In March, when India’s largest Covid cluster emerged out of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi, it belonged to a string of religious gatherings in the world acting in a dangerously irresponsible manner in the face of a pandemic.
It was a feat to trace, isolate and treat the subjects of the cluster across several states and in the face of resistance from congregation leadership. But in this process we also saw elements of the scapegoating, hate and xenophobia that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres argues have been unleashed in the world at tsunami level during the pandemic. As some of the police cases against international members of the congregation collapse in the courts, other miscarriages of justice are coming to light.
After the Bombay High Court’s Aurangabad bench quashed FIRs against 29 foreign Tablighi Jamaat members (from Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Iran, Djibouti, Brunei, Ghana etc), a Navi Mumbai court has discharged eight Philippine nationals whom Vashi police had booked for violating lockdown and visa rules. In the Aurangabad case the court reportedly said that there were no violations and that the men were made “scapegoats” with the police filing cases without any prima facie evidence.
Read also: Foreign attendees of Tablighi Jamaat event made ‘scapegoats’, says Bombay high court
But even after the court ordered police to return their passports, it didn’t do so. It should. As the pandemic continues to brutalize India, state resources would be better used in effective countermeasures. Mass gatherings are still taking place against guidelines. Focus on preventing these violations.
