Death of Tablighi member in Delhi due to sheer negligence sparked outrage in Tamil Nadu; pressure mounts on state government to bring them back
By Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi/ Chennai: The death of 60-year-old Mohamed Mustafa, a diabetic patient from Tamil Nadu, due to lack of food, and medicine at Delhi quarantine centre has sparked outrage in the southern state.The Muslim organisations in Tamilnadu on Thursday urged the AIDMK government to bring back all the Tamil Muslims who were stranded in Delhi after attending Tablighi Jamaat congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz in mid-March and now put up in quarantine centre. Since then as many as five Tablighi members have been died after being brought in quarantine center following some members found positive for Covid-19.This has exposed the callous and heartless attitude of the Delhi government as well as the Tamil Nadu government . The death Mustafa is a test case how the Tablighi Jamaat members who were stranded because of abrupt announcement of lockdown, are being treated badly in quarantine centres set up by the Delhi government while the Tamil Nadu government did not show any concern for them who are around 600.
The deceased Musthafa was a resident of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and engineer by profession who was denied medicine, was not given food on time despite several requests to staff and doctors that exposed the insincerity and mendaciousness of healthcare staff in the fight against the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.
Taking his case with the Tamil Nadu government, Professor M.H. Jawahirullah, founder, Manitha Neya Makkal Katchi, said it is sad to say that the state government did not demonstrate any concern about bringing back the Tamil people who were stuck in Nizamuddin Markaz, Delhi due to sudden lockdown.
Main opposition Congress party also expressed concern over the complaints of not serving foods and medicines on time to people in quarantine centers. Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the Delhi government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal must take the notice of it.
Prof Jawahirullah urged the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to take effective steps to bring back all the Muslims hailing from the state that attended the Tabligh congregation and now quarantined in special camps in New Delhi immediately.
Speaking with Muslim Mirror, Prof Jawahirullah said the deceased Mustafa was former engineer of SIPCOT who hailed attended Tabligh conference and was later admitted to a local hospital in New Delhi.
Medical teams twice conducted corona test on him and on both occasions he was tested negative and following this, he was quarantined in a special camp in the police quarters in Sultanpuri area of North Delhi.
“His wife on many occasions complained to me over phone that there were no basic facilities in the special camp and no proper medicines were given to her husband who was a diabetic,” said Prof Jawahirullah.
He said that he had taken up the plight of Mustafa on various occasions to the notice of the Tamil Nadu government, but no efforts were taken to protect him.
“I have been receiving complaints from various quarters regularly about the non-provision of basic facilities and the needed medicines to 400 and odd Muslims of Tamil Nadu who tested negative and have been lodged in different special camps in New Delhi”, he said.
He also flagged that like Mustafa two more people were in a serious condition in the Sultanpuri special camp.
This quarantine centre has five floors and around 550 patients, but the doctors do not visit all the floors and they also do not have enough medicines, said a resident who did not want to be named.
While referring to the various state governments’ efforts to help to the people stranded in New Delhi following lockdown through their special representatives, Prof Jawahirullah said the Tamil Nadu government should also make special efforts in this regard.
When more than 1800 Hindu pilgrims from Gujarat were stranded in Haridwar and Rishikesh in Uttrakhand, the Gujarat government has made special arrangement to bring them back, he pointed out.
Besides Gujarat pilgrims, pilgrims in Jammu and students in Kota (Rajasthan) were brought back to home by the respective state governments with special arrangement.
But the whereabout of Mr. Dhalavai Sundaram, special representative of Tamil Nadu in New Delhi, is still not known, he said.
Prof Jawahirullah also alleged that the resident Commissioner, Tamil Nadu House, Makwana, at New Delhi is also not giving any official help to the stranded Tamils in this hour of crisis.
Meanwhile , a meeting of the various Muslim organizations and the all party meeting convened by the DMK adopted resolutions urging the state government to take control of all the Tablighi Jamaat people hailing from Tamil Nadu still in New Delhi and take steps to bring them back to Tamil Nadu with immediate effect.
In this connection, Prof Jawahirullah recalled the special efforts taken by the Uttar Pradesh government to bring back 4,000 students of the state stranded in Kota in Rajasthan.
So far five Muslims of Tamil Nadu who attended the Delhi Tablighi conference have died. Of them three died due to Covid-19 and Mustafa passed away despite testing negative in the special camp.
Prof Jawahirullah appealed to the Chief Minister that said before further tragedy struck, he should take steps on a war footing to bring back all the Muslims of the state who have been quarantined even after testing negative to Tamil Nadu without any delay.
