On Sunday, in her weekly column Inside Track for The Indian Express Coomi Kapoor, wrote that Home Minister Amit shah didn’t want the Tablighi followers to disperse and wanted all of them in quarantine.
In the piece, Kapoor writes that the authorities wanted to avoid a showdown with the ‘powerful chief’ of the Tablighi Jamaat sect.
The column suggests both the Delhi government and the Central one – supposedly a right-wing nationalist government – wanted to avoid a ‘confrontation’ with the Maulana.
She wrote: “The Maulana had excellent relations with the local police, the state government appreciated his popularity among minority voters and the Central government was conscious of how well networked he was with Middle-East and South-East Asian establishments. The first alarm bells of a potential health hazard were, in fact, sounded by the Markaz’s immediate Muslim neighbours, who feared for their safety.”
As an interesting aside, both the Kejriwal government and the Modi-led Central government have been accused of majoritarianism in recent times, which puts an interesting spin on 'avoiding a confrontation'.
The piece further notes that between March 18 and 22, the AAP government tried to cajole him and his followers to disperse, and only after two separate deaths – in Srinagar and South India – the link between the two events was detected.
The piece further states that Amit Shah immediately ordered the cops not to allow the followers to disperse and the original plan was to keep all of them quarantined.
According to report in the Hindustan Times, NSA Ajit Doval turned to personally convince Mauala Saad (who’s currently absconding). Doval reached around 2 AM to convince the Maulana
Earlier, the Maharashtra government, which prevented a similar event in the state, questioned the Modi govt’s handling of the congregation. Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh raised questions against the Narendra Modi-led Central Government in their handling of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation which had taken place between March 13 and 15 in the national capital's Nizamuddin Markaz.
Anil Deshmukh said that the Nizamuddin Markaz is right next to the Nizamuddin Police Station, then why wasn't the event stopped. "Isn't the Home Ministry responsible for this?" he added.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh also questioned the role of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. He said, "Who sent Doval into the Markaz at 2 am? Isn't this the duty of the Delhi Police Commissioner?"
"What secret talk did NSA Ajit Doval have with the Tablighi Jamaat's Maulana Saad at 2 am?" he had questioned. Deshmukh also said that Maulana Saad is absconding ever since the meeting with Doval.
"You permitted the Tablighi Jamaat congregation. You didn't stop it from being held. You have connections with the Tablighis," said Anil Deshmukh, lashing out at the Central Government.
Timeline of events:
March 1, 2020: Tablighi Jammat organises a programme at its Nizamuddin headquarters. Over 1,800 people attend. This is the breakdown of numbers
March 10, 2020: Total number of cases in India touches 50
March 11, 2020: World Health Organisation declares coronavirus a pandemic.
March 13, 2020: Despite the number reaching 50, Centre feels that the coronavirus outbreak is not a health emergency
March 16, 2020: Delhi government orders the ban of gathering of more than 50 people in an area. By then several locals have left New Delhi, but international travellers continue to stay, according to some reports.
March 17, 2020: GoAir bans all international flights
March 18, 2020: IndiGo bans all international flights from New Delhi to Istanbul and Chennai to Kuala Lumpur
March 19, 2020: Government of India bans all international flights
March 26, 2020: A man from Srinagar, who had attended the gathering at Nizamuddin, dies of COVID-19-induced complications
March 30, 2020: Six people from Telangana die of coronavirus. State government issues a statement that they attended the gathering at Nizamuddin. FIR registered against Maulana
March 31, 2020: First set of test results come for those in the mosque. 24 people test positive for coronavirus.
April 6, 2020: Over 25,500 Tablighi Jamaat members quarantined.
More than 25,500 Tablighi Jamaat members and their contacts have been quarantined in the country till now after the Union and state governments conducted a "mega operation" to identify them, a senior Union Home Ministry official said.
During the daily briefing, Joint Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava told reporters that five villages in Haryana have been sealed and the residents have been quarantined as "foreign members" of this Islamic organisation had stayed there.
She added that 1,750 foreign-based members of the Jamaat, out of the total 2,083, have been blacklisted till now by the Indian government.
These people and their contacts were identified and quarantined after the Union government and states conducted a "mega operation", she said.
