Cricketer Mohammad Kaif was attacked by Islamists for following Prime Minister Modi’s call to light lamp in solidarity for fight against coronavirus. Kaif had taken to social media to thank the frontline workers and healthcare staff who are putting in their heart and soul in this fight against coronavirus, a pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China.
To, all the doctors, medical staff, sanitation workers, govt. employees, police and army personnel, media personnel, bankers, essentials’ shopkeepers and all other warriors fighting #COVID19
To thank the healthcare workers and express solidarity, Prime Minister Modi had given a call to the citizens to switch off their lights in their homes and light a lamp in their balconies as a mark of gratitude for 9 minutes on April 5 at 9 PM. However, Kaif was attacked by Islamists who did not approve of him lighting a lamp.
Miya Namaz padkar Allah se dua karo Covid-19 Inshallah jab harega!! Yeh kya chichora pana karre
Many suggested that he must offer namaz instead to fight coronavirus. That he was ‘fooled’ to celebrate and light a lamp ahead of BJP’s foundation day.
6 अप्रैल 1980 बीजेपी पार्टी की शुरुआत 5 अप्रैल 2020 40 वर्ष पूर्व हुआ मोहम्मद कैफ भाई इस खुशी में अप्रैल फूल बना दिया कुछ तो शर्म करो भाई भाभी और आप दोनों 9 मिनट नमाज और कुरान पढ़ते अल्लाह से दुआ मांगे सुन लेते छी छी छी आप लोगों की वजह से हम सब मुसलमानों को बदनाम होना पड़ रहा है
The hate continued on Instagram as well where Kaif had uploaded the same video.
Hate comments on Mohammad Kaif’s Instagram feed
This is not the first time Kaif has been attacked for supporting the Prime Minister. When Kaif, along with his family, had clapped and thanked the healthcare workers in March on PM Modi’s call, he was attacked by Islamists who accused him of ‘forgetting his roots after earning so much money’.
Assam health and finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has announced that from 6th April, criminal cases will be filed against entire villages if they are found hiding people who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event in New Delhi last month. The senior minister said this after several cases of people returning from Jamaat was found hiding in various places of the state, causing a huge risk as they are potential carriers of the Wuhan Coronavirus.
The minister gave a deadline till 6 PM on Sunday for people who had attended the event to come out and inform the authorities, or for people who may be sheltering such people in their houses and villages. He said that if someone is hiding, eventually they will be caught, and after that not only the hiding Jamaatis, but also people sheltering them, and the entire village will be booked under criminal charges.
The Health Minister said that till now the health workers were looking for people returned from Tablighi Jamaat, but now they are unable to find them as people are hiding such persons. Therefore, from Monday the job will be handed over to the police, and if caught, criminal proceedings will be undertaken against such people.
Himanta Biswa Sarma made this announcement after an incident of 9 Tablighi Jamaat attendees were found hiding in Darrang district in Assam. The Jamaatis, who are from Mumbai, were hiding in the house of a local named Yakub Ali in Kamarpara village near Kharupetia town. According to reports, after attending Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi, this group of nine people came to Assam through Mumbai and Kolkata. They visited several mosques in Darrang district and had been hiding in Yakub’s home since March 24.
While Assam was free from Coronavirus cases till last week, the Tablighi Jamaat event has added Assam to the list of states affected by the pandemic. 26 persons have tested positive for Covid-19 in last few days, and 25 of them are directly linked to the Jamaat.
Ever since the role of the Tablighi Jamaat in spreading the Coronavirus came into light, the state government has launched a massive effort to locate them, to quarantine and test them. But most people who had returned from Nizamuddin Markaz didn’t come forward on their own, despite repeated appeals by the govt and community leaders, and most of them were traced with the help of neighbours who had spotted them. The situation has aggravated further as several Jamaatis from outside Assam came to the state to preach after the event in Delhi was over. In fact, three persons from Uttar Pradesh, who had attended the Jamaat, was found binding in a mosque and later they were tested positive for Coronavirus.
Today the health minister also met the Tablighi Jamaat leaders in Assam, and requested them to share the list of all who had visited the Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin Markaz as it is very important to quarantine them.
Due to the non-cooperation of Tablighi Jamaat in combating the coronavirus, several mosque committee in Assam have banned the Islamic sect. The Mosques and various Muslim organisations in the state have appealed the Jamaatis to come forward so that they don’t spread the disease.
At a time when the healthcare workers, policemen are risking their lives to limit the spread of the Chinese epidemic, there have been concerted attacks against them, led by Muslim mobs. The attacks on the frontline workers by Muslim mobs have continued ever since the reports that Tablighi Jamaat is the primary sources of transmission of coronavirus in the country emerged.
In addition to the nuisance created by Muslim mobs, the Tablighi Jamaat members, who have emerged as the sole reason for the sudden spike in the number of coronavirus cases in India, are turning out to be quite a headache for the authorities. The anti-social behaviour of attendees of Tablighi Jamaat has left the authorities and medical teams completely distraught.
