This is an attempt to write an Opinion piece. We may not agree on all our opinions. But I believe we would have the maturity to listen to multiple perspectives and decide for ourselves.

The Arrest of Mohammad Zubair (Alt News)

Max Weber, a German Political Economist, said that a modern state has a monopoly on violence. He would not have imagined to what extent the state would exercise this power.

In a sudden turn of events, on June 27, 2022, Delhi Police arrested the co-founder of Alt News, Mohammed Zubair. What is more shocking is not the arrest but the manner of its occurrence. No wonder, India ranks at 150/180 in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index. 

An anonymous Twitter account complained to the Delhi Police about a tweet shared by Zubair in 2018. The tweet said, " Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel. After 2014: Hanuman Hotel,” and was accompanied by an image of a hotel signboard.

Zubair was booked under IPC sections 295A and 153A in connection to this tweet.

Growing Intolerance in the Nation

Rosa Luxembourg had said that "Real Freedom is Freedom to Disagree." As India approaches its 75th year of Independence, there is a growing level of intolerance. The reasonable restrictions placed by the founding fathers seemed to be unreasonably interpreted. Any voice that tends to disagree with the majoritarian view is being silenced.

In 2020, Sixty Seven journalists were arrested and 200 were physically attacked as per a study by Geeta Seshu for the Free Speech Collective. The fourth estate of Indian democracy is under attack.

Intolerance has spread like a wildfire across different sections of society, threatening to burn the social fabric of the nation. One might wonder if this was the nation that produced the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Vivekananda and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan who championed the cause of religious tolerance.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere 

The words of Martin Luther King are very much relevant today. The concern is not just about the arrest of Zubair. Rather it is the normalisation of intolerance and injustice. The string of events stifling the voices of dissent is bound to have a domino effect.

This is also the phase when India is having the largest number of youth keenly observing their leaders. A silent indoctrination of what is right and what is wrong is taking place. The very youth that fearlessly supports the radicalised ideology today would be the leaders of tomorrow.

According to Prof Tarunabh Khaitan, vice-dean of law at Oxford University, "What is unusual about our current political moment is that, unlike a formal emergency that undermines rights openly, all our rights are supposed to still be functional. There is no formal suspension of rights. But their corrosion in practice has become overwhelming. We are living in an extra-legal, informal, emergency."