Syed Ali Ahmed | India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, JUNE 12—A survey report called “Pulse of the Pandemic” conducted by NGOs-ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) and PM Bhargava Foundation has proved that majority of the people believe that Covid-19 was spread in the country by those coming from abroad, and not by Tablighi Jamaat and Muslims as was wrongly propagated by the media and a section of the government agencies which doled out coronavirus positive figures on basis of religion in initial days of the spread of the pandemic.
“About 75 per cent of the respondents clearly stated that, it has come with those who have travelled into India from abroad”, the survey report reveals.
“A very small sections of about 409 per cent thought that it has been brought and spread into the country by Tablighi Jamaat, which is a religious organisation of Sunni Muslims. The campaign by many media channels had failed to convince the majority”, the report blasts the media claims of Tablighis/Muslims being responsible for coronavirus spread in the country.
“About 4.4 per cent blame the rich for spread of the disease and 0.3 per cent blame the poor people for spreading the disease”, says the report.
The ‘fake’ news given by media about Tablighi Jamaat and Muslims having hatched a conspiracy to spread the virus, and government agencies, including the health departments of the Central government and the Delhi government, bifurcating the figures of corona positive cases on the basis of Tablighis/Muslims and others had resulted in targeted and mob attacks on Muslims, particularly Muslim fruit and vegetable vendors in different parts of the national capital as also in many states like Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and some of the South Indian states also. Many in the social media indulged in Islamophobia not only in India but also abroad where extremist saffron elements began mocking Islam, its culture and even Arab women. This evoked sharp reaction from several prominent and influential personalities in the Arab world, forcing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to say that a disease does not know religion. This calmed down the situation but the damage had already been done. The anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic propaganda of the saffron groups also brought down India’s image from a secular democratic republic to an ‘intolerant’ and Islamophobic society. But the Anhad and PM Bhargava Foundation survey report has blasted the media myth.
The ‘fake’ news of Tablighis/Muslims being carriers of the coronavirus resulted in a youth in Harevali village of Delhi being severely beaten up and injured after his return from Bhopal on April 5 where he had gone to attend a Tablighi Jamaat congregation. Angry that Muslims are conspiring to spread the dreaded disease in the country for which there was no treatment available, the Harevali villagers made a bid to convert all the 12 Muslim families of the village to Hinduism. The biased media coverage, in fact, resulted into vast scale hatred against Indian Muslims and Tablighi Jamaat, the biggest Muslim organisation with its headquarters in Banglewali Masjid at Hazrat Nizamuddin in South Delhi.
The survey was conducted online that began on May 7, and concluded on May 21. A total of 3500 people were sent questionnaire out of which 2223 people responded. Among those connected with the survey included Prof. Gauhar Raza, Prof. Surjit Singh, PVS Kumar, Leena Dabiru, and of course, Shabnam Hashmi.
Presenting the survey report in a virtual meeting two days ago, Prof. Surjit Singh said that both the media launched a campaign that Tablighis were behind the spread of the corona disease but findings of the survey have proved that it was a false propaganda carried out by the media in connivance with some in the government agencies.
The central and Delhi state health departments stopped linking the Covid-19 positive cases with Tablighi Jamaat and Muslims only after the Delhi Minority Commission chairman Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan objected to it and issued them notices to stop giving religious colour to the disease.
The survey found that 88.7 per cent favoured closure of religious places, saying that it was a correct decision. During lockdown the government closed all mosques, gurudwaras, churches and temples. The respondents also supported social distancing saying it would ‘retard’ the spreading of the disease.
Responding questions to the survey team members, only nine per cent of the people contacted believed that Covid-19 is a deadly disease, 84.4 per cent believe that people can recover.
Another important finding of the survey is that people generally favoured scientific methods, rather than myths and superstitions like clattering ‘thalis’ or lighting candles in balconies or on the parapet of the houses to drive away the disease as suggested by some top politicians of the ruling party when the disease initially appeared in India. According to the survey, majority of the people do not believe in myth and superstition. They prefer scientific evidences. They are of the view that a man should contact a doctor rather than calling police. Or he should quarantine himself. There is a small percentage which thought that police should be informed.
As many as 68 per cent of the total people contacted by the team favoured swab test, 14.3 per cent wanted for blood test and 8.5 per cent simply believe that only fever test was enough for deciding positive and negative report of the COVID 19.
The survey report said that 72.3 per cent people support recommendations of the experts that social distancing and personal hygiene including hand wash after a man returns from outside, indicative of peoples’ increasing belief in scientific methods to handle the crisis.
As far as nature of virus is concerned, 41.7 per cent respondents said that COVID 19 was a natural virus. However, 31.9 per cent say that it is manmade. A substantial percentage is in favour that it is a conspiracy. US President Donald Trump also said that he believed that Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of this virus.
About 75.5 believe that experts will succeed in developing medicine or vaccine for treatment of the disease.
