E-Paper
Insecurity, fear grip Muslim volunteers after Surya’s remarks
Bengaluru: Bengaluru south Member of Parliament (MP) Tejasvi Surya’s communalisation of the bribe-for-bed fraud case last week has triggered a sense of fear and insecurity among Muslims Covid warriors, employees at the south war room said
Bengaluru: Bengaluru south Member of Parliament (MP) Tejasvi Surya’s communalisation of the bribe-for-bed fraud case last week has triggered a sense of fear and insecurity among Muslims Covid warriors, employees at the south war room said.
A senior Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) official said that ever since the MP questioned the appointment of 16 Muslims last week, there has been a 40% attrition in the number of contract employees working at the south war room. All the Muslim employees were suspended but reinstated later.
One of the call operators, on the condition of anonymity, said callers were more keen on knowing their names before narrating their troubles.
“It is only after we share our names that they continue with the calls. It is really unfair to those minorities (Muslims) who have been working as hard as we are,” the operator said.
Likewise, volunteers are also living under fear ever since the events at the south war room.
“The communalisation of civic work was done very blatantly. The MP targeted Muslim employees at the centre and has refused to tender an apology. The volunteer group that I work with has several Muslim members and it is a matter of concern for us. We have several members who help bury and cremate bodies across religious lines. We have concerns over these developments,”a volunteer at the war room, who did not wish to be named, said.
Another volunteer shared an incident in which he was denied a refill of the oxygen cylinder after he refused to identify himself. “I cannot be sure if they did not let me refill because of my identity. The reason they gave was that only government agencies were allowed refills from there, which was not true. We didn’t have time to fight since we had to provide oxygen urgently,” the volunteer said, preferring anonymity.
Officials in the war room were not available for a comment at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, a complaint was filed with HSR layout police station was filed against a Muslim data operator, Babu Sadiq, for alleged negligence that resulted in the death of a Covid-19 patients.
In his complaint on May 5, a day after MP Surya courted controversy, Dr Mahesh Kumar, who was in charge of Anekal taluk war room in the outskirts of Bengaluru city, alleged that Sadiq allotted two regular beds and an HDU (high dependency unit) bed in three different hospitals while the patient had sought an ICU (intensive care unit) bed.
While Sadiq was suspended from duty, police claimed that the employee at the war room had not committed any crime and had acted in the interest of the deceased’s family.
“We didn’t find anything criminal in what he did. In fact, he acted in the best interest of the family. He told the family that the ICU was not available, and the family insisted they were ready to take the regular bed, saying they would convince the hospital to provide them with an ICU one (later),” an HSR Layout police officer said, preferring anonymity.
As per investigation, the family repeatedly called the employee, seeking a normal bed in another hospital where they could try for an ICU later. “Even there, they didn’t get any bed. Finally, he was able to find an HDU bed but the patient had passed away by then. These details could have been verified had the war room called the patient. However, after the incident at the south war room (suspension of 17 Muslim employees), the war room officials didn’t want to take a chance,” the officer added.
