India coronavirus hospital ‘segregating Hindu and Muslim patients’

US Committee on International Religious Freedom says reported segregation will ‘only help to further increase ongoing stigmatisation of Muslims in India’

An Indian health worker checks the temperature of a woman during lockdown in Ahmedabad, Gujarat (AP)

A US congressional panel has expressed concern about a report that Hindus and Muslims are being segregated at a hospital for coronavirus patients in India.

Wards for confirmed and suspected Covid-19 cases at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital in Gujarat state were being assigned according to the patient’s faith, according to a report in The Indian Express newspaper.

Dr Gunvant H Rathod, the medical superintendent at the hospital, was quoted as saying: “Generally [in India], there are separate wards for male and female patients. But here, we have made separate wards for Hindu and Muslim patients.”

Asked why patients were being segregated, the doctor said it was a “decision of the government” – something which the Gujarat authorities later denied was the case.

Gujarat has a recent history of tensions between religious communities, with the state witnessing some of the most bloody religious riots in India’s modern history in 2002, when Narendra Modi was the state’s chief minister. In February this year there were also clashes along religious lines, although they were overshadowed by the anti-Muslim violence in the capital Delhi at around the same time.

And the outbreak of coronavirus in India has also been used to stoke communal tensions, after a relatively large number of cases in several states were linked to a single conference event organised by an Islamic missionary group.

The US Committee on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan panel of experts appointed by Congress, said in a tweet on Wednesday that it was “concerned with reports of Hindu and Muslim patients separated into separate hospital wards in Gujarat”.

“Such actions only help to further increase ongoing stigmatisation of Muslims in India and exacerbate false rumours of Muslims spreading Covid-19,” the body said.

It is not the first time the USCIRF has drawn attention to its concerns about India – the body was vocal in its criticism of the Modi government for failing “to provide protection and physical security for its citizens, regardless of faith” during this year’s Delhi riots.

Anurag Srivastava, India’s foreign ministry spokesperson, told reporters: “As if its peremptory commentary on religious freedom in India is not enough, the USCIRF is now spreading misguided reports on the professional medical protocols followed to deal with spread of Covid-19 in India.

“It must stop adding religious colour to our national goal of fighting the pandemic and distract from larger efforts.”

In its statement, the state government said that “no segregation is being done in civil hospital on the basis of religion”, adding patients were being treated “based on symptoms, severity etc and according to treating doctors’ recommendations”.

Since the initial report sparked international attention, the medical superintendent Dr Rathod has issued his own statement, claiming that he was “misquoted”.

“Patients are not segregated on the basis of faith … These reports in my name are false and baseless and I condemn it,” he said.

The Indian Express, which also quoted local government officials saying they would “enquire about” the segregation issue, said Dr Rathod was “accurately quoted” and that it stood by its report. The newspaper is one of India’s best-respected and widely read daily nationals.