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| - Fact Check: Viral post claims Sadhguru event spread coronavirus in Tamil Nadu
A social media post claims that while the government and media are obsessed with 'Islamophobia', an event by spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev aka Sadhguru led to over 1,000 coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu. What is the truth?
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India Today Fact Check
The last Sadhguru event was on February 21. No one at Isha Yoga Center has been found with Covid-19 symptoms or is quarantined there.
The Tablighi Jamaat has been in the eye of a storm after a religious congregation it organised in Delhi early March turned out to be the super-spreader of coronavirus in India. Reports of patients escaping hospitals, concealing illnesses, and misbehaviour with police and health workers have also come to the fore.
Amid this, a social media post claims that while the government and media are obsessed with 'Islamophobia', an event by spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev aka Sadhguru led to over 1,000 coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu. The post claims that 150 foreigners attended the event in March, all of whom are in quarantine at the Isha Foundation headquarter Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore.
Facebook page "People's Voice" shared a photo of Sadhguru at an event, along with the caption, "150 foreigners attended Sadhguru's event in March. Now all are under quarantine at Isha yoga foundation. 1000+ cases confirmed in TN, but media is only after Tablighi Jamat. This exposes Govt & media's Islamophobia!"
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral claim is false. The last event organised by Isha Foundation was on February 21 on the occasion of Mahashivratri. Though a number of foreigners participated in the event, no one at Isha Yoga Center was found with Covid-19 symptoms.
AFWA probe
AFWA contacted Isha Foundation who confirmed to us that it did not organise any event after Mahashivratri. A few days back, when Congress leader Salman Nizami had shared the same post on Twitter, Isha Foundation clarified that nobody at Isha Yoga Center had reported corona symptoms or was under quarantine.
1/3 Kindly do some homework before tweeting. Lockdown maybe a good time to introspect.
1. After 50 days since Mahashivaratri, NO Corona symptoms reported at Isha Yoga Center. This is confirmed by Dist. Collector of Coimbatore...1/3@MIB_India https://t.co/5Moyjg6XNM — Isha Foundation (@ishafoundation) April 12, 2020
We reached out to Coimbatore district magistrate and district collector Thiru K Rajamani, who confirmed that the Isha Yoga Center was examined thoroughly and no positive case was found. Local media had also quoted Rajamani saying the same thing earlier in a press conference.
Even the picture used in the viral post is old. This picture of Sadhguru was used in the Isha Foundation website on January 22, 2019.
Therefore, it is clear that the viral post claiming that 150 foreigners participated in a Sadhguru event in March, leading to over 1,000 coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu, is false. The claim that these foreigners are in quarantine at Isha Yoga Centre is also untrue.
According to latest data available on the ministry of health and family welfare website, till May 3 evening, Tamil Nadu reported 2,757 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 29 deaths.
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