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In Modi's India, Virus Fallout Inflames Divisions Between Muslims and Hindus

Reuters

   MUMBAI - The purple ink stamped on Iqbal Hussain Siddiqui's hand by
   Indian health workers was supposed to ensure he stayed home under
   quarantine.

   But the 66-year-old Siddiqui, an egg seller in Mumbai's sprawling
   Dharavi slum, rubbed it off as best he could and went back to work. The
   mark would have condemned him to being stuck in an unventilated
   one-room home without a toilet. It was also, he claimed, part of an
   effort by the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra
   Modi to target Muslims like him, using health workers to gather data on
   the community under the guise of containing the COVID-19 pandemic.

   "Modi wants to make Muslims second-class citizens," said Siddiqui, who
   was ordered to be quarantined after a neighbor tested positive for the
   virus. "There is no one who is sick -- it's all a lie."

   His suspicions were echoed by a half-dozen other Muslims whom Reuters
   talked to in Dharavi, even though community leaders say they have been
   trying to convince people that the health workers are in the district
   to protect them from COVID-19.

   As the coronavirus sweeps across India, Modi's government has responded
   by imposing a lockdown on the country's 1.3 billion people. As of
   Friday, India had announced 437 deaths from the disease.

   The coronavirus has also exacerbated festering divisions between the
   country's Hindus and its sizable Muslim minority, many of whom have
   seen their livelihoods threatened by the establishment of quarantine
   zones in densely packed areas like Dharavi. There have been at least 71
   confirmed cases in Dharavi.

   A deep-rooted distrust of Modi by Muslims follows months of protests
   against a new citizenship law that critics say discriminates against
   Muslims, and a crackdown by India in the Muslim-majority territory of
   Kashmir.

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