Bengaluru: Ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, attempts are being made to bring communal angle in the battle against the deadly virus. On Tuesday, another such attempt was made when Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Bangalore South, Tejasvi Surya, MLAs Satish Reddy and Ravi Subramanya raised questions over the recruitment of Muslim staff in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) run COVID war room.
According to a report published in the Cognate, the MLAs along with Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya entered into the BBMP COVID war room and started raising questions over the recruitment of Muslim staff and accused them of corruption in hospital bed allotment to COVID-19 patients.
In a video that went viral on social media, the BJP MP can be seen selectively reading out names of the 16 staff members who are Muslims, reacting to which the accompanying MLAs asked if the BBMP is a madrasa or Hajj Bhavan. They, however, neglected the fact that the COVID war room has 205 staff members who work in shifts.
Soon after video went viral, some of the netizens started spreading hate. One of them wrote,” Dr Rehan is the in charge of Bed allotment in BBMP Bengaluru South Covid War Room. He and his team of terrorists listed below are involved in hospital bed booking scam”.
Similar other messages and posts are going rounds on social media. They also target BBMP Joint Commissioner Sarfaraz Khan.
Responding to the viral WhatsApp message accusing the Muslim staff for mismanagement, the Joint Commissioner took to Facebook and claimed that “anti-social elements” were inciting communal tension and “spreading poison”.
Last year too, several BJP members and some TV channels ran a vicious campaign against the Tablighi Jamat and accused them of “Corona Jihad”.