Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who recently attributed the spike in the corona cases to Tablighi Jamaat attendees from AP, on Saturday took a complete U-turn by appealing to the people not to target any community.
The Andhra Pradesh government had even appealed to the state people to voluntarily disclose if they attended Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin between March 13-March 15 and give their blood samples to the government hospitals to check for corona virus. The Tablighis have come into the spotlight after the religious congregation they held in South Delhi’s Nizamuddin spawned a number of Covid-19 clusters across the country, including Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The number of positive corona cases in India rose to 2,902, the central government attributed at least 1,023 cases to Tablighi Jamaat attendees. In Andhra Pradesh, the number of positive corona cases crossed 180, most of the fresh cases linked to Tablighis.
However, Jagan said it was wrong to hold a particular community solely responsible for the spread of virus, instead people should view it as an unfortunate event. Addressing his Cabinet colleagues and top officials via video conference on Saturday, Jagan said there are several spiritual organizations and centers such as ‘The Art Of Living’ run by Shri Shri Shri Ravi Shankar, Isha Foundation run by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev and spiritual center run by Mata Amritanandamayi where thousands of people congregate. Similarly, there are spiritual centers run by Paul Dinakaran. The Chief Minister said such spread of virus could have occurred anywhere; therefore it was completely wrong to blame a particular community.
Jagan said there seems to be efforts and campaigns in social media to target a community on the outbreak of corona virus. “It is a matter of serious concern that a large number of those who attended the religious gathering Tablighi Jamaat and who returned to their respective states have been found infected with the corona virus. However, the virus does not differentiate on the basis of religion.
“There is news everywhere, in mainstream media, newspapers and social media about the spread of virus in the country in the past few days. People should realize that corona virus has no religion, no region, no caste or community. It does not see if one is rich or poor,” Jagan philosophized.
