As the raging pandemic second wave is devastating human life in India, it is truly heartening to see that once again Muslims – individually and collectively – have risen to the occasion. With the number of daily coronavirus cases in the country hitting world record highs, they have turned mosques, madrassas (Islamic seminaries) and community buildings into Covid Care centres and have been making all efforts to provide necessary guidance and help, even performing last rites of non-Muslims, whose dear ones have abandoned them due to fear of getting infected. Besides, other civil society and citizen groups have also taken up the mantle and are working collectively on the front-lines in this extraordinary national battle against Covid-19.
Unlike those sunshine patriots who are ignoring the situation or obfuscating the truth or apportioning blame or communalising the situation, all these conscientious organisations and people are working collectively in the national interest. One of the reasons they are compelled to do so is because the Modi government seems to have abdicated its duties towards the people as it is still in the denial mode on the self-inflicted national catastrophe.
While it is heart-breaking to witness millions of ordinary citizens scrambling to access basic healthcare, oxygen, medicines, ventilators, hospital beds and even crematoriums and cemeteries. Ordinary Indians are selling their land, jewellery and expending their savings to ensure treatment for their loved ones. Despite all this, people are dying in hospitals, on roads and in the safety of their own homes. Crematoriums and cemeteries are choked while parks are being re-purposed as cremation grounds.
However, Muslim groups have taken a lead to extend helping hands to those affected by the virus and their cadres risking their own safety to supplement the state’s efforts in this grim hour of crisis.
LAUDABLE ROLE OF MUSLIM GROUPS
Indian Muslims’ largest socio-religious organisation Jamaat-e-Islami (JIH) and its student wing the Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) have set up a countrywide network – ‘Covid Relief Task Force’. Through this network, the SIO is providing information related to oxygen, hospital beds, plasma, medicines and other health requirements to Corona patients quickly. For this purpose, a 24/7 helpline has been set up. It connects Covid patients with verified leads, fulfilling their health requirements in a timely manner.
Speaking with Radiance Viewsweekly, National Secretary of SIO, Musab Qazi said, “We started a relief task force a week ago. A control room in New Delhi with 30 people working is operational round the clock to help the patients find beds, oxygen supply, and drugs like Remdesivir.”
The Task Force consists of more than one thousand volunteers from across the country who ensure that Covid patients get oxygen, bed, plasma, medicines and other help they need before it’s too late, he added.
Within a week of being set-up on April 24, the team has fielded around 6,000 requests, mostly from Delhi and UP and has provided verified information about resource providers to around 3,000 patients.
A control room has been set up at JIH headquarters in Okhla, New Delhi to coordinate the entire effort. Additional helplines were also set up in West Bengal, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to cover a wider set of patients more quickly.
The JIH has also set up an 86 bedded hospital in Nagpur- the worst-hit district in Maharashtra where 8000 new positive cases are reported daily. It has allied with Medical Service Society (MSS) – an organisation which has taken up a number of other projects with the Jamaat.
The magnitude of the challenge and the sheer plight of those in need have only strengthened our resolve to do more and we have so far treated 540 patients, informed Dr Anwaar Siddiqui, President of the Nagpur unit of the Jamaat. Donning full PPE, Dr. Siddiqui spends his greater day, supervising relief operations at the centre.
The covid centre has earned a lot of kudos from non-Muslim brethren, including leaders of the BJP. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis also visited the Covid Health Centre. Lauding the role of Jamaat-e-Islami and MSS, Fadnavis said, “Today our society needs such people and organisations who understand the pain and grief of people and who try to help them overcome their problems. We are glad to know that the Jamaat has come forward for this work and is trying to help out during this huge pandemic.”
The Jamaat’s efforts got the much needed motivational oxygen when the city’s transport tycoon Pyare Khan used his personal resources and logistical infrastructure to mobilise oxygen supplies from distant centres.
Besides JIH, a number of other community organisations have pressed themselves into the service of people. Popular Front of India also intensified its ongoing Corona-related relief and volunteering activities. Despite being made a whipping boy by the establishment people, PFI had played a stellar role during the first wave of Covid 19 pandemic.
The situation is spiralling out of control and any government agencies that require volunteer services for hospitals, Covid centres, and burial services can contact our local units, PFI general secretary, Anis Ahmed told Radiance.
While Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (M)’s volunteers have been performing funeral services of dead bodies that have been abandoned by their relatives, the Tablighi Jamaat that was much-maligned last year for allegedly spreading Covid-19, has now taken up the mantle to perform last rites of coronavirus patients in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
According to a website, the organisation has founded the Covid-19 Joint Action Committee (JAC) under the Tirupati United Muslim Association to help people during the pandemic and also conduct Covid-19 funerals, regardless of community and religion.
JMD Ghouse, an active member of Tablighi Jamaat, said that last year, they were blamed for the pandemic but now people are applauding their efforts.
In addition to this, many madrassas and portions of mosques have been turned into Covid facilities. A Darul Uloom in Vadodara city of Gujarat has created a Covid Care facility consisting of oxygen fitted beds and isolation wards within the campus.
