Muslim staff targeted during Tejasvi Surya raid yet to get jobs back

Weeks after parliamentarian L S Tejasvi Surya questioned their appointment during his “exposé” of the hospital bed allocation scam, the 16 Muslim staff are yet to get back their jobs at the BBMP’s Covid-19 war room.

On May 4, the BJP’s Bangalore South MP and three MLAs of the party stormed the South Zone war room, alleging a scam in the allocation of hospital beds for Covid patients. Surya then read out the names of the 16 people, asking BBMP Special Commissioner Thulasi Maddineni how they were appointed. Basavanagudi MLA, L A Ravi Subramanya, then thundered: “Have you recruited them for a madrasa or corporation?”

Minutes later, a message containing the names of these staff was widely shared on social media, branding them “terrorists killing thousands of Bengalureans”.

Read | Clarify on 'apology', war room staffers tell Surya

The staff were taken off duty within hours. No reasons were given.

Over the next few days, they were called to the Jayanagar police station and questioned about the scam even though it had emerged by then that none of them worked in the bed allocation section. Questions were also raised as to why only these 16 people were targeted out of the 205 staff in the war room.

The public outcry prompted the private firm that had hired them, Crystal Infosystems and Services, to promise to reinstate them.

But this hasn’t happened yet. The firm says four of them have quit and claims it’s trying to find “alternative” jobs for the rest.

In reality, only one of them has found a job. “All our efforts have gone in vain. We spent two days in the police station, begged the officials to give us jobs or prosecute us if they have any evidence. Our families are struggling to come out of the shock,” one of the staffers said, speaking to DH on the condition of anonymity.

While Maddineni had welcomed the staff to rejoin work two weeks ago, one of them said the firm had asked them to stay away from the war room.

Shivu Naik, Manager, Crystal Infosystems and Services, cited two reasons as to why the staff couldn’t go back to their jobs. He said that right after they were suspended, alternative arrangements were made to fill their positions. “A war room flooded with distress calls can’t have vacancies. So we quickly refilled those positions. Secondly, we are unable to send them back to work because the BBMP itself is reducing the number of people in the war room,” he said.

A senior official said the opening of triage centres and the falling infections had reduced the workload on the war room. “In fact, we will reduce the staff strength in the South Zone war room by 35% as home isolation and discharge functions will be managed under a new system. Medical students are being hired to handle them,” the official added.

'Who is responsible?'

One of the staffers asked what Surya would do to help them. “I saw news reports in which he claimed he was not targeting Muslims. As an MP, he could have condemned the hatred. Who is responsible for what happened to us,” he asked. “Maybe he believes this is his gift to us.”

Ayesha Sheikh, a BBMP staffer who walked out of the war room in solidarity with the 16 people, hasn’t found a job either. “We worked during the pandemic to earn our daily bread. So much has happened in a short time. Sometimes, all of this seems unreal,” said the single mother of two.

DH could not reach Surya for comment.