From attacking medical teams who were searching for Tablighi members for who had attended the religious congregation to check them for possible infection, to spiting on doctors at Isolation centres, to roaming naked in their ward and making lewd gestures for female staff, these attendees have been displaying extreme crassness.
Here are 15 incidents that have occurred in last few days where Muslim mobs had defied the lockdown rules to attack health workers and police personnel who are at the forefront of limiting the spread of Chinese pandemic COVID-19:
On Thursday, a Muslim mob had surrounded the police and indulged stone pelting at them in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh after the police asked them not to offer group namaz in a mosque. Around 25 to 30 people had arrived at the mosque in Sarai Rahman area to offer prayers defying the nationwide lockdown. The mosque comes under Sarai Rahman area in Bannadevi police station area of the city.
The police soon reached the spot and had appealed to the group not to assemble outside and instead offer Namaz at their respective homes citing lockdown. However, the mob did not heed to the advice and pelted stones at them. Two police personnel were injured in the incident.
Three persons including a Muslim cleric (Maulvi) of a Mosque have been arrested in connection with attack on police personnel in Aligarh.
In Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim mob who had gathered to offer mass prayer (Namaz) at Jama Masjid on Friday, pelted stones at the police personnel who went there to prevent them from doing so amid the Coronavirus lockdown.
The chowki in-charge and two other police personnel have been seriously injured in the incident. They have been admitted to the district hospital. The mob also damaged the motorcycle of an LIU personnel.
A sub-Inspector and a constable of Uttar Pradesh Police were seriously injured when a police team trying to enforce the ongoing lockdown was attacked by a group of villagers in Muzaffarnagar.
The police team was on patrol in Morna village when they saw locals gathered outside in groups. When they were asked to follow the prohibitory orders, they began pelting stones at the police and some of them even attacked the cops with iron rods, said police personnel. Two policemen were injured during the attack.
In a similar incident, a Muslim mob had not only assembled at a local mosque in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh but also attacked the policemen for asking to avoid mass prayers (namaz) in the view of nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Muslims had defied the rules to assemble at the mosque. On receiving information that people had gathered at the mosque located in Mohalla Mohammad Saeed town of Bhogaon, Inspector Pahup Singh reached the mosque with fellow policemen. When asked to open the door of the mosque, the mob became angry and refused to open the doors of the mosque.
On March 24, in a similar incident, a Muslim mob in Meerut created a ruckus over being stopped from offering namaz in the mosques by the city police. Scores of Muslims had hit the streets at around 5:30 PM on Sunday in Meerut following the 5-minute celebration of gratitude expressed towards the frontline workers fighting the coronavirus.
Defying the rules, they had assembled at different mosques in the town- Sisiganj, Safety Tank, Rajbandh Market, Kotwali, Lisadi Gate and Nauchandin, to offer the evening prayers. Despite repeated attempts by the police to dissuade Muslims from marching towards the mosques, many Muslims ignored police’s appeals and instead created a ruckus after police tried to impede them from assembling at mosques in the view of the surging coronavirus cases in the country.
In Indore, a medical team was attacked by a mob in Tatpatti Bakhal for visiting the locality to check on a patient with suspected coronavirus symptoms. The medical team that had gone to check on a patient with suspected coronavirus symptoms, but was attacked and pelted with stones in Indore’s Tatpatti Bhakhal.
As per reports, the gathered mob had viciously attacked the team of health workers and had even thrown stones from nearby rooftops. When the medical team sought help from the police, the police team was attacked too. The gathered mob even broke down the barricades and used the women among them as human shields when the police tried to take action.
A Facebook user named Mohammad Faisal threatened the Darbhanga District Magistrate Tyagrajan SM with death for announcing the screening for COVID-19 patients through social media. The accused offered a bounty of Rs 2 lakhs to whoever kills the DM.
In his Facebook post, the Darbhanga DM had announced that all the people who have come from outside the state will be screened. The DM also appealed people to come forward for the test.
Police personnel in Madhubani, Bihar, were fired upon when they went to search for Tablighi Jamaat attendees after Delhi’s Nizamuddin emerged as the new hotspot for the deadly Chinese virus. Three people are arrested in this regard. Reportedly, stones were pelted and bullets were fired on policemen.
A Muslim mob in Gidarganj village in Andharatharhi block of Madhubani district, Bihar pelted stones at the policemen and chased them for almost a kilometre by the unruly mob, who, in the fit of rage, also overturned a police van into a pond.
On April 1, health officials seeking contact details of coronavirus positive patients were assaulted on the suspicion that they were collecting data for CAA and NRC in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. The health officials were simply involved in – contact tracing, the process of identification of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person and subsequent collection of further information about these contacts.
However, the Muslim residents thwacked the health officials and stopped them from tracing contacts who may have come in touch with Markas attendees and contracted the deadly contagion.