“The cases are rising rapidly and the demand for hospital beds is huge. We decided to open the facility because we want to help people,” said Mufti Arif Abbas, Mohtamim (Rector), adding, “We believe it’s our responsibility as Muslims to be beneficial to humankind.”
ACT OF GENEROSITY
Besides, there are small time Good Samaritans who are also leaving a big mark by their act of generosity.
Nagpur-based billionaire Pyare khan has spent around Rs 85 lakh so far to help distribute 400 metric tons of medical liquid oxygen to government hospitals in Nagpur and its neighbouring regions. This came at the time when obtaining life-saving oxygen for a Covid-19 patient proved to be a monumental task. His act of generosity in time of despair and dejection has touched hearts all over the country.
Though the administration offered to pay him back, Khan apparently refused it, adding that he considered this his personal duty or “Zakat” during the holy month of Ramadan.
In Delhi’s Jamia Nagar, 29-year-old social activist Shariq Hussain always remains on his toes as desperate calls for help from affected families have kept his phone ringing. He has been providing free oxygen cylinders to Covid-19 patients ever since cases in the city spiralled out of control.
“On a daily basis, 500-700 people are getting oxygen refilled from my house. People from Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, and Bulandshahr have been visiting us for oxygen. I am trying to help as many people as we can,” said Hussain. The one-man army has hardly slept in the past week and continues to help people while observing fasts during the month of Ramadan.
In Rajasthan, a retired army officer Sikandar Khan has taken upon himself to provide oxygen, medicines and ration kits to needy people in his Sujangarh town of Churu district. He, along with a team of volunteers, is working under the banner of Muslim Mahasbha Sujangarh.
“We have started this service because there was a shortage of oxygen. People were dying. We decided to serve people for the sake of humanity. Our aim is to save lives. Every life is precious,” Sikandar told a website.
“People from all communities – Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christians – come to us. We also provide oxygen to hospitals when there is a need for it,” said Sikandar who has retired from the army only last month after working for 17 years in the Special Forces.
In Bihar’s Gaya district young Muslims have come forward to help people in distress by providing them with oxygen cylinders free of cost.
Local businessman Shahjahan Khan and a political activist Naiyer Ahmed are among those Good Samaritans who have provided around 1,000 cylinders for Covid patients. They have formed two separate committees to distribute oxygen cylinders.
COVID WARRIORS
This dark tragedy has also thrown many individuals as Covid warriors who are active in relief work endangering their own lives.
Four Muslim youths have performed the last rites of more than 800 bodies as per Hindu tradition at a crematorium in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district, News18 reported.
Abdul Jabbar, Sheikh Ahmad, Sheikh Alim and Arif Khan say that they are rendering this service by having complete faith in Allah and that they will continue doing this in the future.
Relatives of many people who are dying of Covid-19 have been abandoning the bodies at the crematorium out of fear of catching the deadly disease, they say.
In Tirupati, Md Ghouse and his team of 60 warriors have conducted funerals for 536 people ever since the pandemic broke out. Of these, 134 were in the first wave, while 402 are in the second wave.
Ghouse said they conduct funerals based on their religious traditions.
“If the victim is a Hindu, we put a cloth and flower garland; if they are Christian, we put the body in a coffin and call up a Church father to arrange a prayer; and if they are a Muslim, we hold a Janaze ki Namaz (funeral prayer),” he explained.
COMMUNALISATION OF RELIEF ISSUE
While these selfless people are doing a noble job, risking their life and setting examples for others, the members of ruling BJP are not missing any chance to play their pet disgusting communal card even at this time of human crisis.
South Bangalore BJP MP Tejasvi Surya along with party MLAs – Satish Reddy and Ravi Subramanya and Uday Garudachar – entered the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) South zone COVID war room during work hours and alleged that 16 of its workers were involved in a bed-for-bribe scam. Every person he accused hailed from the Muslim community. Most of Muslim staff were fired even though the police have not identified them in the cases of corruption. Surya read out the names of Muslim staff and asked the lady official why these people have been appointed at the Covid war room. They even went on to make communal statements, asking whether BBMP is a “madarsa” or “Haj House” that these people were appointed.
Later in a matter of a few hours, a WhatsApp text was circulated with the names listed by Surya and these 16 Muslim BBMP employees were labelled as ‘terrorists’.
GOVERNMENT APATHY CONTINUES
On the other hand, when people are dying due to the paucity of medical care, the government is brazenly going ahead with its Central Vista construction project, including the Prime Minister’s residence which would cost more than 13,000 crores.
It is also wasting precious resources – money, talent and time on unscientific research as the Science Ministry funds trial on effect of Gayatri Mantra in treating Covid-19.
Slamming the attitude of the government and wasting of public money on construction of the Central vista, JIH Vice President Mohammad Salim Engineer said the country is paying the price of becoming complacent after the first wave and not planning correctly.
Most of the nations planned in advance, prioritised their respective people and put in place contingencies for the anticipated second and third waves of the Covid-pandemic but India failed on this count, he said and added that experts have warned that although the situation is dire, it can become far worse if leadership does not rise immediately.
While lauding the efforts of community organisations, the senior Jamaat leader reiterated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should convene a meeting of social and religious organisations and volunteer groups in tackling this unprecedented health crisis with collective efforts.