NEW DELHI: The Bombay High Court came down heavily on the media terming the coverage on the foreign nationals who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi’s Nizammuddin area as ‘persecution’ and ‘propaganda’.
“There was big propaganda in print media and electronic media against the foreigners who had come to Markaz Delhi and an attempt was made to create a picture that these foreigners were responsible for spreading Covid-19 virus in India. There was virtually persecution against these foreigners,” the bench said in its 58-page verdict quashing the FIRs against 29 foreign nationals.
In a hard-hitting observation, the division bench of Justices T V Nalawade and M G Sewlikar said, “A political government tries to find the scapegoat when there is pandemic or calamity and the circumstances show that there is probability that these foreigners were chosen to make them scapegoats.”
Pointing out that there are more alternate media for religious discourse and various television networks for different religions, the court said, “In this era, it is not practically possible to prevent discourse on religious matters. Many times such discussion can also be called as preaching the religion and there may or may not be intention to spread Islam.”
The prosecution had argued that the accused persons were propagating Islam religion among public.
Observing a clear bias in the State action because of faith, the court said the action was taken mainly against Muslims who had come to attend the congregation.
“Similar action was not taken against other foreigners belonging to other religions. Due to these circumstances, the background of the action and what is achieved needs to be considered by the court,” the bench observed.
It said, “There were protests by taking processions, holding dharna at many places from prior to January 2020. Most of the persons participating in the protest were Muslims. It is their contention that the CAA, 2019 is discriminatory against the Muslims. They believe that Indian citizenship will not be granted to Muslim refugees and migrants. They were protesting against NRC.”