Is The Arrest Of Mohammed Zubair Justified?

A Delhi court has extended the police custody of Zubair by four days after initially granting a one day custody

A few days ago, Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of AltNews that is purportedly a fact checking website, was arrested by the Delhi Police for hurting religious sentiments and inciting violence. There were vociferous protests for large sections of civil society, liberal media and human rights activists. Even opposition parties that are against the NDA regime condemned the arrest. Despite the din and the noise, a court extended the police custody of Zubair by four days after initially granting a one day custody. Never shy of controversies, Zubair became more famous after he posted the controversial remarks made by former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma on Prophet Mohammed. His supporters insisted that Zubair was merely putting out a fact while his critics were convinced that he was deliberately inciting hard line Islamists to target her. Many had already openly issued death threats to Nupur Sharma. Zubair is also accused of regularly making derogatory remarks against Hindu deities and he actually deleted his FaceBook account when the issue became more controversial.

C Voter-India Tracker conducted a survey to find out what ordinary Indians felt about the arrest of Mohamed Zubair and the controversy surrounding it. Those covered in the survey using random sampling techniques were asked a simple question: Do you agree or disagree with the arrest of so called fact checker Mohammed Zubair for allegedly hurting religious sentiments? As the accompanying chart shows, there is across the board support for the arrest. The only category where a majority of the respondents disagreed with the arrest is the Muslim community. Even among opposition supporters who normally disagree vehemently with any NDA government decision, more than 53% of the respondents agreed with the decision to arrest Zubair. Overall, two thirds of the respondents stated that they agree with the arrest.

There were no differences when it came to different ethnic identities. Well above two out of every three respondents belong to scheduled caste, scheduled tribes, other backward castes and upper caste Hindus agreed with the decision to arrest Zubair. Often, one sees a difference of opinion between low income and high income groups or even low education and high education groups. But not in this case. There is not much difference even when you move up the age groups of respondents or categorise them as male and female.

The survey was conducted before the horrific incident in Udaipur where two Muslims brutally murdered and beheaded Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor who it seems had put out a social media post supporting Nupur Sharma. The killers made a video boasting of the beheading and categorically stated that the same fate awaits Nupur Sharma. Indians were shocked at the sheer barbarity of the act. And some journalists who had questioned and mocked the police security given to Nupur Sharma apologised for their insensitive embarks and stated they were now aware of the dangers she faces.