A large gathering of Muslims in Karnataka’s Hubbali district attacked police officials when they tried to stop them from offering namaaz en masse amidst the nationwide lockdown to blunt the spread of coronavirus. Four police officials, including one woman constable, were injured by Muslim youths as they pelted stones at the police personnel for stopping them from congregating amidst the looming threat of COVID-19.
In a flagrant violation of lockdown restrictions, a Muslim mob had convened at Mantur road in Hubbali to offer Friday prayers. When the district administration came to know of the mass gathering for namaaz prayers, four police personnel, including a woman constable, were dispatched to stop the mass congregation. Reportedly, a woman of the area and local youths pelted stones at the police van, injuring the four officials.
In a shocking incident, a nurse and ASHA workers were attacked by Muslim residents in Bengaluru’s Sadiq layout on Thursday for trying to carry out tests on suspected corona symptomatic patients and also for collecting information of fever and cough from the residents of the locality.
The ASHA workers had visited Sadiq Layout near Tannisandra to collect information on whether there were any patients showing symptoms of fever and cough as part of an ongoing exercise launched by the state government to ascertain the number of Corona symptomatic patients in the state to isolate them if they found to be carrying the Chinese virus.
However, some of the Muslims residents, who were seen wearing Namaz caps attacked the ASHA workers and also tore the report prepared by ASHA workers.
On Thursday, the members of the Tablighi Jamaat had misbehaved with the nurses in Ghaziabad by roaming around naked in their wards and also making lewd gestures at the female staff of a Ghaziabad hospital. The letter by the Chief Medical officer had also stated that obscene comments and songs were being heard from the ward, and inmates were asking for beedi-cigarettes from the staff of the hospital.
The occupants of the centre had attempted to spread the potential coronavirus to doctors and other medical healthcare workers who were attending to them by spitting at them.
A cluster of almost 89 Tablighi Jamaat attendees who have been quarantined in the Isolation Center at Madhu Resort in Sikandra space, Agra, had thrown quite a lot of tantrums, making it difficult for the medical staff to attend to them. These members of the Jamaat had refused to consume the healthy non-spicy food prescribed to them by the doctors, instead, they had made preposterous food demands like spicy beef biryani.
They had threatened the medical staff that if their demands are not met they would not consume medicines, nor would they allow the doctors or nurses to treat them. They have also warned that they would run away before the required 14-day isolation period.
On April 4, the Tablighi Jamaat members who are currently quarantined at Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College in Kanpur had misbehaved with the medical staff and spat on them during their stay at the hospital in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. The patients had behaved rudely with the medical team and had spit inside the hospital premises. The Tablighi members used to huddle up together in the hall despite being repeatedly told not to do so.
The hospital staff have accused the attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat of breaking the rules of quarantine and defying all norms of social distancing. The staff said that the Jamaat members are making unnecessary demands to the hospital staff creating difficulties in their treatment.
Tablighi Jamaat attendees at Ahmedabad’s Sola Civil Hospital created a ruckus and refused to take medicines or injections claiming that the government wanted to kill them. 26 Tablighi Jamaat attendees, who were kept in the isolation ward, accused that they were being held against their will and gathered around in a corner.
The Islamic congregation such as ‘Tablighi Jamaat’ has turned out to be the epicentre of the Chinese coronavirus spread in the country. As per conservative estimates, the congregation organised by Tablighi Jamaat was attended by more than 2000 people, both from various parts of the country as well as from abroad. Several people who attended the congregation had turned positive for COVID-19, and few of them have died.
As Maulana Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi remains absconding after his Tablighi Jamaat emerged as the hotspot of spreading the Wuhan Coronavirus in the country, attempts have been started to whitewash the crime of the Islamist organisation in aggravating the pandemic in India. As part of such an attempt, an image has been doing the rounds of social media claiming that Maulana Saad has donated ₹1 crore to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
The message which has been circulating on WhatsApp and other social media apps shows an image of a newspaper named News Letter, and the leading news on its first page has the headline says, “On March 28th, Molana Saad donated an amount of 1 core to the PM MODI Relief Fund.” The report under it says, “Most of Islam has been maligned as terrorism. But this time Corona has united all religion. This is due to Maulana Saad, the Sadar of Nizamuddin Jamaat, who donated an amount of 1 crore to the Prime Minister Modi Relief Fund. Maulana Saad kept this donation secret”. The purported news report also adds, “This is not the time to discredit Modi ji but to support him, at this time Modi ji is thinking for the benefit of the country”.
The fake news circulating on WhatsApp
The image has been superimposed with the text in Hindi saying, “the great person who has been blamed had donated 1 crore to the PM’s relief fun on 29th March.
A cursory glance at the ‘report’ makes it evident that it is fake, as the language and the grammar do not sound like the text of a legitimate news report. The newspaper, News Letter, is indeed a real newspaper, published in Northern Ireland. The News Letter is one of Northern Ireland’s main daily newspapers, and it is the oldest English language general daily newspaper still in publication, which was started in 1737.
