38 Tablighis will donate convalescent plasma for treatment of COVID-19 patients: Owaisi

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday said that 38 Tablighi Jamaat members including 25 from Telangana, who had earlier recovered from Coronavirus, will donate their convalescent plasma to help in the treatment of other patients.

'Jamaat has been demonised' 

"We encouraged recovered Tablighi Jamat members to donate convalescent plasma so as to help the other patients in their fight against coronavirus. Earlier, I had submitted 32 names of recovered Tablighi Jamaat members to the Government of Telangana, who had come forward to donate their plasma," Owaisi told media persons.

"The Jamaat has been demonised as 'super spreader' and even been accused of 'corona jihad' by some sections of the media. However, members of the Jamaat have been seen donating blood plasma and helping other COVID patients in this collective fight against coronavirus," he added.

Describing the ongoing lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus across the country as "unplanned and hasty decision," said States have to be authorised to take decisions on whether to continue it or not.

'Centre cannot use NDMA to dictate...'

Slamming the BJP-led government at the Centre as being responsible for the plight of migrant labourers, the Hyderabad MP said the guest workers should have been sent back home in March last week when the COVID-19 cases were less in number and the virus was less virulent.

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"I have been consistently criticising the lockdown because it is unconstitutional. If you read the Constitution, under the state's list, the states are responsible for law and order. The government of India and the Modi government violate the seventh schedule of the Constitution. They cannot use the National Disaster Management Act to dictate to the state governments. It is very unfortunate why the Chief Ministers accept this unconstitutional diktat of the Modi government," Owaisi said.

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Owaisi also alleged that in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Government has illegally detained more than 40 members of Tablighi Jamaat from Telangana for more than two months. "They are illegally detained at Muzaffarnagar and Meerut. All of them have tested negative for Ccoronavirus not once but thrice. It is a violation of Article 21 by the Uttar Pradesh government. The members were served the notice by the government that if they leave, they will have to bear the consequences," he said.

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(With agency inputs)