A group of 101 former civil servants has written to Chief Ministers and Lieutenant-Governors of all States and Union Territories, expressing anguish over reports of harassment of Muslims in some parts of the country, particularly after the meeting of the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi’s Nizamuddin in March.
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Through the letter, copied to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they have sought directions to all public functionaries to remain vigilant in preventing social boycott of any community and to ensure that all entitlements, including medical and hospital care, rations and financial assistance, are available equally to all those in need.
The group of retired bureaucrats from the All-India and Central Services said it did not subscribe to any particular political ideology and rather focused on issues having a bearing on the Constitution.
Among the signatories are former NSA Shivshankar Menon, former Secretary Keshav Desiraju, former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, former Chief Economic Adviser Nitin Desai, former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Nareshwar Dayal, former Foreign Secretary and National Security Advisory Board Chairman Shyam Saran and former OSD on Kashmir in Prime Minister's Office A.S. Dulat.
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Former former Director General of Police Julio Ribeiro, former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, former Health Secretaries K. Sujatha Rao and Keshav Desiraju and former Chief Secretary (J&K) Hindal Tyabji have also endorsed the letter.
“The Jamaat was criticised for ignoring the principles of social distancing when cases of COVID-19 had started emerging in the country. Although this was hardly the only incident of such gatherings, both political and religious, sections of the media hastened to give a communal colour to COVID-19, including attributing motives to the Tablighi Jamaat in spreading the virus to different parts of the country,” the group said.
The retired bureaucrats have criticised the Jamaat’s action of ignoring the Delhi government’s advisories in organising such an event. “However, the action of the media in communalising it and extending it to the Muslim community as a whole is utterly irresponsible and reprehensible,” the letter added.
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“Fake video clips have been doing the rounds showing Muslim vendors spitting on the fruits and vegetables that they have for sale — purportedly to spread the disease. Cases have been reported of vegetable vendors being asked their religion, even being assaulted when they mention Muslim names,” the letter pointed out.
The letter quoted reports from Hoshiarpur about Muslim Gujjars — who traditionally migrate from Punjab to Himachal Pradesh with their cattle — being denied entry at the border by the police due to apprehension of tension created by mobs on the other side. And also cited photographs from a market at Biharsharif in Bihar, showing pictures of flags affixed to the carts of non-Muslim vendors with exhortations that buyers should buy only from them.
More disturbing, the group said, were the reports of Muslims being turned away from hospitals and health facilities, citing the case of Fauzia Shaheen, a weaver from Varanasi with labour pains, who was on April 8 repeatedly turned away from clinics and hospitals, “including from Sir Sunderlal Hospital at the Banaras Hindu University, even after she delivered a baby outside the hospital”.
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Following an outcry in the social media, the police registered a case against the management of a cancer hospital in Meerut that had put out an advertisement saying it would treat Muslims only when they produced a report showing they had tested negative for COVID-19. “In Ahmedabad, we learn that separate wards have been designated for Muslim patients,” it added.
The group also raised the issue of serious concern expressed in Muslim nations about the recent developments, stating that through non-discriminatory action and relief measures, it could be ensured that the minorities had nothing to fear in India.
“This will help assuage the misgivings of these countries and avoid any consequential detriment to the prospects of the sizable Indian diaspora there,” the group said.
