Zubair is not a journalist — and even if he were one, he should not be allowed to create chaos

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in all the six FIRs lodged against him in Uttar Pradesh. The court ordered Zubair’s immediate release on a bail bond of Rs 20,000, and quashed a plea to stop Zubair from tweeting. Interestingly, the same court had not long ago said that former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s “loose tongue” had “set the entire country on fire”. It had also said that Nupur Sharma was “single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country”. With due respect to the honourable judges of the Supreme Court, a disparity in sentencing is evident to commoners who have high regard for the judiciary. The perception gaining ground is that for a similar crime, while Nupur Sharma is condemned for “setting the entire country on fire”, Mohammed Zubair is duly exempted. Nupur Sharma Tirade During the Gyanvapi episode, one saw heated debates in the mainstream media. While one party claimed that a Shiva-linga had been unearthed during the digging at the disputed site, the other called it a mere “fountain”. Woke activists, including politicians such as Mahua Moitra, mocked and disrespected the Shiva-linga by sharing the images of street poles, nuclear reactors and fire extinguishers, hurting the sentiments of millions of Hindus. According to the holy Quran, it is forbidden to insult the gods of other religions. The woke-friendship encouraged some vulture activists from the Muslim community, however, to take part in such derogatory activities. This eventually attracted a strong reaction from the other side. All this could have been avoided, had provocative statements been stopped at the time of the Shiva-linga controversy. When the heated argument between Nupur Sharma and Tasleem Rehmani was taking place on national television, the latter kept calling the Shiva-linga a “fountain; the then BJP spokesperson countered it with her “what if we talk about” statement. It was a simple action and reaction incident. But Zubair vitiated the environment by selectively trimming Nupur Sharma’s statement and tweeting it out to world. After a few days, the clip was hand-picked by the Arabic Muslim Brotherhood handles, escalating the matter in Arab countries. Since the Nupur Sharma case came in the backdrop of an incendiary statement by non-state actors like Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati at a Dharma Sansad, the matter became a boiling point, and the Arab countries made their objection known. India acted upon the request of its old allies, and the issue came to an end. We do understand that Nupur Sharma used unrefined language for the Prophet. In fact, all religious figures should be revered with the best suitable words. Brazen language for such personalities can easily hurt the sentiments of the people, and it gives a chance to political rivals to settle scores using the religious card. However, in all this, one must understand that it was Zubair’s dubious role of trimming the clips and making them go viral that created the entire chaos — not just in India but across the Arab world. Zubair, that way, has a history of being a liberal and a fundamentalist at the same time. He would claim freedom of speech for himself to demean the gods of other religions, but wants others to be punished for doing the same. In 2018, for instance, Zubair had mocked Lord Hanuman. He had tweeted a clip of a 1983 Bollywood movie Kissi Se Na Kehna, to show how the name of a hotel before 2014 was “Honeymoon Hotel”, and it was changed into “Hanuman Hotel” after the Modi government came to power at the Centre. In yet another tweet that year, Zubair mocked Lord Hanuman in his bid to take a swipe at the BJP. On 6 September 2018, he tweeted, “Bajrang Bali’ ki aarti karna shuru karo, ‘hanuman chalisa’ ka path karo, bandar kabhi nuksaan nahin pahuchayega.” Besides ridiculing Hindu gods, Zubair also made fun of Hindu beliefs and took a dig at the Sanskrit language. As his old Hinduphobic posts started coming under scrutiny, with netizens sharing screenshots to highlight Zubair’s propensity to hurt Hindu sentiments, the Alt News co-founder quietly pulled down his Facebook page. It is hypocritical to demand Nupur Sharma’s arrest over ‘blasphemy’, while audaciously tweeting #IStandWithZubair for the similar actions Zubair did against the Hindu deities. If it is wrong to use unrefined language for the Holy Prophet, then it’s equally wrong to mock and insult Hindu deities like Shiva and Hanuman. Zubair, a Masquerading Journalist While quashing the plea to stop Zubair from tweeting, Justice DY Chandrachud told the Additional Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh, “We can’t say that he won’t tweet again. It is like telling a lawyer that you should not argue. How can we tell a journalist that he will not write? If there is any tweet against the law, he will be answerable.” Ironically, it was Zubair’s dubious tweeting of his selectively trimmed Nupur Sharma clips that led to the beheading of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, and another murder in Amravati. Last week, a Pakistani terrorist belonging to a Barelvi extremist organisation, Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan, was detained in Rajasthan; he was carrying an 11-inch knife to allegedly behead Nupur Sharma! Zubair’s mischievous tweets have instilled hatred and anger. Even if he were a journalist, he should not be allowed to use social media platforms to spread hate and terror. But then he is not a journalist. On 6 August 2020, Zubair had publicly tweeted, “I am not a Journalist :).” Before that, on 3 October 2019, while responding to one Ashish Kohli, Zubair had said, “Hello Mr. #ProudDograHindu Journalist. I am not a Journalist. Pinned tweet karlo, Rts saal bhar aate rahenge.” It is incredible that while the Supreme Court thinks Zubair is a journalist, the Alt News co-founder doesn’t see himself as one. And even if he were a journalist, he cannot — and should not — be allowed to divide society on communal lines and hurt religious sentiments. Zahack Tanvir is a Saudi-based Indian national. He is Director of Milli Chronicle Media London. He holds a PG-Diploma in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) from IIIT. He did a certificate programme in Counterterrorism from the University of Leiden, Netherlands. He tweets under @ZahackTanvir. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. 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