When we searched the website of the News Letter with the words mentioned in the ‘report’, we found no results. Moreover, it is almost unlikely that someone in India making a donation to the PM’s relief fund will be reported as the leading news on the first page of an Irish newspaper. Lots of Indians are donating generously for the fight against the Coronavirus, and they are not carried as the leading news even in Indian newspapers.
When we further searched on the Internet, we found that the image of the newspaper used in the fake message actually from 6th June 2019, and not 30th March 2020 as shown in the message. In a report dated 6th June 2019, BBC had carried the image of the Irish paper of the same day on a report on US President Donald Trump dominating the headlines, analysing how newspapers carried the news of Trump’s visit to Ireland.
The actual image which was used to create the fake news
It becomes clear from this image that the fake report of Maulana Saad donating 1 crore to PM’s relief fund was pasted on the original image of the newspaper, replacing the report on Trump’s visit. And now this fake news report is being wildly circulated on social media platforms, projecting Maulana Saad as a great man.
Earlier today, Shekhar Gupta’s The Print tried to whitewash the role of Tablighi Jamaat in spreading the Chinese virus, falsely claiming that BJP IT cell is targeting the entire Muslim community for the “foolishness” of the Tablighi Jamaat.
On Sunday, Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal assured students that the Ministry would ensure that none suffers any loss academically, in case the 21- day nationwide lockdown was extended in the wake of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak. The pandemic has infected 3,374 people and has claimed 77 lives till now.
“We are prepared to ensure there is no academic loss to students if schools, colleges remain shut beyond April 14. The Government will make a decision on April 14 whether to reopen schools, colleges after reviewing COVID-19 situation”, Ramesh Pokhriyal was quoted as saying.
The HRD Minister said that the Department was reviewing the course of action that several educational institutions had taken, post the lockdown. He added that the safety of teachers, as well as that of students, was of primary importance to the Government.
On March 30, Shekhar Gupta’s ThePrint published an article claiming that an unnamed government official had said that the 3-week lockdown announced from 24th March 2020 may be extended by a week. In fact, ThePrint claimed that three unnamed government officials claimed that the migrants leaving their place of work and moving back homes en masse ‘is leading to a rethink regarding the duration’. However, Prasar Bharati said that they got in touch with the cabinet secretary who expressed surprise at such claims. According to Prasar Bharati, there is no such plan of extending the lockdown.
People from the Muslim community pelted stones at the Police in Cuttack, Odisha on Sunday during the curfew imposed in the city. Stones were pelted at the Police in Kesharpur while they were patrolling the area during the complete shutdown imposed till 8 pm in Cuttack. A case has been registered by the Police.
Odisha:Locals in Kesharpur,Cuttack pelted stones at police today.’Some ppl from Muslim community pelted stones at police while police personnel were patrolling the area during complete shutdown imposed in Cuttack till 8pm today. Case registered’,says Cuttack DCP Akhileshvar Singh pic.twitter.com/ugXNOc10pB
According to Cuttack DSP Akholeshwar Singh, Mangalabag Police IIC received reports of tension brewing at Kesharpur after a bone was apparently discovered at a Mosque. When the IIC along with his team reached the spot to investigate the matter, things turned violent after locals started pelting stones at the police when they were told to disperse. The cops resorted to baton charge to control the situation.
“We have received videos of several men involved in the incident. They will be arrested and produced in the court. I appeal the denizens to follow government orders and cooperate with the police in maintaining law and order. Violators will be dealt with strictly,” said Singh. The Mangalabag IIC and other policemen were injured in the incident as well.
Incidents of Muslim mobs attacking the police during the lockdown have been extremely frequent. On Friday, a Muslim mob in Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj, which had gathered at the local Jama Masjid to offer Namaz despite defying lockdown orders, pelted stones at the police and injured the police personnel. In another such incident in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim mob had attacked the Police for advising them to avoid Namaz during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Nizamuddin Markaz of the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi, which was the hotspot for the spreading of the Wuhan Coronavirus all across India, is set to be demolished. Files are being prepared to pave the way for the demolition, according to reports. The construction of the entire building is reportedly illegal. Not even the property tax and house tax were being paid for the building. It is reported that locals had registered complaints regarding the building with numerous authorities at all levels but the matter was never investigated properly and as a consequence, illegal constructions by the Markaz authorities continued unabated.
As per reports, South Delhi Municipal Corporation will demolish the entire building leaving only two floors. It is reported that the SDMC does not even have ownership papers of the piece of land the Markaz Nizamuddin is built on. Meanwhile, the building is currently sealed. It is further reported that as per regulations, the building was authorised for only 2 floors, but a whopping 7 floors were added to illegally.
A madarsa originally stood at the place of the Markaz Nizamuddin, it is said. The building was constructed after demolishing the building in 1992. Then, a plan of a two-story of the building was passed in the name of the Madarsa. But the organisation has since then constructed a two-story basement and 7-story of building over it. Authorities have, on numerous occasions, demanded the ownership papers of the land but they were not submitted. Now it is suspected that the building could have been built by illegally usurping the land.
