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The Supreme Court has received an unusual petition in the form of a letter. While most of the recent PILs in Supreme Court speak of payment of wages to migrant workers, action against spread of fake news, release of prisoners from over crowded prisons, this letter petition addressed to the Chief Justice of India calls for a ban on Tablighi Jamaat and its activities.
This letter has been written by Ajay Gautam, founder of Hum Hindu, a body “against politics of Muslim appeasement”. He has urged the court to take cognizance of his letter as a Public interest Litigation. The Tablighi Jamaat congregation has been criticised widely for continuing the meeting with around 2,000 people, even after prohibitory orders were issued by the Delhi government, against gatherings of more than 50 persons.
The petition states, “It is submitted that Hundreds of foreigners of 61 countries who were came on tourist Visa joined above gathering for propagating Islam in India. It is further submitted that hundreds of foreigners who joined the gathering came from where the Coronavirus already spread in large numbers. It is further submitted that the above named organization hid this information from the concerned agency.”
The petition further states, “Thousands of participators/Jemaateis including foreign nationals were evacuate/arrested/detained by the police from hundreds of mosques/Madarsas who were hide themselves after many advisories issued by agencies. That thousands of participators/Jemaateis are still out of reach from the hands of agencies and spreading this pandemic among the citizens in every part of India.”
The petition further alleges that this was all a part of a planned conspiracy and that the Jamaat members used COVID19 as a bio weapon to wage a war against the Union of India. The petition further makes demands such as institution of a CBI level probe in the role of the Jamaat in spreading COVID19 across the country; and additionally, their role in the north east Delhi riots which took place in February.
The petition also goes on to allege that the building of Markaz in Nizamuddin is an illegal structure and seeks demolition of the building as well as a ban on the activities of the organization, Tablighi Jamaat.
This letter petition has come right after a legitimate PIL was filed by a Mumbai based organization called Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind seeking strict action against news media for communalizing the Tablighi Jamaat incident and spreading false news.
The letter petition sent by the founder of a Hindutva organization reeks of Islamophobia and speaks the same language which the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind petition has criticised as harming the secular fabric of the country. In the current scenario, when the Supreme Court is only hearing “urgent matters”, one can only wait to see whether the apex court finds this petition worthy of its time and limited resources.
The Letter petition can be read here.
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