Arabs get anger over India's stupidities

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Originally published in: Daily Times
Arabs get anger over India's stupidities
India and UAE share the values of non-discrimination on any grounds, the Indian ambassador to the country tweeted on Monday growing resentment in the Arab world over reports of Muslims being targeted in India over the coronavirus pandemic.

 India and UAE share the values of non-discrimination on any grounds, the Indian ambassador to the country tweeted on Monday growing resentment in the Arab world over reports of Muslims being targeted in India over the coronavirus pandemic.

Several Twitter users in Arab nations, including a member of UAE’s royal family have expressed their dismay at the vilification of Muslims in India since a congregation hosted last month by Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jamaat emerged as the biggest cluster of coronavirus cases in the country.


he spread of the virus has not only created a health emergency in the country but also brought India on the verge of a new kind of polarisation, thanks to the attempts of Hindutva politicians and activists to link the spread of the disease with Muslims. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing parliamentarians via video conferencing on April 9, 2020, compared the situation in the country to a ‘social emergency’ but did not mention how Muslims were being targeted as a result of rumour mongering and fake news spread by news channels and leaders from his own political party.

 Amit Malviya, who heads BJP’s IT cell, is one of those posting provocative statements on Twitter. On April 1, 2020 he tweeted saying, ‘Delhi’s dark underbelly is exploding! Last 3 months have seen an Islamic insurrection of sorts, first in the name of anti-CAA protests from Shaheen Bagh to Jamia, Jaffrabad to Seelampur. And now the illegal gathering of the radical Tablighi Jamaat at the markaz. It needs a fix!

On April 6, 2020, BJP MP hobha Karandlaje claimed that members of Tablighi Jamaat who were admitted to a hospital in Belagavi in Karnataka were spitting, misbehaving with the hotel staff, and dancing and gesturing indecently. Her claim was later denied by the deputy commissioner of the district and hospital authorities. No action was taken against her by her party.

On April 4, 2020, Himachal Pradesh BJP chief Rajeev Bindal claimed that ‘the Centre and state governments are leaving no stone unturned in the decisive fight against COVID-19 but some people, including Tablighi Jamaat, members are moving like human bombs to thwart their efforts’. On April 9, 2020, senior BJP leader and former chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis also referred to members of Tablighi Jamaat who were returning from Delhi as ‘human bombs’.

 The BJP was clearly using the pandemic to target members of the Tablighi Jamaat – and by extension all Muslims. Which is why Prime Minister Modi’s statement on Twitter on April 19, 2020, came as a surprise to many. He tweeted to say, ‘COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking it. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood. We are in this together’.

 If the message was aimed at people within India, his choice of medium was odd. The words were taken from an article he wrote in English for the LinkedIn networking website, and intended for a global and not an Indian audience. The timing of Modi’s ‘message’ was perhaps not a coincidence, as it has come in handy for Indian ambassadors in the Gulf dealing with massive local pushback over the various Islamophobic incidents that have occurred across India in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. The Organisation of Islamic Conference has also raised concerns about this: