‘Excuses’: 5 things minister Mukhtar Naqvi said on Nizamuddin event

Naqvi, who heads the minority affairs ministry, said that what happened at Tabhligi Jamaat’s headquarters was a crime.

Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said that the incident in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area cannot be linked with one particular community. The Tabhligi Jamaat, a religious group, had organised its annual congregation in the area which was attended by thousands at a time when coronavirus disease Covid-19 is spreading rapidly.

Health workers sanitise the area in Nizamuddin, after people who attended the religious congregation at a markaz there tested positive for Covid-19, in New Delhi on April 1. (PTI Photo)

“The Jamaat incident cannot be linked to any community. Such crimes are not linked to any community or caste,” Naqvi told Hindustan Times. (Read the full interview here)

Naqvi, who heads the minority affairs ministry, said that what happened at Tabhligi Jamaat’s headquarters was a crime and it should not be seen through a religious prism.

“We don’t look at it as a Hindu or Muslim or through any religious prism per so. This was a crime. The place, where this gathering happened, just happens to belong to one religious community,” said the minister.

The uddin Markaz,six-storey building, the global headquarters of the Jamaat, has emerged as one of the biggest coronavirus hot spots in the country. Those who attended the congregation spread across the country during the lockdown increasing the risk of Covid-19 spread.

“It is a Talibani crime. When the entire country is together to fight coronavirus, in such circumstances, such a thing is a crime. Not just the law, but even the Almighty will not forgive such a thing,” said Naqvi.

He also slammed the statement by the Jamaat that many of those who came for the congregation could not move out because of the Janata Curfew on March 22. “Excuses are of no use. These kinds of excuses makes one feel that something was amiss,” Naqvi said.

He also thanked the religious leaders for their positive response in fight against Covid-19. “I am happy that all religious leaders and more than that the public has responded very positively in the fight against Covid-19. There is no contradiction from anywhere.”