Why is the COVID-19 crisis bringing out the worst in us?

How long did it take for the coronavirus to be overshadowed by the communal virus in India? The damage that COVID-19 is wreaking across the globe has distanced us, brought us together, got us to think a little more about the planet and exposed the worst of our inhumanity.

Fear makes people irrational. Adrenaline makes us hyper. But whatever the reason, some of us are guaranteed to pull out the hate and blame-game in the middle of a crisis. The main culprit for COVID-19, in the public imagination, is China and therefore by extension, Chinese people and by further extension, anyone who looks “Chinese”. US President Donald Trump had a big part to play here and upsurges of racism were worldwide.

Maybe the Chinese government lied. Maybe it did not do enough early enough. Had movement out of Wuhan been contained, the spread of this virus would not have been as speedy or deadly or potentially so catastrophic. Maybe it was the entire Chinese establishment that is responsible. Maybe it is some officials at the top, in the evil manipulative manner of all those at the top of any organisation, and maybe it was some low-level officials frightened that their incompetence would be exposed. Maybe all the conspiracy theories are true, that this is some enormous biological warfare at work. I do not know.

But I do know this. I know that every Chinese person on the planet cannot be held personally responsible. That every person who looks Chinese cannot be held responsible. And I also know that attacking people based on your own fears and prejudices, whether exacerbated by irresponsible politicians or not, is not going help the fight against COVID-19.

Closer to home, as we grappled with people from the North East being attacked, thanks to an escalation of hatred on some TV channels and the larger suffering of millions of migrant workers trapped in a sudden lockdown without food and shelter, news emerged about the spread of COVID-19 at a congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat on March 13 in Delhi.

That was it. All the togetherness in the fight against the virus took us back to our favourite pastime: religious hatred and even better, Islamophobia. The wounds of the Delhi anti-Muslim attacks were still raw. The problems caused by the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Register of Indians and the National Population Register are on hold for now because of the current crisis.

If you want conspiracy theories, how convenient was it that the problems caused by the Tablighi Jamaat came right at the time when we were horrified at the sight of people being washed down with surface bleach as a disinfectant? Nothing of course compares to a good bout of Muslim-bashing so here we are again. Attacks on Muslims who had no connection with the Jamaat meeting and possibly had never heard of the organisation. All Muslims presented as part of some “jihad” to destroy the planet with the virus. Perhaps these sick, fevered minds feel that this a China+Islam conspiracy?

Is there any doubt that those who run the Jamaat and its members were deeply irresponsible? No. They should have reported themselves sooner and attendees had no business attacking health workers, who were trying to help them. And many of them have tested positive. They have now put many more people than were at the event in dire jeopardy.

I’m not going to play the whataboutery game and list what believers in other religions were up to at the same time and since. But I am going to ask, was this our brightest moment? To take a huge planetary battle against a virus that spreads fast, that can be deadly and for which there is no known cure, and turn it into an open season for bigotry, prejudice and hatred? And to aim that hatred at all Muslims, regardless of whether they were part of the Tablighi Jamaat event or not?

Across the planet, many people have been overjoyed that Nature was re-establishing itself where humans have withdrawn. Of course, the virus is also Nature laying down the law, but anyway. There is happiness in cleaner air and more space for other species.

And then we had some upper castes on social media crowing over how the cruel discrimination of the caste system was actually a form of “social distancing”.

Yes, we are despicable. Virulent even. No virus can combat that.