When the Haryana Police registered an FIR against Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, there was ‘national outrage’. Secular-liberals came out raging against the threat to freedom of expression. Mahmudabad had taunted the briefing by Col Sophia Qureshi during Operation Sindoor, claiming that it was hypocrisy while suggesting that the Muslims, the community she belonged to, were being persecuted. He never regretted what he had written. Rather, he tried to defend it. He landed in jail and got bail. Legal remedy and recourse is everybody’s right.
Among those who took the lead in condemning the police action was no less a person than Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge himself. Congress is the principal opposition party in the country. It was duty-bound to point out the “excess and misuse of law” against an academic who, according to them, had merely used his freedom of expression and at the same time, had said nothing wrong.
Another Congress spokesperson Supriya Shirnate suggested that Mahmudabad had been targeted because of his name, noting that he was jailed because of being a Muslim.
In another development again linked to Operation Sindoor, Sharmishta Panoli, a law student from Pune, got involved in heated exchange of words with some Pakistani supporters. In the spur of the moment, she probably used some objectionable language, targeting the religion of those with whom she was arguing.
The academic argument was made out to be an insult to religion. Within no time, her verbal exchange went viral on social media. There were war cries suggesting that she should be beheaded. Posters showing her picture with a message, that she deserves to be beheaded were widely circulated on multiple social media platforms. Noone took any action about the fact that people were calling for death to someone.
She deleted the video of the argument with an unconditional apology. However, that did not save her from getting slapped with multiple FIRs. One FIR was also registered in West Bengal. The West Bengal Police eventually arrested her from Gurugram on Friday evening. She has since been remanded to judicial custody.
There was widespread outrage on social media seeking “justice for Sharmishta”. This prompted the West Bengal Police to issue a clarification that she had been arrested following warrants by a court. But why the West Bengal police showed so much keenness and hurry to nab her from far off Gurugram is not lost on anyone.
The West Bengal Police is not the first nor would it be the last to resort to such type of arrests. Sharmishta was based in Pune from where she reportedly made those objectionable comments. In case of any criminal act, there is a particular jurisdiction. But under cyber laws, in such cases, there is no restricted jurisdiction. Governments mostly misuse this law to silence their critics even if they are based in other states. All political parties, without any exception, are guilty of abusing this law. Courts need to take a serious view of the misuse of arresting powers under such offences, if these really amount to any offence. The law will take its own course and Sharmishta’s lawyers will defend her. If she is lucky enough like Prof Mahmudabad, she may also get the bail. Otherwise, she remains in jail.
Shocking, but not unexpected, part of the issue is that there has not been a single word uttered by the “secular-liberals” against her arrest. There have not been any editorials crying hoarse over the “threat to freedom of expression” and “academic freedom” as happened in the aftermath of Mahmudabad's arrest. There were no letters from “eminent intellectuals” calling for her release.
And above all there was no statement from the Congress president Kharge condemning the arrest of a young student, just in her teens, studying law who even regretted and tendered an apology for what she spoke. Rather, there were multiple social media handles owing allegiance to the Congress, which “celebrated” Sharmishta’s arrest.
That is the problem with “secular-liberals” in general and the Congress in particular that they always feel offended and outraged selectively. In Sharmishta’s case, there was not even any political affinity with anyone. Apparently, just because defending her, the same way the party defended Mahmudabad, might offend those who have felt “hurt” over what she had spoken in angry arguments with Pakistani supporters.
And these things do get noticed and responded to as well. After Sharmishta’s arrest, the social media came out in anger and outrage against the arrest questioning the silence of people and seeking justice for her.
The echo of outrage over her arrest was felt outside India as well. Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Party for Freedom and an MP, while tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to help Sharmishta, wrote on ‘X’, “free the brave Sharmishta Panoli! It’s a disgrace for the freedom of speech that she was arrested. Don’t punish her for speaking the truth. Help her.”
But will he?
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