Where Is Fair Play & Freedom Of Speech In India?
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2025-05-18 14:37:46
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Most things work weirdly in India. The befitting reply to Pakistan's terror misadventures, Operation Sindoor, succeeded in establishing India's supremacy over its rogue neighbour. But there have been internal fallouts that are concerning, to say the least.
It started with the massive trolling of Vikram Misri, the foreign secretary of India who was tasked with speaking to the media daily during the operation. He was trolled for announcing the ceasefire by those who were baying for Pakistan's blood. The vile persons did not stop at that. They targeted his daughter on the assumption that she was helping Rohingya refugees in her professional capacity.
Then, Col Sofiya Quereshi was targeted, first by unnamed trolls and later by MP minister Vijay Shah. The government's excellent idea of letting two women officers - one Hindu and the other Muslim, brief the press on Operation Sindoor went for a toss as Shah created a 'us' versus 'them' narrative to paint Quereshi as 'them'. It was the most stupid, and dangerous, thing to say. MP high court was constrained to ask the police to file an FIR against him and was disturbed when a 'weak' FIR was filed. It later ordered a court-monitored probe.
Then, Jagdish Devda, the deputy chief minister of the same state (in fact, after these two major incidents, the BJP is putting a lid on its MP leaders and began schooling them on how to speak about Operation Sindoor in rallies and before the media), spoke in a manner which suggested that even the Indian Army was at PM Modi's feet. Though the BJP tried to defend him by saying that he was misquoted, the speech is there for all to hear and he clearly says everyone is at Modi's feet, including the Army.
But who gets arrested? Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a professor of Ashoka University. His fault? Saying that the deployment of Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh to brief the press was just 'optics'. He chose to bring up the ground reality which, according to him, included victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the BJP's hate mongering. He asked right wing commentators to demand that these victims be protected as Indian citizens. The Haryana State Commission for Women took suo motu cognizance of his remarks and he was arrested on the complaint of BJP Yuva Morcha.
But if Mahmudabad is 'guilty' of trying to inflame passions and incite communal discord, what about Vijay Shah, who is trying to create an 'us' versus 'them' narrative, which is more dangerous and more likely to incite communal passions? Or the trolls who are targeting Vikram Misri and his daughter? Or Jagdish Devda, who degraded the image of the Indian Army by saying that it is at Modi's feet? Yet, in the new India, only those who demand fair play, justice and protection from being targeted for their religion are the ones who get arrested.
