Centre's blunder that let loose invisible devil

At a time when the country should have witnessed signs of slowdown of Covid-19 cases due to "successful" lockdown in the country, there has been a sudden spurt in the cases and this is linked to Tablighi Jamaat event held in New Delhi which was attended by 3,400 people in early March.

Who are these Jamaats and where did things go wrong? To what extent is the Union Home Ministry responsible for it? How did the Union government err and how did it give permission to hold such a massive congregation while all temples in the country were closed and all festivals like Ugadi and Srirama Navami were cancelled?

The Jamaats are a group of preachers who from one city or State go to other city or State. They stay in mosques and cook food on the premises of the mosque. The Jamaat does not have any formal structure. Every group has a leader who also plays the role of guide during the tour, interacts with people and addresses 'ijtema'. The Tablighi Jamaat works only among Muslims and they give 40 days in a year at least once in their lifetime for preaching.

As part of this event, hundreds of foreigners from South Asia, South East Asia and Europe poured into Delhi in the last week of February and first week of March to attend the Tablighi Jamaat events in the Banglewali Masjid Markaz. The followers of Jamaat fanned out to other parts of the country from Delhi to recruit more people for the congregation during the first two weeks of March. This is where the Centre failed to act in time.

According to the Central government, most of the foreign nationals came to India on tourist visas, which does not allow them to conduct religious activities. A missionary visa is required for such work. This itself is a clear admission by the Centre that it did not show the kind of seriousness it ought to have, though by the first week of February itself the government was aware that travellers from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia had entered the city in large numbers. The big question is how did the government allow foreigners to roam around the country and that too during pandemic? This laxity has now led to sudden surge in corona positive cases and some deaths.

The first action came in the form of three public notices between March 12 and March 16 by the Delhi government asking persons with symptoms of corona to report to the officials and those who do not have symptoms but had travel history to affected countries should quarantine themselves at home.

It took another 14 days to cordon off Nizamuddin area and that too after they got reports that many people who attended the congregation were infected by coronavirus. On April 1, 2,346 people were evacuated from Markaz and of them 536 were admitted to hospitals and 1,810 quarantined. In the meantime, the Telangana government announced that five followers of those who attended the congregation and were infected with Covid-19 had died. This sparked public outrage, with many people demanding stringent action against the Tablighi Jamaat authorities for compromising the health of thousands of people. The Union Home Ministry needs to come out with a clear answer as to how it failed in taking appropriate steps in time.

This raises another question. Was the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare ignorant of the pandemic? Till March 13, they never felt that the country had entered a phase where it was necessary to declare health emergency. They were focussing more on the situation in China, the number of deaths there and cause of virus etc and not on its spread. The Centre took decision to screen all those coming from abroad at airports but forgot about those who travelled by rail or road network. There was no screening of these people. Even the screening of foreigners was restricted to only those coming from a few countries. The government seemed to have opened its eyes only on March 18 when it decided to screen all incoming passengers. It also delayed the decision to cancel international flights for reasons best known to it.

What one fails to understand is how the government of India failed to realise that the Tablighi event was a corona hotspot till mid-March while Malaysia identified it by first week of March? Anyone familiar with the topography of Delhi would know that the Markaz in Nizamuddin in Central Delhi is located next to a police station. Still it failed to open its eyes to the fact that there was a large gathering there. What the Home Ministry needs to explain is how did the intelligence fail to alert the government. By the time the ban on religious congregations and gatherings came into force, the Jamaat had already held several congregations.

Faced with the embarrassing situation of having failed in taking timely action, officials from the Home Ministry on Tuesday came up with a statement saying that it was they who had first alerted the State governments. But the fact is that the first positive case associated with Jamaat was identified in Telangana on March 18. Similarly, the hint of suspicion emerged in Tamil Nadu five days earlier when a 49- year-old Thailand national was stopped at Coimbatore airport by officials. Two of his group members tested positive. Tracing of the group of seven, according to Tamil Nadu officials, began after inquiries with the 49-year-old, which means it started before the man died on March 17.

It is also inexplicable as to why the Centre failed to evacuate those staying in Markaz immediately and screen them for the virus. It is said that there were about 1,500 people including foreign nationals and over 2,000 were touring various parts of the country. There are also reports that Jamaat officials objected to such action. It may be mentioned here that the Disaster Management Act was imposed across the country and it has sweeping powers to take stringent action against those violating it. While in many parts of the country even common man like a father and son going on bike were brutally beaten up by police under the guise that they had violated the rule did not take the initiative to evict people from Markaz and make them undergo the mandated tests. The police which thought that lockdown was like a curfew that is imposed during riots dealt with the situation like law and order problem elsewhere but in case of Markaz no one know why they blinked. The Delhi police are under Union Home Ministry and there are no federal roadblocks either. Still the government failed to take action.

Finally, Amit Shah had to send the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to Markaz on March 28 to convince the people in Markaz to undergo the mandatory tests and quarantine. This shows that the Home Ministry lost precious eight days. There are also allegations that some from Markaz were allowed to leave without screening. On the other hand, Jamaat authorities say that they had made efforts to seek the administrations help on March 24. Does it mean that the administration turned down their request for help?

The Centre needs to own the responsibility for the sudden increase of corona cases in the country. Its failure to act in time has resulted in making Markaz the hotspot of coronavirus in the country.

While this being the real picture of the spread of coronavirus, finally the Union Home Minister Amit Shah came out with a statement on Thursday saying that it was time for entire country to remain as one and fight the deadly Covid-19. He said it was not time for politics. Yes, the Home Minister is right. But then, the government too should own the responsibility and should have the courage to say, "Yes we did err." They can even duck under the saying, "To err is human."

Once the country is out of the red zone and normal political activities begin including holding the Parliament session, it will rock the Parliament and the blame game will continue. But the Union Home Minister Amit Shah needs to answer and explain why the government failed to act in time. Doesn't it know that 'a stitch in time saves nine'?