The role of the Tablighi Jamaat in the spreading of the Wuhan Coronavirus in India came to light when thousands of Jamaatis were found holed up in the Markaz Nizamuddin in violation of all guidelines and orders. Subsequently, numerous people across numerous states of India who had attended the Islamic event at the Markaz Nizamuddin tested positive for the virus.
522 out of 571 coronavirus positive cases in Tamil Nadu are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat event in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin.
There are 571 #COVID positive cases in Tamil Nadu out of which 522 cases are from the people who had attended the religious function in Delhi: Beela Rajesh Tamil Nadu Health Secretary https://t.co/vc93QLPDGQpic.twitter.com/EIwZD51ssz
As per Tamil Nadu Health Secretary, 86 Chinese coronavirus cases were reported today in the state of which 85 had attended the Islamic evangelical event in Delhi in March. Tamil Nadu also recorded two more deaths today, taking the toll to 5.
The Nizamuddin event in Delhi has contributed to a rise in doubting rate in India. As per Joint Secretary, Health Ministry, Lav Aggarwal, owing to the Jamaat, the doubling rate, the number of days it takes to double the total positive cases, has reached 4.1 days. Had it not been for the Jamaat, the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days.
The Coronavirus has brought a spurt of death and destruction in its wake. Having come to the fore in Wuhan – China, it has been spreading at an alarming rate, having crossed 12,00,000 cases worldwide. While it has not caused anywhere close to the casualties that, say, the 1918 Influenza pandemic did (with around 50 million reported to have died), due to the infectious nature and lack of vaccines in the foreseeable future (with WHO experts saying that it will take no less than 18 months before any such vaccine can be put out), the danger looms large of this beast taking a much bigger form. As a result, the best countering of this pandemic lies in defence – preventing the spread of the virus by self-isolation and quarantine. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a complete lockdown for 21 days, across the country. Much like in other countries going through this crisis, this has led to a need for economic recalibration and a general feeling of uncertainty that borders on those experienced in times of national (military or economic) emergency. And this should hardly be surprising, since the churning we see right now (much like the famous Samudra Manthan of Hindu mythology) is, or at least has the potential to be, as extraordinary as that seen at the turn of the twentieth century, before the Great War. John Maynard Keynes famous words:
THE INHABITANT OF LONDON COULD ORDER BY TELEPHONE, SIPPING HIS MORNING TEA IN BED, THE VARIOUS PRODUCTS OF THE WHOLE EARTH.
It was banked on the self-assured smugness arising out of an overarching belief on the strength, power and resilience of a global free market that thrived on capital, goods and labour. It was a world with promise, a world conducive for enterprises. Most of all, it was a world where economical interlinking of the countries was assumed to be the best deterrent against any major military conflagration. The First World War (1914-1918) brought this period of harmony and peace to a screeching halt. Terms of reference between elements in society had to be renegotiated, ideas of economics and social order re-imagined, and the realms of science, fine arts, politics and culture had to go through revolutions across the world. Now with supply chains breaking, recession looming large and polities emerging within polities, there seems to be a similar call. Strangely, this time the cause is not human but viral, and the recalibration is more than just social, political and economic.
It is all that and more.
It is an existential crisis faced by, and yet the associated lockdown is an opportunity for, people the world over. An opportunity to move inwards, to know one’s true Self. To spiritualise. To facilitate Jñanagaman (ज्ञानागमन) – the advent of true knowledge, or, in modern parlance, the awakening of the Force.
Existentialism and the Spiritual
One can only move on from a certain reality either by willpower or when something is amiss. The former is usually a harmonious movement while the latter has a more abrupt onset. Our reality today is characterized by conflict, imbalances and an obsession with the material. The avarice and mindless hedonism that prevails today can be seen from extreme cases such as the Moldovan bank fraud (bungling of $1 billion by Banca de Economii, Unibank and Banca Socială) and the Russian Laundromat (a scheme to move more than $20 billion out of Russia in 2010-2014, while on average 3% of the population lived on less than $5.50/day in that period).
In today’s world, techno-capitalism has seen consumerism and the self-centred consumer emerging out of a desire to self-fashion through ‘brand identity’. Even protest or ‘rebellion’ against the establishment or system ends up only establishing new brands and constructs. People are dogmatic, parochial and exclusivist. It is either their way or the highway, many a times. Due to the unsustainable lifestyle prevalent today, coupled with the negative impact of rampant industrialisation and urbanisation, health problems (both of the body and the mind) and ecological issues are on the rise.
All of this is due to the preeminence attributed to the triad of materialism, identities and ideologies.
The only way to break this triad is only by moving inward, by reflecting. By meditating on one’s true Self. Human beings went from being in the middle of the food-chain, with limited natural capabilities, to occupying the top of the food chain with the power of the human mind and the capacity to self-organize based on communication and myth-making. It is with the power of the mind that man has also gone on what I see as a mode of self-destruction, with the aforementioned negative impact humanity has had lately on itself and the environment around. The mind is a powerful tool, as are our actions. While Rome was not built in one day or the Pyramids, for that matter, it was the human mind that expedited the process. Sri Krishna in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita speaks of the senses being like wild stallions with a tendency to move everywhichway. It is the Self and the mind that must control it.
