Home Ministry knew about Markaz- Covid 19 link as early as on
March 18
Syed Ali Mujtaba
Home Minister Amit Shah and the National Security Advisor
Ajit Doval knew about Markaz- Covid 19 link as early as on March 18. Can a FIR or
PIL be filed against them for concealing information and risking people’s
life?
The security agencies
had sent them an alert on the Markaz infection after tracking 9 positive cases
at Karimnagar, in Telangana on March 18.
Shah and Doval knew about the situation building up in the
Markaz since then but did not any action and allowed the situation to
deteriorate till March 29.
According to top home ministry sourcess Home Minister Amit
Shah requested the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to go to Markaz on March
28-29 night to clear the mess.
It is on March 29 at about 2 AM that Doval reaches Markaz and
persuades Maulana Saad to get the occupants to be tested for the Covid-19
infection.
Initially, the Delhi police had gone to Markaz but verbally
there was some opposition by the clerics but it was only after the intervention
of Ajit Doval that the Jamaat leadership yielded to cleaning up of the masjid.
In retro if the NSA chief Ajit Doval had talked to the Home
Minister Amit Shah on March 18 and taken prompt action, things may have been taken
under control at least ten day ago.
It is well known that Ajit Doval is on call on a first name
basis with virtually all the Muslim Ulemas in the country. Ajit Doval spends
time with the clerics to form a national strategy for India.
On March 18 Doval could have called Maulana Saad, head of
Nizamuddin Markaz and discussed the seriousness
of this matter. He could have quarantined all the inmates at the Markaz then
and there. Those who may have any symptoms could have been taken to hospital
for the necessary treatment. The matter should not have come to such a pass if
the government had shown maturity and some sense of responsibility.
The people of this country in the PIL should demand answers
from the Union government as to why it had put such a large number of people at
risk when it was in know of things. Why the government did not alerted the
Markaz about its links with the pandemics and under the national disaster
management act it could have canceled the congregation.
The mindset of ‘Chalne do’ ‘Dekhyen ge’ was actually at work
in the home ministry. Or there was a diabolic mindset at work wanting to
politicize and create communal polarization in the country.
In the end both Shah and Doval have failed in their duties or
they were successful at their game plan!
--
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be
contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
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