Ashoka University associate professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad
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The arrest of academic Ali Khan Mahmudabad by the Haryana Police is yet another instance of unjust and arbitrary State action against citizens and points to the threat free speech and expression is under. It is also an assault on academic freedom.
Mahmudabad, a professor in the Department of Political Science at Ashoka University, has been a national spokesperson of the Samajwadi Party. The Haryana State Commission for Women (HSCW) criticised him for a social media post referring to Colonel Sofiya Qureshi who, along with Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, was part of the official team which briefed the nation on Operation Sindoor.
He wrote about the optics in attaching importance to the two women soldiers but also expressed concern that “optics” could become “hypocrisy” if not translated to ground reality.
Mahmudabad has the right to make his comment; there is nothing in the comment that is disparaging of women as the women’s commission alleges. His arrest was made based on complaints by the commission and a member of the BJP’s youth wing alleging – baselessly – that the post incited rebellion and hurt religious feelings.
Mahmudabad wrote that the media briefing also showed that “an India, united in its diversity, is not completely dead as an idea.” His arrest sends out another chilling message of prejudice and intolerance at a sensitive moment for the country. India was united in its response to the act of terrorism in Pahalgam – this spirit of unity was underlined by the Prime Minister. The arrest of the professor goes against this sentiment.
It is the State’s strike against the expression of a citizen’s right and it exposes the police and the government which acted against him as partisan, and even communal. It is almost certain that Mahmudabad’s name was the problem here and that shows the State, and not him, in poor light. On Tuesday, a court remanded Mahmudabad in judicial custody.
There is a disturbing contrast as well, in the form of Vijay Shah, a minister in the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh who called Colonel Qureshi a “sister” of the terrorists. The party has not taken any action against him and he continues to be a minister even after a court ordered the filing of an FIR against him.
There have been multiple cases of prejudiced and hateful speech that have gone unchecked and even appreciated. This is a distressing new normal: the exercise of the right to free speech and other fundamental rights is becoming an offence and real offence, meanwhile, is being normalised.