In our bid for short-term, material gratifications, one often mistakes the temporary happiness that comes of it as lasting. And this happiness from, and attachment to, the material, to the worldly and the illusory (as a Vedantinwould know) is just that: temporary. Fleeting and insubstantial beyond the moments it prevails in. And to make matters worse, it has a certain addictive quality: one seeks to partake of it again and again and again. Even when it may come with its fair share of harmful byproducts (such as health problems due to substance abuse that comes with the high that excessive use of alcohol or drugs may bring or the fear of revenge or repercussions with the temporary one-upmanship achieved by conflict and wanton destruction caused), which is usually seen since the Universe is based on dualities, binaries and multiplicities: happiness comes with sadness much as the rose comes with the thorns, the crest comes with the trough, the particle with the anti-particle. The desire, the drive to seek these fleeting gratifications, not matter what, which cannot be sustained is foolhardy but so ingrained in us that it is tough to get rid of.
Jñana is the only way to break free.
A realisation of the temporariness of these worldly aspects and elements, and a knowledge of one’s true Self. Though Jñana may be crudely translated as ‘knowledge’, it is knowledge not in isolation of other sensory or experiential realities but rather endowed and inseparable from them. It is knowledge of the sum-total of one’s reality and experience. It can be better understood as realization or Gnosis, whereby one gets to realize one’s oneness with the ultimate reality, which is called Brahman in the Dharmic traditions. This desire to seek such realization is natural for some, but quite often it is not.
The only way then is to throw the futility of the worldly pursuits into sharp contrast; to present an existential crisis that leaves space for survival (and here I do not want to regard the sufferings of thousands of people at all) but that also makes one ponder over one’s beliefs and ideas of life, and most importantly, one’s very existence.
When one realizes the transience of the temporal and the worldly, one looks at the world with dispassion and equanimity. The worldly has limited purpose and relevance, in the ontological sense. This existential inquiry and perspective makes one increasingly non-attached to the material. One must remember that it is very easy to move from existentialism (which is ontological) towards nihilism (which is moral and epistemological but can tread on the ontological as well) and to protect oneself from the assumption that there is no meaning to anything one must make the leap of faith that as absurd as Camus and Kafka find the social and the worldly, there is a purpose for this life, however illusory and superficial (and frankly quite contradictory, many-a-times) it may be in the higher sense of things. Sri Adi Shankaracharya beautifully rebuts metaphysical nihilism with his words in the Brahmasutra Bhashya
य एव हि निराकर्ता तस्य आत्मत्वात्
Which translates to ‘The innermost reality is the very observer who denies the existence of everything‘. If someone or something (let us say- you) is (are) denying the existence of something (let us say – literally everything), surely there is a proactive, positive entity that is doing so. Whether this is true or not is not something I have ever or would like to ever prescribe or dictate, regardless of my personal spiritual experiences and realisations. The Dharmic way is one of seeking the truth, not blindly believing; of being, not becoming.
In that spirit, I will keep to the systematic destruction of the pre-eminence of the material and worldly, and let the reader embark on the journey thereafter, into seeking who one truly is (and whether one’s mind, ideas, identities, circumstantial realities, familial bonds, emotions or even all them combined constitute the fundamental definition of ‘you’). It is only through such a quest, such a journey that Jñanagaman (ज्ञानागमन) can take place. Whether at the end of the journey, you can go through all the seven stages of Jñana or just end up with a purely physicalist conception of yourself is up to you. The Coronavirus, with its associated lockdown and unfortunate claiming of lives, has created a situation for the public which makes one increasingly detached from the humdrum of professional lives, self-isolate and explore oneself, and hopefully slowly grow inward, to see the beauty and Satya (truth) of oneself, whatever that may be for you.
Socio-Political Recalibrations
The lockdown has also brought with it the need for certain socio-political recalibrations. For starters, being a pandemic, it has seen no class, caste, gender, race or nationality, in its wake. Everyone from US Senator Rand Paul and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Prince Charles himself have unfortunately been tested positive. This has done away summarily with the notion of the immunity or invulnerability of certain sections of the human population globally, based on privilege or circumstance. It come for all, in myriad ways. Therefore, this fundamental demolition of the idea of discrimination as much as possible, though, yes, the economically well off can control their environs and other preventive measures a lot more than those that aren’t. Even then, given the lack of a vaccine and fairly long life of the virus, it seems more like this ‘enemy of humanity’ is just undertaking a siege-warfare against humans.
