New Delhi: Multiple teacher organisations, academics and students came together Tuesday at the Delhi Press Club to condemn the arrest of Ashoka University Professor and head of its political science department, Ali Khan Mahmudabad. They called the arrest a direct attack on India’s democracy and demanded his immediate release. The professor was remanded to 14-day judicial custody Tuesday, nearly two weeks after he made remarks on Operation Sindoor.
Reacting to the development, the teachers said: “We are determined to continue our protest against such unlawful abridgement of our democratic and political rights by the state, and will continue to resist the detention of Dr Khan.”
Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad was arrested by Haryana police from his Delhi house on 18 May, following a police complaint by a BJP Yuva Morcha leader. On 8 May, Mahmudabad wrote a Facebook post on Operation Sindoor, which attracted controversy and the ire of Haryana Women’s Commission chief, Renu Bhatia.
In his post, Mahmudabad had lauded Colonel Sofiya Qureshi—the Indian Army officer present during the Operation Sindoor press briefings—but also demanded attention to different issues that Muslims in India are facing today.
“I am very happy to see so many right wing commentators applauding Colonel Sofiya Qureshi but perhaps they could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the BJP’s hate mongering be protected as Indian citizens. The optics of two women soldiers presenting their findings is important, but optics must translate to reality on the ground, otherwise it’s just hypocrisy,” Mahmudabad had written.
“Just like the courts need to be left free to pursue justice, Universities need to be left free to pursue truth,” said Rajshree Chandra from the India Academic Freedom Network. She also reiterated the need for timely action.
“It is a matter of grave concern for the democratic country we belong to,” another teacher said about Mahmudabad’s remand to judicial custody.
Second-class citizens
Delhi’s heat and a malfunctioning AC didn’t deter the teachers who gathered at the Press Club on Tuesday afternoon from expressing their solidarity for Mahmudabad.
For two hours, academics from various universities and teachers’ unions spoke passionately about the larger messaging around the arrest of the Muslim professor. They said it is a disgrace to the memory of the victims of the Pahalgam massacre.
“The victims of the Pahalgam massacre are being insulted by the actions taken against Mahmudabad, including his arrest,” said Surajit Mazumdar, president of the Federation of Central University Teachers Association.
Various teachers expressed fear of losing academic freedom and raised alarms about the oppression of Muslim academics in universities. They also praised the statement by the Ashoka University students’ union, and urged the university administration to back Professor Mahmudabad if they have “even one vertebrae in their spine.”
President of Ashoka University Student Government, Insha Hussain, also put out a note underlining the student body’s support for Professor Mahmudabad.
“The student government and student body stand in complete solidarity with the professor and demand his immediate and unconditional release. Over these past few days, we have tried to relentlessly prove to the public why Prof Khan is so important to our institution and to this country. We continue to absolutely reject the notion that his actions and words have ever had any intentions of being divisive, violent, communal or misogynist in nature,” Hussain said.
Ashoka University management, meanwhile, has distanced itself from the professor’s post.
The names of Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid were also invoked at the press conference. The panelists said Mahmudabad’s arrest should not be seen in silos, as it is representative of a larger pattern of stifling Muslim voices.
“If I had a Muslim name, then I too would have been arrested. For now, I have only been suspended from my job,” said Laxman Yadav, a former ad hoc teacher at DU’s Zakir Hussain College.
Representatives from all major Delhi universities, including Ambedkar University, Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, were present at the conference. Teachers also spoke about the alterations made to the syllabus in recent years, including the exclusion of Mughal history.
“Can we say that this (Mahmudabad’s arrest) is a violation of academic freedom, or should we instead say that Muslim academics are subjected to just different and more circumstantial codes of freedom. Can we fathom why a minister who called Sofiya Qureshi a terrorist’s sister, is not an intended act to insult the modesty of a woman under Bhartiyanaya (Nyaya) Sanitha section 79?” said Rajshree Chandra, political science teacher at Delhi University, adding that Mahmudabad’s arrest shouldn’t be seen merely as an academic concern.
The speakers were optimistic that the Supreme Court would offer Khan relief, and added that his arrest is not just a violation of his rights, but the rights of the entire nation and an attack on Indian democracy.
“The persecution of Khan is killing your ability to even disagree with him. Everyone can criticise what he says and disagree with him, if there’s a conversation in the first place. It is that debate, that conversation, that is being stifled,” Mazumdar added.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
The security agencies must note down every single person who attended this event. Each one of them must be investigated and tracked.
It’s quite possible that these people are working on behalf of China or Pakistan to destabilize India.
The Print is deliberately providing undue coverage to this issue. A single article could have sufficed. But there have been multiple articles along with an editorial on this arrest.
Let’s compare this with The Print’s coverage of anti-Hindu pogroms carried out by Islamists in Murshidabad. There were two articles – one by Sourav Barman and the other was a photo-article. There were no editorials on the egregious murders and the massive displacement of Hindus.
A comparative analysis serves well to show The Print’s bias against Hindus. If the victims had been Muslims, The Print would have surely printed endless articles and gone hammer and tongs at the government.
These are cut from the same piece of cloth. Every single attendee at this event should be arrested and prosecuted. These are the 0.5 front the late General Bipin Rawat warned us about.