Seeing a humanitarian crisis through a communal prism is nothing short of sin. Everyone knows that an epidemic or pandemic cannot be the creation of a particular community. Moreover, if the source of such phenomenon is known before hand, the world would be better equipped to prevent such a menace or to minimise its devastating effects. But without knowing the origin of Covid-19 pandemic, a group of people in India are blaming a specific community for the ongoing catastrophe.
It all started when the Nizamuddin incident came to light. There is no denying that the organiser of this religious meet committed a grave sin by ignoring warnings regarding Covid-19. The offenders should be punished for showing utter disrespect to the law. But what about all those who were mute spectators? A travel advisory was in place; yet participants from foreign countries freely reached India. At the airport, they did not face any screening. As a matter of fact some of these foreigners stayed in India even after the function was over. Six such offenders were arrested when they tried to flee the country. But all said and done, it was not a conspiracy. It was an act by some powerful people who live under the illusion that the law would never be able to touch them. Just for the misdeeds of a few, the entire community should not be blamed.
However, starting from this incident, social media has not rested in playing the blame game. Recently, in two places migrant labourers started demanding that arrangements be made back home. Their demand should be considered sympathetically and the administration did just that in both Surat and at Bandra in Mumbai. The migrant labourers realised that they would have to stay away from their families for some more time. For instigating the migrant labourers, the Mumbai police even arrested a person named Vipin Dubey. It was argued that the arrested person told the migrant labourers that come what may, they should march to the Bandra Railway station and go back home. So, on April 14 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the ongoing lockdown for two more weeks, the migrant labourers ignored the call and assembled at the railway station.
But, notwithstanding the role played by Vipin Dubey, again a few social media users started blaming a particular community for the incident. Some even equated it to the Nizamuddin incident. All varieties of negative campaigns are on going against the community despite the lack of any credible basis. The question here is who are those individuals benefitting from such malice? Will these false propagandas be able to defeat the virus? Is this the path to keep all of us united in this hour of crisis? These propagandas may actually become as harmful as corona virus. While Covid-19 destroys immunity in human beings, implicating a community falsely can wipe out the communal harmony that has existed in India for over a thousand years. Perhaps, those who spread such misinformation could be deemed more dangerous than Covid-19. They should be apprehended for spreading hatred. Otherwise, there may come a day when we are able to get rid of the damage caused by Covid-19, but the damage to our social fabric will be permanent. We must not forget that we are human beings and humanity is our religion.
