At a time when several Television channels have been frothing at the mouth, giving a communal colour to the Corona Virus pandemic, chief ministers of five South Indian states, have shown what a petty media gang India is home to. And the best part about this is that these chief ministers belong to different political groupings – both national and regional parties. 

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the move to isolate and attack the Muslim community citing the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi. 

“A virus has no religion. Some forces are trying to communalise the situation, with a virulent campaign on social media. Such attempts will not succeed in Kerala. We will not tolerate it,” said Vijayan. 

If you thought this line was expected of a Left chief minister, move north to Karnataka where BJP’s BS Yediyurappa has taken a similar line. He said he will not tolerate anyone who utters a word against Muslims. 

“Hounding the community for mistakes made by a few is unacceptable. This is my warning,” said Yediyurappa. 

In neighbouring Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK’s Edapaddi Palaniswami government has decided that it will not mention Delhi, Nizamuddin or Tablighi Jamaat while referring to Corona Virus positive patients. The state Health secretary urged people to be kind and not communalise the pandemic. 

Jaganmohan Reddy too slammed attempts to attribute the spread of the disease to a particular religion and treat them as deliberate wrongdoers.

“It is unfortunate that the disease has spread from the congregation in which several spiritual delegates from some foreign countries also participated. Some of them had corona virus and it got transmitted to our people. But no one should see these people as if they committed a crime,” said the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao went a step forward and said the Indonesian preachers who are being pilloried for having spread the virus in India, were “not intruders”. 

“They travelled to India on a valid visa,” said KCR.