'Ali Khan Mahmudabad Could Say Sorry For Operation Sindoor Post': How Row Snowballed

News18

20-05-2025

Last Updated:
The complainant, Haryana State Commission for Women's head Renu Bhatia, says a genuine apology from the Ashoka University professor could have eased things
Is Ali Khan Mahmudabad a scholar who has been wronged, or has he 'degraded women"? The arrest of the associate professor at Ashoka University and former leader of the Samajwadi Party may have academics from institutions, including Oxford, Yale, and Jawaharlal Nehru University, urging his release, but the complainant, Haryana State Commission for Women's head Renu Bhatia, disagrees.
'His thought process is for everyone to see. His choice of words is there for the world to have a look at. Any educated person, as he claims to be, should have presented his side when we summoned him. But he chose to be absent. He even chose to evade the commission when we visited Ashoka University after informing them about the purpose of our visit," Bhatia told News18.
On Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh—the two women who emerged as India's face at a press briefing during Operation Sindoor — Ali Khan Mahmudabad had written in his May 9 post on social media that he was 'very happy to see so many right-wing commentators applauding" the Indian Army officers, but 'perhaps they can equally loudly demand that victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing… are protected as Indian citizens". At a time when India was united in battling Pakistan, the charge against the Ashoka University professor was calling the optics 'hypocrisy". '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," he wrote on social media, adding fuel to the fire.
Terms like 'genocide", 'hypocrisy", and 'dehumanisation" attracted the wrath of the women's commission. 'I will keep talking about those from whom I can smell treachery," Bhatia said.
Very subtly, Bhatia referred to Mahmudabad's paternal lineage, where his grandfather, Mohammad Amir Ahmed Khan, was the last ruling Raja of Mahmudabad and a key financier of the Muslim League in the pre-Partition era. He campaigned for Mohammad Ali Jinnah's Pakistan against Mahatma Gandhi. Just before Partition, he migrated to Iraq. He subsequently moved to Pakistan in 1957 but later settled down in London. He, however, sent his wife and son to India to reacquire his property, which by then was in state possession.
While more than one FIR has been filed against Professor Mahmudabad, the one based on a complaint by Bhatia has serious sections like 152 (acts that endanger India's sovereignty, unity and integrity) along with 353 (statements conducing to public mischief) and 79 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).
Meanwhile, a carefully crafted official message from Ashoka University read, 'We have been made aware that Prof. Ali Khan Mahmudabad has been taken into police custody. We are in the process of ascertaining details of the case. The University will continue to cooperate with the Police and local authorities in the investigation, fully." But the university's faculty association was more liberal in its choice of words, calling the charges 'untenable" and his arrest 'calculated harassment".
Mahmudabad has approached the Supreme Court for relief. A bench of Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih agreed to hear his plea by Wednesday, after senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the professor had been 'arrested for (making) a patriotic statement". The Ashoka professor's May 14 clarification about his May 9 post wasn't helping much, attempting to 'solely express concern over the rhetorical excesses and reckless warmongering exhibited by certain sections of the civilian public".
But you ask the complainant, Renu Bhatia, and she would say a genuine apology could have eased things. 'He could have accepted his mistake. He could have just apologised," she said.
Now, the row is far beyond the realm of any apologies, where society is extremely polarised on this issue.