Stories from the Pandemic | “Tablighi Jamaat”

We have chosen to curate six media artifacts based on the Tablighi Jamaat meeting on Sunday, March 1, 2020, and allegedly created a COVID-19 hotspot in Nizamuddin Markaz, New Delhi. The perception of the country’s citizens’ incident was significantly impacted by the way the media narrated it. The extensive coverage that the incident received aroused public interest, which allowed media houses to sensationalize it. The dramatic and strongly disfavourable media narrative incited a sense of widespread Islamophobia and communal hatred on social media and created the potential for the creation and propagation of fake news interwoven with artificially introduced concepts such as ‘Taliban,’ 'terrorist,’ and 'jihad.’ Through our collection of artifacts, we hope to capture how a dynamic media ecosystem built around sensationalism and TRPs has the potential to be exploited for propagating misleading information and hatred, which increases manifold in the context of the prevailing uncertainty and fear in the face of a global pandemic.

[sayakel]

What god would look like to you.

[mldpgrouptwo]

Date: August 25, 2020.

This artifact is an episode of NDTV’s popular show- “Prime Time with Ravish Kumar” where he takes us on a flashback journey to the occurrence and media coverage of Delhi’s Nizamuddin Tablighi Jamaat, citing headlines and stories of other media channels which are not just skewed, overstretched proposition but also promote a culture of Muslim hatred underneath the veil of patriotism. Ravish candidly states that this hate-spewing and manipulation was all a part of the media’s propaganda, which actually originated from the State’s propaganda to shift the blame of corona-spread over to the minorities-Muslims. This fits exactly into Chomsky's piece- "What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream" proving that the "mainstream or agenda-setting media" decide the framework and the conversations that can exist. According to Chomsky, mass media’s main role is not in informing but in diverting the audience from actual issues, which is exactly which the Indian news channels and newspapers did in the Tablighi case. Amidst the countless challenges and injustices occurring amidst a global pandemic, this was an attempt to shift the audience’s attention from issues like unavailability of COVID beds in hospital, unemployment, woes of migrant labours etc. By using hashtags like #CoronaJihad and #MasjidoMeiSarkariTalaLagao and luring headlines like- "Nizamuddin Ka Villain Kaun" and "Islamic insurrection", the government via the media-manufactured consent of the mass- it made sure that people, unanimously hate Muslims and see them as the cause of the pandemic, and structure their attitudes and behaviors aligned with this belief.

This is not a stand-alone event of projecting minorities (especially Muslims) in such a negative light, past episodes of the Babri-Masjid-Ram Mandir conflict and the Shah-Bano case have also seen such acts of polarising the audience by the media. This asserts Asghar Ali Engineer’s article- “Media and Minorities” on how the media has shaped public opinion with respect to Muslims in a way which is contrary to the evidence available.

The Bombay HC in its judgment in a petition ruled that Muslims who attended the Tablighi Jamaat were made scapegoats by the State in order to free themselves from the blame and responsibility of addressing the pandemic. The Big Media very conveniently chose not to disseminate the judgment to the public.

This narrative, on its face urges the media consumers to become critical citizens, but it is important to take it with a pinch of salt. After all, this can be seen as propaganda by NDTV to set themselves in the eyes of the “public” as different, despite the fact that it too is a constituent of the mainstream media. By this act of trying to establish itself as a separate entity from the propaganda-generating media houses, NDTV is, in turn, trying to shift the blame of a failed media to the other channels. Is that not what strategic propaganda is?

To conclude, the COVID-Tablighi relation has been made very strong by the media, and in the process, media has lost its objectivity and has transformed the Tablighi Jamaat into an event of “narrativized terror," making the Muslims analogous to terrorists by its crafty news hours, debates and prime-time episodes. This was accompanied by a “circulation of speculation” (as described in the reading- Mediatised Terror: Terror in the Age of Media Explosion) of what Muslims might do to demolish our country, remediating past coverages of the Ayodhya-Babri Masjid case.

