Brahma Chellaney, an Indian once security advisor to the PM twenty years ago, unarguably a man connected with RAW is author of 9 books. He contributes to international dailies and magazines, but his articles are based on lies, ruses and subterfuges. He had written highly biased article in the March 6 edition of the Japan Times, and on April 14, 2020 Japan Times published another article titled “The other contagion: Political and religious fanaticism” in which he brazenly held Chinese Communist Party and TablighiJamaat(Muslims) responsible for outbreak of Coronavirus.It is highly disappointing to see that once again the columns of The Japan Times have been used to make lopsided and misleading assertions against Pakistan. Pakistan firmly believes in the freedom of speech; however, this right needs to be used with prudence, and Japan Times should verify the facts before publishing biased articles.
In his March 6 article, Chellaneyhad squarely blamed Pakistan for the suicide attack on Indian security forces in the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. This was contrary to the fact, as it was carried out by a local Kashmiri youth. In his article published on April 14, 2020, he stated: “TablighiJamaat’s March 11-12 congregation in Lahore, Pakistan, attracted up to a quarter million participants but ended up creating the largest viral vector in the Sunni world. It spread the coronavirus far and wide – from Kyrgyzstan to Gaza”. His article is a pack of lies, as despite gathering of 16000 TablighiJamaat activists in Malaysia, the incidence of coronavirus is not alarming at all, as there have been 5251 cases out of them 2967 recovered and only 86 died of the virus. In Indonesia 607 out of 5923 recovered and 520 died. In India, 1800 recovered out of 13800 whereas 452 died of virus.
As regards TablighiTamaat’s congregation in Lahore in March, he grossly exaggerated the figure of quarter million participants, as the figure of those quarantined was in thousands. On the other hand, Novel virus wreaked havoc in the US and the western countries. In the US, Spain, Italy, France and Britain etc, from 14000 to 22000 people have died in each country; and up to 17th April, 35400 people died of coronavirus in the US. However, TableeghiJamaat has not contributed to the alarming death rate in the US and the western countries. Of course, TableeghiJamaat or any religious organization should be sensitive to the threat of Covid-19 to the world, and should have refrained from holding congregations and meetings in these circumstances. But Indian government or any other government should have persuaded them or stopped them, which they did not do.
The learned author out of his hatred against Chinese Communist Party and Muslim world grossly exaggerated the figures of coronavirus cases in India and Malaysia. The learned author should explain why incidence of coronavirus cases and large number of deaths occurred in those countries? BrahamaChellaney seems to be inspired by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which had called for a complete ban on TablighiJamaat and its NizamuddinMarkaz besides freezing its bank accounts and closure of all its offices holding it responsible for spike in COVID-19 cases across India. Whereas Coronavirus cases are not specific to any community or religion, however, extremist government of BJP in India is especially targeting Muslims to advance its evil agenda. A day after BJP MP ShobhaKarandlaje suspected ‘Corona Jihad’ motive behind religious gathering at TablighiJamaat headquarters in Nizamuddin, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leadership started a hate campaign against Muslims.