Secondly, the re-prioritization of resources and energies, at various levels of human organization, is the other major takeaway. I have previously spoken about the indulgences and even hedonism that have been key parts of human lives in many parts of the world. Not anymore. The Coronavirus has had a major economic impact: global shares and investments have taken a hit, central banks have had to slash interest rates in response to looming economic downslides, governments have released stimulus packages, and stagnation of economic growth is predicted. The Indian government recently released a massive ₹ 1.7 lakh crore package, with policy-moves such as wage increase under MGNREGA, special cash transfer scheme, insurance for health workers, free cylinders for BPL families, government paying EPF, collateral-free loans for SHGs!
I have personally had some reservations against the new Parliament House plan of the Indian government (since that need not be a priority with the COVID challenge looming large, and it is here to stay for months to come, unless we find a vaccine soon) but have appreciated the good, sure-footed work done by PM Modi and his cabinet to tackle this global challenge. The challenge now is to look at steadying the ship, continuing to look at employment generation (especially if this COVID-battle is long-drawn), safeguarding the interests of workers (particularly in the unorganized sector) and looking after the essential needs of all and sundry, along with a proactive awareness-building campaign (which can be done with a combination of paramilitary and police forces, NGOs and civil society organizations, and government wings). I know things could have been done differently but I am hardly as negative in my assessment as some are.
The battle against Coronavirus has seen conscious, proactive and independent steps taken by villagers to fight the Pandemic in their areas
Lastly, but most importantly, the battle against COVID can only be won by one thing: Decentralisation. Borrowing from the theme of the larger, spiritual direction of this article, of self-empowerment and self-realisation, I would say that this is a war where each of us has to be a soldier. No one is going to come from the skies and airlift us or drop adequate ammunition to fight this ‘enemy of humanity‘. We have to do it as much as the government and other international organizations, such as the WHO, can help with this. If there was ever a time when the words ‘God helps those who help themselves’ are relevant, it would be now.
I have always believed that Swaraj (Self-rule) constitutes the historical backbone of the Indian socio-political order, and even now, more than ever, this needs to be applied. Small businesses and enterprises must be given a boost so that in this period of uncertainty, individuals in society, particularly youth, can harness their talent and resources to contribute to the economy even as it falters slightly. The government already has started to look at financing Self-Help Groups (SHGs), and I feel more steps should be taken to promote initiative, enterprise and labour, as and when permissible under current medical and social restrictions.
As we move towards a society where the action of the individual is important to prevent spread of the virus, we shall move away from over-reliance on the state, towards a more decentralised model of politics, which promotes physical and spiritual individualism but social communitarianism and solidarity. We shall also invariable move towards a more socialist, egalitarian society as people from across classes, castes and races work together to fight this virus. Just as the freedom struggle of India brought people and kingdoms that had never worked together in the past under a common umbrella, this new common enemy COVID may do likewise, except the arena is much larger this time around.
In Conclusion
I have been distressed at hearing about the casualties from around the world in our battle against COVID, from China, USA, UK, Italy, Spain and France, among others. However, I believe the lockdown that has come with the pandemic, as well as the steps that have been taken or will be taken soon, present an unprecedented opportunity for some fundamental recalibrations and reprioritisation of resources and realities, spiritually, socially and politically. It is a chance to move towards a more egalitarian, decentralised society and polity, which also values enterprise and liberty. It is an opportunity to finally cast off the encumbering scaffolds of materialism that bind our spirit, even as it seeks liberation and oneness with the Absolute Truth, the Ultimate Reality, as spiritual or physicalist you find it to be! Don’t lose this opportunity!
It is time to turn the page, and begin a new age, of Satya (truth), with Jñanagaman . ????
The Tablighi Jamaat has almost singlehandedly turned the battle against the Wuhan Coronavirus against India. After spreading the virus across the lengths and breadths of the country, members of the Islamic Missionary organization has engaged in the worst form of behaviour against the healthcare providers of the country. However, in this moment of crisis contributed to greatly by the Tablighi Jamaat, Shekhar Gupta’s The Print decided it was a good idea to run apologia for the organization and attempt to shift the blame on the BJP.
In a report published on The Print, ‘journalist’ Jyoti Yadav claimed that ‘Indians are fighting against coronavirus and BJP IT cell is fighting against Indians’. In a long tirade against the BJP’s IT Cell, The Print claimed that it was spreading fake news in the midst of the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. In a remarkable bit of completely ridiculous fake news, Yadav claimed, “Until the Modi government announced a complete lockdown, the IT cell continued to mislead the public. It is quite possible that due to this propaganda, people also became casual and many stopped taking the situation seriously.”
Yadav further opined, “From the moment some coronavirus cases began to emerge among Muslims linked to Tablighi Jamaat, which had held a religious gathering in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz in mid-march, the IT cell went into overdrive to shame the community and put the blame entirely on them — as if each Muslim in India was responsible for the foolishness of a group.” Nowhere did anyone blame ALL Muslims for the crimes of Tablighi Jamaat and yet, she makes the false claim that they did in order to shift the attention from the Islamic Missionary organization. Jyoti Yadav claimed, “The IT cell had been relentlessly targeting Muslims, even accusing them of “deliberately” spreading the coronavirus. There is no consideration for administrative lapse or behaviours common to all religions; it’s all hate.”