[mldpgrouptwo]

Mohd Rashid on Twitter

“@uttarakhandcops @Ashokkumarips thease guys are only prohibiting muslims to sell fruits in halduwani Rampur road in the name of corona virus, which can creat communal disturbance in our society . So I request u to take legal action against them under Section 153A, 295A. https://t.co/TSbOvvQtQd”

Date: April 6, 2020

This artefact goes to show the consequences of the media narrative against Muslims. This tweet has a video clip, along with the tagging of police officials, that shows a couple of men forcing a Muslim vendor to shut down his street fruit stall, as well as telling a passer-by woman to ‘inform’ them if there was a ‘Mohemeddan’ selling fruits. This goes to show how the media’s coverage of Tablighi Jamaat and the events that occurred after, went on to turn the spotlight, away from the Coronavirus pandemic itself, and shift it, to the characteristic of an individual’s religion. As such the public thought it justified directing anger, dissatisfaction and hatred towards a whole community, when in fact, during the conference at Tablighi Jamaat, there have been other gatherings across the country, which was not talked about. Asking vendors to shut down their stalls on account of their religion falls under discriminatory practices, and targeting a single specific community on religion also falls under the same. The type of news coverage without check enabled further vilification of the community as explored above with the advent of fake news and such, and goes on to generalize an entire community not only on traditional media but also on social media, where hashtags of #CoronaJihad trended. This artefact shows power of the media, and the consequences faced by innocent people when such power is used irresponsibly. 

 Such incidents were common all over the country. Interestingly, the courts later passed judgments criticizing the happenings during the incident, and the media narrative changed dramatically after these rulings. The next artifact examines the Bombay High Court’s ruling, and the shift the media narrative after this ruling.

[mldpgrouptwo]

Visit Original Link

Date: March 31, 2020

 The above artefact, 'discovered' by Republic TV, contains a long monologue where Maulana Saad, Delhi Nazimuddin Markaz Chief, publicly defies the country’s lockdown norms and encouraging the attendees to do the same by citing the conspiracy theories against Muslims in India. This artefact was taken up extensively by media houses that further added a new layer of Islamophobia in the country, which was already reeling from the polarising news rhetoric on Tablighi Jamaat's attendees. India is a country that is already harsh on its minorities, and as a consequence of the social media hype surrounding this news clip, Muslim vendors were shunned, there was a tremendous explosion of fake news, and general harassment of Muslims saw a peak. The audio clip was noted to have been spread widely & extensively over platforms like WhatsApp where verification of sources becomes hard, once the artefact becomes viral and where it was served by the temporality of circulation & reflexive discourse (Warner) to add on to the already vilifying narrative against Muslims. 

Though there is no proof that the audio was doctored, there is also no proof that it wasn’t. And yet, without any verification from any source, the media & circulatory platforms took it in part to fuel a narrative that sensationalized the spread of disease via a gathering and opened the doors to let an entire community be attacked. Ever since, there has been a rise in fake contents targeting Muslims, which is perpetuated by the media and public were unable to distinguish between these, leading to there being religious profiling among patients. that carried on till WHO put a stop to it. This clip has also led to the majority faction to come together to take a stance against Muslims as a whole in a self-organized fashion without caring to responsibly check for the sources and verification. The anti-Muslim sentiment became the public discourse propagated by mainstream media, thereby leading the community of Muslims to become a counterpublic.

 The above four artifacts give a broad overview of the kind of narrative being circulated during the incident. In the next artefact, we shall observe an example of the consequences which the Muslim community had to face as a result of this narrative.

[mldpgrouptwo]

Tablighi Jamaat: How did the government fail to detect a coronavirus infection hotspot?

Was the Centre late to react to the developments?

Date: April 1, 2020.

