AAP leaders insist that this was sparked off by an order of the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh to move buses to the Delhi border to bring back migrant labourers from the state. But it ended in chaos because there was no coordination by the Centre, which in turn blamed the Kejriwal administration for bungling things. Just weeks ago, the same blame game between the ruling parties at the Central and state levels had considerably fuelled the Delhi riots. Clearly, a similar approach would be disastrous in the face of a pandemic of these proportions.

There is little doubt that the Tablighi Jamaat and the organisers of the Nizamuddin Markaz were criminally negligent in persisting with their event and indiscriminately spreading the virus afterwards. But religious fanatics are not known for responsible behaviour. For instance, in South Korea, it was Christian cult members of the Shincheo Church who were primarily responsible for the coronavirus outbreak in the country. It is, therefore, more crucial that the authorities concerned deal swiftly and firmly with such elements at a time of such grave danger to public safety.