From the contents of the report, it is abundantly clear that the report was written and published with the sole intent of deflecting attention from the crimes of Tablighi Jamaat. The only people who are equating criticism of the Jamaat with spreading hate against the entire Muslim community are the ones who seek to run apologia for the Islamic missionary organization. It is a completely bizarre and malicious claim to make.
Furthermore, Jyoti Yadav dubs the antics of the Tablighi Jamaat mere ‘foolishness’. In reality, what they have done is nothing short of criminal. Members of the Tablighi Jamaat first gathered in large numbers at the Markaz Nizamuddin against government guidelines recommending social distancing. Then, they refused to cooperate with the authorities regarding the future course of action. Some of them have even engaged in sexually predatory behaviour against the female healthcare staff at hospitals, roaming around naked and making lewd gestures at them. Many of them have reached various parts of the country and have refused to come forward on their own in order to assist the government in curbing the spread of the virus. Thus, to label all of it mere ‘foolishness’ is a blatant attempt at whitewashing the crimes of the organization.
It is also pertinent to note that while The Print accords all manners of insidious motives to the BJP, it is more than eager to overlook the crimes of the Tablighi Jamaat. During the course of the report, nowhere are the crimes of the Jamaat mentioned while random bits of fake news is attributed to the BJP’s “IT Cell’. From messages urging people to drink GauMutra to claims of the Wuhan Coronavirus not being able to survive in hot weather, everything is attributed to the BJP’s IT Cell without a shred of evidence while the actual crimes of the Tablighi Jamaat are summarily ignored and branded as mere ‘foolishness’.
The Print’s report shows that there is a deliberate attempt underway to whitewash the crimes of the Tablighi Jamaat. The crimes of the Islamic Missionary organization are indefensible and it could not even be tried. Therefore, the mainstream media appears to have reconciled itself to the fact that the best way to proceed is to divert attention from it. And the convenient entity to place the blame on is, of course, the BJP.
We have already seen prominent journalists such as the senior editor at The Wire and another at the Wall Street Journal claim that the sexual harassment allegations against the Tablighi Jamaat are ‘false’ and accuse the nurses who were the victims of the members of the organization’s predatory behaviour of indulging in ‘propaganda’. The argument employed was that the Muslims of Tablighi Jamaat are very orthodox in their faith and hence, they could not or would not behave in such a manner with women. Such arguments, of course, have nothing to do with the truth at all as religious fundamentalists of Abrahamic faiths often engage in the most horrific of sexual behaviours, as evidenced by the priests at the Vatican and the terrorists of ISIS.
We see a similar chain of events in the report by The Print. While the crimes of the Tablighi Jamaat are downplayed by terming it ‘foolishness’, the gravity of the alleged mistakes of the BJP’s IT Cell is blown out of proportion. Simultaneously, preposterous claims are made to further paint the BJP in poor light. This is not journalism, this is propaganda. This is an instance of a deliberate spreading of misinformation in order to serve one’s political agenda. It is political bias hiding under the garb of objectivity and neutrality.
Spitting on doctors in order to infect them with the Wuhan Coronavirus cannot be called ‘foolishness’, calling the virus a conspiracy against Islam is not mere ‘foolishness’. Refusing to cooperate with healthcare providers and creating a ruckus at hospitals and refusing to obey the social distancing guidelines while in quarantine is not ‘foolishness’ either. These are deliberate attempts to sabotage the government’s efforts towards curbing the spread of the virus. Most importantly, criticizing the Tablighi Jamaat for the same is not spreading hate against Muslims.
Every time an Islamic fundamentalist organization engages in atrocious conduct and receives criticism for the same, the left-wing mainstream media peddles propaganda equating the criticism of the specific organization to spreading hate against the Muslim community. The journalists are quite obviously well aware that they are engaging in false equivalence and yet, the realization does not stop them anyway because their primary objective is to act as apologists for the malicious conduct of the specific organization.
All in all, the apologia offered by The Print is of extremely poor quality contrary to Shekhar Gupta’s normally sophisticated malicious propaganda. Jyoti Yadav’s report blaming the BJP’s IT Cell is akin to the liberal version of the sermon preached by Maulana Saad where he called the Wuhan Coronavirus a giant conspiracy against Islam. The content of the report makes it quite clear that the objective of it was decided first, that is, to absolve the sins of the Tablighi Jamaat and shift the blame on the BJP instead, and the actual content was deliberated upon much later.
The Print has once again demonstrated that its allegiance is not towards truth but political propaganda. By now, given their track record, it has become evident that they do not care the slightest bit about facts. Recently, they published an article littered with misleading assertions in order to denigrate India’s response to the pandemic. That article was by the same author who has earned a reputation for himself of fabricating quotes in order to push the liberal political narrative. In the past, it has also spread the ‘righteous Jihad‘ narrative.