This artefact highlights the errors and lapses of judgment on the part of the government while handling the situation. The event was attended by hundreds of Indians and foreigners and was held even though concerns were raised by multiple nearby localities and journalists. However, no cautionary action was taken by the state government or the center. Many visitors of the event later spread out throughout the country to recruit more people for their cause, which made the potential spread of the virus worse and difficult to track down. This continued for almost three weeks before coming to the attention of the government. This later caused a public outcry as the unchecked foreigners were allowed to enter and roam the country in large numbers, at a time when it could be potentially hazardous to do so. While the government did put some restrictions on domestic air travel, no such actions were taken for railways or road travels, even though they are the primary modes of transport available in the country. The government later stated that these people were not allowed to perform missionary work as they only had tourist visas and were thus breaking visa laws. However, this in itself showed the relaxed nature of the center in enforcing rules and regulations during a time when it was crucial to do so. Also, both the center and the Delhi government failed to notice and predict the mass pouring of citizens and foreigners in the State for this event, even though it was common knowledge for most people living in the area and was reported on multiple local newspapers.

 The event itself took place during late February but was already marked as a hotspot by Malaysia, the country where the headquarters of Jammat is situated, in the first week of March. However, no serious restrictions were put in place by the Indian government for another week in spite of various local reports of a rise in the number of cases, and the banning of religious congregations took even longer, by which time the missionaries of the event were spread all over the country. In fact, the evidence of the viral spread of the virus through the event was not noticed till mid to late March. Even after the significance of the event was discovered, the citizens of the mosque and the area of the gathering were not isolated and tested for a significant amount of time. This was because the government wanted to handle the situation diplomatically. However, it was within their legal power to take complete control of the area since it was for public benefit. Furthermore, it was reported that many of the foreigners living there were not evacuated as international travel was put on hold, and they had nowhere to go. All this showed the extent of mismanagement and lapses in administrative decisions by the government, which potentially caused the virus to spread rapidly and infect multiple people.

 The Government's negligence contributed towards the increase of cases, and this, combined with the polarising rhetoric of media, led to the spread of mass fear and hysteria. This resulted in fake news, fake allegations, and violence against the Muslim community, which was again extensively covered by the media. The following artifact is an example of a fake allegation that led to an FIR but was later busted.

[mldpgrouptwo]

Amit Malviya on Twitter

“Delhi’s dark underbelly is exploding! Last 3 months have seen an Islamic insurrection of sorts, first in the name of anti-CAA protests from Shaheen Bagh to Jamia, Jaffrabad to Seelampur. And now the illegal gathering of the radical Tablighi Jamaat at the markaz. It needs a fix!”

Date: April 1, 2020

This artefact is a tweet by Mr. Amit Malviya, the National leader of BJP's Information and Technology Department, on the infamous Tablighi Jamaat incident. In the tweet, Malviya seems to be making an explicit attempt to communalize the issue by using phrases like "Islamic insurrection," "radical Tablighi Jamaat," and "illegal gathering." Here, Malviya is not just referring to the Tablighi Jamaat meeting but also addressing the protests against the CAA that were seen all across the country. Considering the fact that the incident had already become an opportunity for triggering waves of Islamophobia in citizens on social media where most mainstream TV channels were not refraining from labeling the Tablighi Jamaat as an 'anti-national' organization and accusing it of 'endangering' the nation, such a move by not just a prominent figure in Indian politics but also a representative of the ruling party was not appropriate. A lot of gatherings that could have been dangerous in terms of the spread of the coronavirus disease took place in various areas during this time, but the Jamaat gathering was specifically targeted. The only possible reason for this could be to point fingers of suspicion at Islamic organizations by generalizing the incident and questioning their intent. As a representative of the ruling party, he failed to emphasize the fact that the gathering had taken place before the lockdown was imposed in the country.

By making the Tablighi Jamaat the sole scapegoat for the sudden spike in the number of coronavirus cases in India, BJP was trying to take the attention away from their own incompetency in handling the escalation of the pandemic in the country, especially with reference to the massive unregulated movement of migrants from one part of the country to the other. While the actions of the Tablighi Jamaat might deserve to be brought to trial in a court of law, the government seems to be more interested in propagating the agenda that their gathering had a malicious intent- that of trying to deliberately spread the infection to other vulnerable citizens. What truly needs a "fix," as being referred to by Amit Malviya, is not focusing on isolated incidents with an ulterior motive to spread hate in the country but to pacify the citizens and take measures to control the pandemic.

