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On Sunday, Ashoka University associate professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad was arrested by Haryana Police for his social media posts commenting on the press briefings on Operation Sindoor, Operation Sindoor. He was given interim bail on Wednesday.

Mahmudabad had commended the military for the manner in which it conducted the operation and called for peace.

He also pointed to the apparent irony of Hindutva commentators praising Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, who had represented the Army during the media briefings, suggesting that they “could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s hate mongering be protected as Indian citizens”.

But two cases were soon filed against him on a variety of charges, including having committed acts prejudicial to maintaining communal harmony, making assertions likely to cause disharmony, acts endangering national sovereignty and words or gestures intended to insult a woman’s modesty.

These charges, conclude the panel on this episode of Yeh Daag Daag Ujala, are absurd. The discussion explores the broader implications of Mahmudabad’s arrest after his posts calling for peace and harmony for academic freedom, civil liberties, and the treatment of Muslim public intellectuals and common citizens in India.

They also explore how Mahmudabad’s identity as a Muslim academic may have influenced the state’s response, situating the incident within a larger pattern of actions targeting Muslim voices in India. The discussion situates the case within a broader pattern of the systematic targeting and disenfranchisement of Muslims in India.

The discussion features writer and activist Harsh Mander is in conversation with Rajendran Narayanan and Nizamuddin Ahmed Siddiqui.

Rajendran Narayanan is an associate professor at Azim Premji University where he teaches a course on data, democracy and development. Nizamuddin Ahmed Siddqui until recently taught law at Jindal Global Law School and is a co-founder of Project Mishkat.

The name of Karwan e Mohabbat’s Yeh Daag Daag Ujala series is a tribute to the iconic poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.