A four-person delegation of Indian Muslims for Progress and Reforms (IMPAR) met Union Minister of Environment, Industry and Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday and thanked him for him and his ministry for issuing an advisory to media against communalising COVID-19 which had led to violence against Muslims across the country.
A note posted on IMPAR’s official Facebook page said, “As part of policy advocacy and governmental engagement program, four-member IMPAR delegation, comprised of Steering Committee members, Mr. Shahid Siddiqui, Dr MJ Khan, Mr. Shamsher Siddiqui and Mr. Nesar Ahmed called on the Union Minister of Environment, Industry and I&B, Mr. Prakash Javadekar this evening and thanked him for his support and the Ministry of I&B issuing an advisory to media during the peak of Corona Jihad, which had created extremely hateful anti-Muslim environment. The delegation also discussed the Muslim community engagement with the media and the Government. He has agreed to join a zoom meeting to interact with the community on media and education subjects. In the previous tenure, Mr Javadekar was the Minister of HRD.”
The note further stated, “The delegation later called on Sh. Bhupendra Yadav, MP and Chairman, Parliamentary Select Committee, and also Chairman of Public Grievances Committee, Rajya Sabha. The delegation presented before him the concerns of the community and various issues faced by it from the sense of discrimination to injustice and insecurity and lack of adequate representation in Government. Specific issues related to CAA and UAPA were also discussed. He shared the concerns and promised to discuss them within the party and with the Home Ministry. Mr. Yadav is also the party general secretary.”
At the height of the lockdown Delhi’s Markaz Nizamuddin was portrayed as a coronavirus hotbed after numerous people who attended a Tablighi Jamaat meet in mid-March tested positive for the viral infection. There was a swathe of fake and malicious news published against Muslims, leading to attack against the community across the country.
Several BJP leaders, including elected representatives, blamed Muslims for spreading the virus, and openly instigated the boycott of the community.
BJP MLA Suresh Tiwari told people in Deoria district in Uttar Pradesh not to purchase vegetables from Muslim vendors. In a video that had gone viral on social media, Tiwari the hate-spewing legislator from Barhaj assembly seat in Deoria said, “Keep this in mind and I am saying this openly, no one should buy vegetables from Muslims”.
BJP Lok Sabha MP from Udupi Chikmagalur Shobha Karandlaje termed the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhi’s Markaz Nizamuddin as “Corona Jihad”, and accused the Jamaat of a conspiracy to “spread coronavirus throughout the country”.
In another viral video, BJP MLA Brijbhushan Rajput was seen launching a communal tirade against a Muslim vendor and his child outside his residence, warning them against entering his neighbourhood. The MLA, from Charkhari in UP’s Mahoba district, was seen abusing the vegetable seller and the young boy to reveal their religious identities, and warning the man to beat him up.
Violence against the community was also seen on the streets of the country.
In Karnataka’s Bagalkot district a group of people attacked two Muslims with sticks and irons rods. The attackers could be heard saying: “You people (Muslims) are the ones who are spreading this disease… Don’t touch them. They are the ones spreading the disease.”
In another incident that took place in Kadakorappa village in the same district, villagers barged into a mosque and attacked elderly people praying there.
In Delhi, a young Muslim man was brutally thrashed after accusing him of being a part of the conspiracy to spread novel coronavirus.
In Himachal Pradesh, a Muslim man hanged himself to death after allegedly being taunted by some villagers, who suspected him to be suffering from COVID-19 despite testing negative for it.
In Rajasthan, a pregnant Muslim woman was refused admission in a hospital by its staff citing her religion. The woman after leaving the hospital delivered the child inside the ambulance but the just born could not survive.
A young Muslim man was beaten to death in Jharkhand after a mob accused him and two of his friends, who survived their injuries, of spitting on surfaces to spread COVID-19 to Hindus.
During the lockdown, BJP institutionalised hatred against Muslims in India. The BJP-led central government did nothing to stop the violence and the communal hatred spewed by its own leaders and the media against Muslims.
What Is IMPAR?
IMPAR (Indian Muslim for Progress and Reform) was started IN April 2020, by Dr MJ Khan. Khan was the General Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh-based Peace Party, who in August 2013 joined the BJP.
Khan’s switching to BJP along with at least 200 Peace Party members, just before the crucial 2014 Lok Sabha elections was seen as working against the interest of the community.
After he formally joined the BJP, now defence minister Rajnath Singh had said that Khan’s association with the BJP was more than a decade old. Singh had said, “Dr Khan has been a strong support to BJP during the last 14 years and his formally joining would greatly help the party to strengthen its farmers’ agenda as well as in reaching out to the Muslim community, especially the Muslim youths across the country.”
Since founding IMPAR, Khan has done just that.
IMPAR boasts of over 500 prominent Muslims across India as its members, including academics, businessmen, journalists, lawyers, former bureaucrats, former defence personnel and more.
Former Member of Rajya Sabha Mohammad Adeeb cautioned the community about IMPAR. In an article he wrote in Muslim Mirror, he requested people do the required background checks before joining IMPAR.
“You can check the facts I have mentioned as well. How and when the Peace party came into existence? How they got the funds? How Mr Khan was going all over the place in helicopters and canvassing for Peace Party and suddenly as soon as the BJP won, he switched sides. I have it from a top BJP leader that he is very close to him and his party.
Since you people are joining this movement with utmost sincerity, I feel it is my responsibility to inform you about the agenda behind this forum. I do not want that in the absence of knowing the facts and in your drive for doing good, you all unconsciously end up driving your “millat” towards the evil intent of the BJP,” he wrote.
