An arresting moment
Police action against Prof Khan shows little logic & raises several larger questions
Today, the Supreme Court will hear the appeal against the arrest of Prof Ali Khan Mahmudabad of Ashoka University. That the original complainants were a Haryana govt appointee and a BJP sarpanch shouldn't have made any difference to local police's response. But Khan was taken into custody for a social media post that contrasted 'rightwing commentators'' praise for Col Qureshi with their stand on 'lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing…'. Let's assume that some can disagree with him. Or that some may even hold the view that Khan's argument was ill-timed. But can anyone seriously argue that Khan allegedly committed the following crimes – 'sow communal divisions', 'endanger India's sovereignty and unity' and insulted 'the modesty of women'? Yet these were the crimes Haryana police charged him with. Among the provisions used was BNS Section 152, which bears a striking resemblance to IPC's sedition provision. A local court promptly sent Khan to 48 hours police custody. Khan's attempts to clarify his post after he received the Women's Commission's summons didn't make a difference. The Ashoka University faculty association's statement that the arrest was 'calculated harassment' was spot on.
Many larger questions come up via this case. First, is there any application of mind by local police when complaints are made by those associated with governing parties in various states? Second, isn't it now clear that BNS Section 152 is as much a blunt instrument as the sedition provision was? Third, is criticism protected by free speech? For police and some politicians, the answer seems no. Recall here what SC had said when it quashed the case against Imran Pratapgarhi, who had posted a Faiz poem – the court said standards of free speech can't be decided by those 'who always perceive criticism as a threat…', that those taking objection should respond by 'counter-speech', not by demanding police action.
But as SC yet again hears a case that should never have seen the light of day, all thinking Indians must also ask why a professor who praised, logically and cohesively, GOI's military response to Pahalgam found himself behind bars.
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This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
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