India’s Covid-19 adventure started with the announcement of a lockdown at midnight on March 25 and this process, which was planned as 21 days at the beginning, was extended until 3 May. It was announced that any decision regarding the elimination of restrictions in some parts of the country will be made after 20 April.
India is one of the countries with the highest respiratory diseases in the world and has the most tuberculosis cases in the world. Such common lung diseases have a high potential to increase the risks associated with coronavirus. Therefore, the fact that the number of cases across the country was low was not the fact that India had already developed immunity against the virus, but rather the success of the steps taken by the Indian government. Because the Indian government acted as early as possible in the steps it took to counter the coronavirus pandemic. On the other hand, India has experienced a different and interesting Covid-19 experience with its good and bad. This experience of India almost reflects two different sides of the medallion:
DARK SIDE OF MEDALLION
• Hindu-Muslim Discrimination?
Although the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11, India said that the coronavirus was not an emergency and that people did not need panic until the event that the event organized by the Tablighi Jamaat on March 13-15 was the most dangerous factor for the spread of the virus. On March 21, there were thousands of people in Nizamuddin Markaz, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan nationals. Hundreds of foreigners who attended the jamaat were also blacklisted, and on 21 March the Ministry of Home Affairs instructed state administrators to identify all of them. There were centers in India where the number of cases was seen. For example, Nizamuddin was the place where the virus spread to Delhi, and this is the center of the Tablighi Jamaat. It is stated that 80% of patients in Kashmir and 50% of patients in Telangana are connected with the event in Nizamuddin. According to the data of the Ministry of Home Affairs, since January 1, 2,100 foreigners had visited India for the activities of the Tablighi. All this caused fear that the virus would spread in India.
The Tablighi Jamaat, defined as a global orthodox and reformist Muslim organization, held a meeting in February 2020, in Malaysia, when there were no travel restrictions due to the outbreak of Covid-19 in India. On March 3, the New York Times stated that this meeting became “the largest virus-spreading event in Southeast Asia”. Besides that, the jamaat leader’s words like “Yes, a virus. But 70,000 angels are with me and if they can’t save me, who will save me? It is time for such meetings. (..) This is a plan to end the friendship among Muslims, to divert them away from each other” also raised anger towards the jamaat when patients connected to the Tablighi Jamaat did not respect the paramedics and the jamaat members did not comply with the measures taken. Although the jamaat leader changed his discourse and stated that he was isolated at home, Delhi police sued him and other community members in accordance with the laws of India. Chief of the Tablighi Jamaat Maulana Saad Kandhalvi has been charged with “deliberate murder”. When the development process of the event is evaluated, it is seen that the Indian police are too late to control the situation. But all these developments have led to the rise of Islamophobia in the country. The Muslim group, who has been criticized by extreme right-wingers for not obeying the laws of the state because they are subject to their own rules of law, has been targeted and the Hindu-Muslim separation in the country has been further fueled. The virus was reflected as spread by Muslims, and Hindutva tried to unite coronavirus and Islam. Again, it was launched as a “jihadi plan” by the extreme right-wingers.
So, what was the reason behind the growth of the Tablighi event so much? To answer this question, it is necessary to know the jamaat a little better first. The Tablighi Jamaat is the Deobandi branch of Sunni Islam, with more than 80 million members worldwide, including Europe and North America. Founded in 1927 by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi, the jamaat rejects the modern world and encourages its followers to spread the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad and try to establish an Islamic order on earth. When viewed from these points of view, the jamaat, which draws an orthodox structure, has also been explained to have a relationship with al-Qaeda after the FBI investigation due to the events of September 11, 2001. The Tablighi Jamaat which is well known in the Western press and has a negative image, causes anxiety to affect terrorist groups due to the ideology of Islamic resurrection. When the structure and discourses of the jamaat are evaluated, it is revealed that the Tablighi event is not a weapon used in India only by Hindutva against Muslims. Because, considering the historical memory of India and evaluating the terrorist incidents based on Pakistan after independence, it is understood that the country caused such a reflex. The problem here is that the Tablighi event affects all Muslims of the country negatively.
Examples of how the incident affected Muslims in the country have been extensively reflected in the media. One of these examples is the news that a state hospital separates the corona wards according to belief in the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. It is not surprising that such an event has occurred because of the unique structure of the city of Ahmedabad. Again, according to media reports, more than half of the 500 coronavirus cases in Ahmedabad came from Muslim-majority neighborhoods. Again, due to the Tablighi event, a young person died as a result of the discussion amongst the youth in Prayagraj. Videos of negative behavior against Muslim vendors in the streets were also reflected in the media. Therefore, the fueling of Hindu-Muslim discrimination in the process of India’s struggle against Covid-19 came to the fore as one of the darkest aspects of this process.
- The Dilemmas of the Indian Economy in the Covid-19 Struggle
The Indian government tried to take steps as early as possible against Covid-19. Firstly, a budget of 24 billion dollars was allocated in the scope of combating coronavirus. It has been announced that money transfer will be provided to 204 million women and 80 million homeowners will be provided with free cooking gas in the coming months. These measures taken by India have been praised by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO stated that these are the aids to be given and that this process is very difficult for the workers who work and receive wages on a daily basis and stated that many developing countries cannot really help their society in this process. It has also launched the isolation decision in India as an early, forward-thinking and bold decision. In addition, additional assistance from important institutions was offered to India. Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google) donated Rs 5 crore, Tata Trusts and Tata group 1,500 Rs to India, which is by far the highest aid provided by any company. TikTok contributed Rs 100 crore to media equipment in India. The scope of supply also includes 400,000 hazardous medical protective clothing and 200,000 masks to protect health personnel. But all this fancy painting also had its dark sides.
India declared that a curfew would be implemented at midnight on March 24 at 8 pm. In other words, the curfew was announced only 4 hours ago. Therefore, there was no effective communication about how people should shop and even survive in this process. Supply chains of essential items were severely damaged and even markets selling food and medicine were closed in many places. For this reason, all the Indian people were caught unprepared for a very sudden and quite serious practice for a country with a population of 1.4 billion. This situation has raised the problems that are likely to occur during the isolation process.
The most important of these problems was the situation of worker immigrants. About 600.000 immigrant workers had been in various camps of Maharashtra since lockdown. As of March 24, most of them were unemployed. The migrant worker subject is at a critical and important point in India. Because in the country, about 30% of people go to the city to find a job and this is an informal sector. In addition, this sector corresponds to 90% of the country’s economy. Due to the sudden curfew, factories, construction sites were closed from evening to night, and these workers had to walk home for miles and miles. Besides, the attitude of the police against the immigrants who tried to return to their homes due to the ban was also negative. Besides all these, migrant workers could not escape being a victim of a political conflict.
This situation affected the slums even worse. Especially families living in 2m2 houses can not provide social distance, insufficient water, the condition of toilets, etc. issues made the lockdown process more difficult for them. People had to go out to find food, and it was difficult because of the lockdown. The government’s $ 24 billion budget to combat coronavirus corresponded to 1% of the GDP, and it seems that this budget almost has no contribution when necessary calculations are made.
On the other hand, due to the stagnant industrial activities in Asia’s third largest economy, refined oil prices have fallen, the milkers of the countryside have been pouring into the canals because they cannot sell milk, and the famous mangoes of Dussehri have remained unsold. Many more items can be added to this list. According to the IMF, the severe coronavirus pandemic, which almost halts all economic activities in the world, will drag India to its worst growth performance since the 1991 liberalisation.