No spitting, no holing up, no violence: Comparing Tablighi and Kumbh devotees is liberal tomfoolery at its best

After one long year, liberals, leftists, opposition party leaders and Islamists have all gotten the opportunity to draw an equivalence between the ongoing Kumbh Mela and the criminally negligent Tablighi Jamaat congregation of last year, which spread the Covid-19 causing virus across the length and breadth of the country. To begin with, liberals and Hindu-haters are drawing false equivalences between the Kumbh Mela being held at Haridwar and the Tablighi Jamaat event which was held last year at Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz. However, their propaganda can be busted easily.

All entrants into Uttarakhand travelling from across the country to attend Kumbh are required to produce a negative Covid RT-PCR report conducted not before 72 hours of arrival. If the report is not available, arrangements have been made to test all entrants at the various entry points of Uttarakhand, and only if the travellers are found to be Covid-negative are they allowed to proceed to Haridwar. Haridwar’s Har Ki Paudi is an open space, unlike the Markaz where Jamaatis had gathered by the thousands.

Were the Tablighi Jamaat attendees tested for Covid-19 last year? No. Were they isolated/quarantined? No. Were they treated by concerned religious authorities? No. In fact, they were not even reported to the Delhi health authorities, leading to a Covid-explosion out of the Markaz which severely derailed India’s fight against the Chinese pandemic.

Sanitizer dispensers have been set up at Har Ki Paudi and special Covid-19 isolation centres have been set up as well. Covid-appropriate behaviour is being followed in Haridwar to the extent that is possible. What is noteworthy is the fact that Hindu devotees are not acting as conscious super-spreaders of the virus. No Hindus are spitting on random people, healthcare staff and the residents of Haridwar. And in the event that some attendees of Kumbh test positive for Covid-19, we can say with a sense of confidence that they will cooperate with all authorities without any questions being asked.

In contrast, even after the Tablighi Jamaat conference in Delhi whose repercussions were felt across the country, the Jamaat did not really act like a set of “law-abiding” citizens. Tablighi Jamaat missionaries were found spitting all over the place, deliberately trying to infect health workers- nurses and doctors. In fact, its cadres went into hiding across several parts of the country and when the police personnel went searching for them, the police were mobbed and attacked with stones. Other shocking cases included Tablighi Jamaat cadres distributing sweets on their way back home in different Uttar Pradesh towns after attending the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin, in a bid to infect others travellers. Apart from such horrifying acts, Jamaatis also defecated openly in quarantine centres and made lewd remarks and gestures to female healthcare workers.

None of the Hindu devotees attending the Kumbh Mela are engaging is such horrendous acts. Due to the stringent rules, the crowd swell in Haridwar this year is much lower than what it is in normal times. Hence, to compare the Tablighi Jamaat event with the Kumbh Mela is foolishness of the highest order, and it also puts on display the aversion among liberals towards facts.