Zubair’s arrest, one more vindictive act

The arrest of Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of the fact-checking website Alt News, on Monday for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity between groups follows a pattern that is now well recognised and established. That is, to arrest anyone who is seen to be critical of the government or the ruling party on flimsy or even non-existent charges and make an example of that person for others who may dare to speak against the government. The charge against Zubair is that he had made a tweet in 2018 that hurt the religious sentiments of a community and had the potential to create strife. This is not a convincing claim, as known to anyone who has seen the tweet. The post was, in any case, said to be based on a still from a 1983 film. If it was dangerous, it would have created strife by now. If it was not even known to many till now and has not had an impact, how can it be said to have been the reason for legal action against him after four years?

The way Zubair was arrested has also raised questions. He was called for questioning by Delhi Police in another case in which he had got protection against arrest from the court, but was arrested in connection with the new case. It is clear that what caused Zubair’s arrest was his drawing attention to the comments of BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma about the Prophet, which had created an international backlash and caused embarrassment to the government. Even then, there were calls for his arrest on charges of sedition. It is ironic that he has been arrested while those who made the objectionable comments are still free.

Fake news and disinformation campaigns are major social and political threats now. Alt News has done splendid work in the last few years by identifying fake news and countering them and informing the society of correct and factual positions and exposing falsehood. It has been objective and has not taken partisan positions in its work. It has exposed not just the BJP but other parties also. Democracy needs high vigilance against falsehood and misrepresentation and misinterpretation of facts when mass media is used to propagate them. Alt News was doing a service to democracy with its work. It is ironic that Zubair was arrested even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was signing the ‘2022 Resilient Democracies Statement’ at the G-7 summit in Munich, making a pledge to uphold the “freedom, independence and diversity of civil society actors” and to protect free speech, and was reminding the country of the 1975 Emergency.