The above two artefacts might give the impression that there was a lack of sensible and responsible reporting during the incident, and excessive focus was placed on communalizing the issue. However, a small group of media houses did raise questions regarding how the government failed to prevent the incident from happening in the first place. The following is one such artifact.

[mldpgrouptwo]

Date: April 6, 2020

On one too many evenings between the end of March and the beginning of April, the chief editor of Republic TV, Arnab Goswami, displeased with the Tablighi Jamaat, gave harsh monologues in its disfavor.

In this artefact, Arnab starts by victimizing himself in light of being personally 'attacked' by 'fanatics.' With a '#TablighisInHiding flashing on the screen, he goes on to proudly proclaim that he is unfazed by these 'violent threats.' Vigorously loud, he defies any such 'stupid WhatsApp abusers.' He explains with 'facts' that the Tablighi Jamaat Attendees are the 'only and only' culprits behind the spike in India's Coronavirus cases.

During the sixty-minute debate, he attempts to answer the question 'Why are Tablighis in hiding?'. While he vehemently denies 'communalizing' the issue, he does seem to repeatedly emphasize how some Tablighis were found hiding in mosques and constantly referring to them as an 'Islamic congregation' and 'Muslim clerics.' The speakers who applauded Arnab's sincere passion as a journalist and supported his view were visibly given more talk-time. At the same time, those that opposed him were conveniently drowned out in the cacophony. The first forty minutes were devoted to rechristening the Jamaat as the 'Talibani Jamaat' and labeling the incident as a 'deliberate' and 'callous' conspiracy to infect the Indian Army and citizens with Coronavirus. "How can one group put everyone at risk?" he asked. Arnab unsurprisingly answered his own question, declaring that the Jamaat attendees had hatched a plot to demean the Prime Minister's efforts to control the escalation in the number of cases of the infections. The debate soon took a predictable 'patriotic' turn when Arnab beseeched his audience saying "Why are they spreading in my country?”, they being the foreign members of the Tablighi Jamaat who he claimed were breaching VISA laws by refusing to hand themselves over to the government. A conspiracy against the nation, Arnab proclaims, shall be immediately brought down.

In accordance with the 'Propaganda Model' as explained in 'Manufacturing Consent' (Chomsky, 1988) regional media houses followed the lead, joining in making the issue wholly about religion. A report in the Kannada media gained traction when it labelled the Coronavirus-coronavirus as the “Tablighi virus”; an example of communally charged reporting.

Upon deeper inspection, one realizes that most of Republic TV's content on the Tablighi Jamaat issue would amount to bigoted opinion at best. There are hardly any ground reports or evidence to substantiate any of the claims they made. Republic TV, along with many other media houses, failed to emphasize that the meeting had been organized well before the government imposed the nation-wide lockdown. This claim has been recognized as true by most legal courts in the country: on March 13 coronavirus had been classified as 'not a health emergency' by the government. But most news networks committed adequate coverage of this clarification and their deceptive reporting broadcasts by Republic and other networks set off a chain of extreme Islamophobic reactions online.

While this artifact highlighted the media’s attempts sensationalising and communalise the incident, the next article shall highlight the government’s stand, which was sadly similar to the media houses.

[mldpgrouptwo]

Curating Covid - 19 Events: Stories from the Pandemic - “Tablighi Jamaat”

We have chosen to curate six media artifacts based on the Tablighi Jamaat meeting on Sunday, March 1, 2020, and allegedly created a COVID-19 hotspot in Nizamuddin Markaz, New Delhi. The perception of the country's citizens' incident was significantly impacted by the way the media narrated it. The extensive coverage that the incident received aroused public interest, which allowed media houses to sensationalize it. The dramatic and strongly disfavourable media narrative incited a sense of widespread Islamophobia and communal hatred on social media and created the potential for the creation and propagation of fake news interwoven with artificially introduced concepts such as 'Taliban,' 'terrorist,' and 'jihad.'

Through our collection of artifacts, we hope to capture how a dynamic media ecosystem built around sensationalism and TRPs has the potential to be exploited for propagating misleading information and hatred, which increases manifold in the context of the prevailing uncertainty and fear in the face of a global pandemic.