“Everyone who exposes the BJP’s bias, intolerance, and lies is a threat to them.” Suppressing one voice of truth will give birth to a thousand more. ” Gandhi wrote in a tweet in support of the journalist who is being held in custody.
The Delhi Police nabbed Mohammad Zubair on Monday. He is a co-founder of the website Alt News that verifies information. Sources claim that the arrest was made for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus. According to DCP KPS Malhotra, who also verified the arrest, Mohammad Zubair was taken into custody today while being investigated in the case brought under Section 153A/295A IPC at PS-Special Cell. He is being taken before a magistrate to be put on extra remand until the matter is looked into.
According to Delhi Police, the signboard for the “Honeymoon Hotel” had been changed to read “Hanuman Hotel” in the image that was released (in the tweet). @balajikijaiin remarked in a tweet that associating our Lord Hanuman ji with a honeymoon is an obvious insult to Hindus due to his celibacy. Please confront this man. The Delhi Police claims that Mohammad Zubair’s post criticising a religious community with words and photos was done on purpose and is exceedingly inflammatory. This alone is enough to incite hostility among the public and jeopardize efforts to maintain peace.
Zubair is one of those people who first raised the issue of Nupur Sharma’s objectionable remarks on Prophet Mohammad. When Nupur Sharma was shown the way out by her own party, many right-wing extremists took a jibe at Zubair on Twitter. Mohammad Zubair has also been raising question marks about the inflammatory TV debates going on. They are telling the truth about the misleading news. Along with exposing hate speech, they are also documenting it. Mohammad Zubair’s tweets and his Twitter account can be a perfect source to know the status of hate speech in India. The overall point is that Zubair has made it easier to understand the situation of hate speech.
In the interview given to Article 14, Mohd. Zubair said that, apparently, he is afraid of arrest because of the work he is doing. Zubair had also said that due to his work, he remains the target of the rightwing. Zubair had also said that “a large part of the hate speech on social media is posted by people who are either associated with the BJP or are its supporters.” Many such trends reach millions of people.
The case of Mohammad Zubair
A spokeswoman for the Delhi Police stated that Mohammad Zubair’s post was the catalyst for the opening of this case. According to the official, the Delhi Police investigated after learning via a Twitter account that Mohammad Zubair had previously sent out abusive tweets and that his supporters and social media organisations had incited a chain of fights and hate speech.
In September 2020, a case was registered against Zubair under the IT Act and POCSO in Delhi and Raipur for a tweet. Then Zubair had said that this is wrong and I will challenge it legally.
Apart from this, in June 2021, a case was registered against many including Zubair, Rana Ayub and The Wire for spreading misleading news and inciting religious sentiments. The case was about the beating of an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad, UP.
A few days ago, a FIR was filed at a police station in Khairabad, Sitapur district, Uttar Pradesh, with Mohammad Zubair as the subject. Following his tweet in which he referred to Yeti Narasimhanand, Mahant Bajrang Muni, and Anand Swaroop as “spreaders of hatred,” According to the article, Bhagwan Sharan, who claimed to be the district chief of the Rashtriya Hindu Sher Sena, filed a complaint at the Khairabad police station in Sitapur accusing Zubair of breaking Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (insulting any class of religion or religious beliefs). Under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act (publishing or communicating obscenity in electronic form), a case has been brought (a deliberate and malicious act done to hurt their religious sentiments).
The co-founder of Alt News, Mohammad Zubair, was arrested on Monday for allegedly inciting religious animosity. BJP leaders said that Zubair was a “jihadi who instigated the violence. However, the opposition criticised the Modi administration for detaining the journalist. In response to Congressman Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the BJP following the detention, BJP national secretary CT Ravi tweeted, “This incompetent dynasty could not oppose the arrest of a Marathi actress over a simple Facebook post by the fascist MVA government in Maharashtra.” He stood silent as women and children were being raped in Rajasthan. Nonetheless, he bemoans jihadists who incite violence!
“Everyone who exposes the BJP’s bias, intolerance, and lies is a threat to them. Suppressing one voice of truth will give birth to a thousand more.” Gandhi wrote in a tweet in support of the journalist who is being held in custody
Every year, the government applies more pressure. In total, there were a total of 2799 closures of websites, webpages, and particular user accounts in the nation in 2018, and there were 9849 closures in the following year. We are currently in a historical period in which we emulate Pakistan as an ideal in terms of human rights and freedom of expression, and we are eradicating the stigma associated with self-declared Vishwagurus. India and Pakistan are ranked 142 and 145, respectively, in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index, which ranks 160 nations on the basis of press freedom.
Muzzling the voice
A survey claims that when it comes to attacks or limitations on journalists, Prime Minister Modi’s preferred state Uttar Pradesh, ranks first among the major states. 108 journalists were reportedly attacked in the nation last year, with 25 of those attacks occurring in Uttar pradesh, 2 in Madhya pradesh, 16 in jammu kashmir, 15 in Tripura, 8 in Delhi, 6 in Bihar, 5 in Assam, 4 in Haryana, 4 in Maharashtra, 3-3 in Goa and Manipur, 2-2 in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, and 1-1 in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and West Bengal.
According to Suchitra Vijayan of the Police Project, India’s ongoing repression and escalating regulations represent a serious threat to media freedom. She stated, “A campaign to incite hatred towards journalists who criticise the administration has been initiated on social media, threats of rape or murder might also be made occasionally.
The Indian government apparatus has detained journalists amid growing limits on press freedom, constantly persecuting critics and independent news organisations, including invading their offices. These arrests were made on spurious terrorism and sedition allegations. The Information Technology Act and the IT Rules, 2021, expose journalists and internet critics to legal action for their criticism of the government. The Israeli-made spyware Pegasus has been used to target journalists by the Indian government apparatus. Also, the government often shuts down the internet, making it hard for journalists to find and share information online.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government is cracking down more on civil society at the same time that it is limiting the freedom of the press and targeting nonviolent protestors, students, and government opponents. Sedition, counterterrorism, and national security laws are being used to muzzle their voice, Minority-group journalists and journalists covering Jammu and Kashmir are the most vulnerable.
The use of technology by the government to restrict human rights and stifle freedom of speech in online forums is on the rise. The Indian government released the Information Technology Manual in February 2021, endangering both the right to free speech and the right to privacy. These regulations give the government the authority to immediately order the deletion of online content without judicial review.
