BJP jails professor for exposing its hypocrisy

The optics of equality clash with hate for the minority

When Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad posted on Facebook praising the optics of women soldiers briefing the media on Operation Sindhoor but questioning the BJP’s anti-minority hate, the state proved his point—by arresting him.

The Haryana Police barged into the Delhi home of Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a historian, poet, and Ashoka University’s political science head. The charges — endangering sovereignty, promoting enmity — are the kind of word salad you’d expect from a state so insecure, so aware of its own two-faced nature, that it hates even the most tepid sunlight being cast on its actions.

Mahmudabad’s posts were about as seditious as a yoga retreat. He gave a nod to the military’s strategy, tipped his hat to women officers like Colonel Sofiya Qureshi briefing the nation, but — gasp — suggested that maybe India should match its optics with actual justice for mob lynching victims.

Oh, the horror!

The Haryana State Commission for Women chairperson Renu Bhatia, and a BJP sarpanch, lost their marbles; their complaints triggered FIRs that led to the arrest.

The FIR charged Mahmudabad under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita #152 (acts which endanger sovereignty, unity and integrity of India), #196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), #197 (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), and #299 (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).

What the FIRs in effect scream, though, is “we don’t like his name or his brain.” In a country where sedition is a dog whistle for “traitor,” Mahmudabad’s Muslim identity is, as the Congress noted, his real offense. This is less law enforcement, more lynch mob with a badge.

In context, it is worth remembering that a Madhya Pradesh minister called Colonel Qureshi a "sister of terrorists", had the MP High Court take suo moto cognizance and ask that an FIR be filed against him. The minister has gone in appeal to the Supreme Court, which finds the time to hear his plea today. The BJP is said to be "watching developments", to see whether it can safely ignore the vile gaslighting by one of its own. (Update: The SC heard the minister’s plea and is distinctly unimpressed. “Entire nation is ashamed of you,” the SC tells the minister. Well, not quite the “entire nation”, perhaps — the ruling regime hasn’t said a word in condemnation.)

Back to Mahmudabad: The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld free speech, notably in Shreya Singhal (2015) where it told the cops to chill unless there’s actual incitement. So why is a Sonipat magistrate playing along with the lynch mob, remanding Mahmudabad to two days of police custody? What is the purpose of the remand? His posts are online, his address isn’t a secret, and he’s not exactly fleeing to Narnia. This remand is nothing more than a judicial shrug, an abdication, yet another judicial “whatever the BJP wants” moment that raises questions about magistrates’ fidelity to the Constitution.

Then there’s Ashoka University, that shiny liberal arts palace where principles go to die. The university's response? A limp “we’re ascertaining details” -- which should have taken about 60 seconds, the time you need to read the post.

The Faculty Association had the guts to call this arrest “groundless” harassment, but Ashoka’s bosses are too busy polishing their donor list. Not that the university's pusillanimity comes as a surprise -- as the Instagram handle churumuri points out in this post, the university has a long history of failing to stand up for its faculty and for the liberal values it espouses only in its shiny brochures. For a place that markets itself as India’s answer to Harvard, Ashoka has repeatedly shown that its spine is about as firm as overcooked noodles.

Here’s the kicker, though: the Indian state is in the process of mounting a global charm offensive, sending teams to various global capitals to present India's case to the world.

What is that case? That Pakistan is an Islamist fundamentalist state where terror and repression are state policy, while India is a mature democracy that is interested not in pointless conflicts but in supercharging its economy and ensuring the well-being of its citizens -- all its citizens. Operation Sindhoor, the diplomats are expected to tell the world, is a masterclass in unity, a showcase of our syncretic traditions.

The delegations haven't even left our shores; meanwhile, the story of Professor Mahmudabad's arrest is making headlines in national, and global, media. It’s a masterstroke of hypocrisy — smile for the world, snarl at home. Opposition parties like CPI(M) and TMC see it, calling out the bigotry baked into this arrest -- but the state doesn’t care. It’s too busy pretending to be a superpower to notice that its democracy is on life support.

Remember what Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said during one of the Operation Sindhoor briefings? He said that Pahalgam — where the terrorists killed tourists after first ascertaining that they were Hindus — was an attempt to create communal discord within India. Such attempts will not succeed, he averred.

Why must Pakistan bother, though, when the ruling party and its fellow travelers are doing a bang-up job of creating communal discord?

This isn’t just about Mahmudabad, though. This is about a state that wants to be seen, and admired, as muscular, but which is so fragile, so insecure, it jails professors and poets, about a university so craven it betrays its own, and about a judiciary that has forgotten its raison d’être.

Surely this country deserves better than such tinpot tyranny?