Days after Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed in Afghanistan by the Taliban, a US-based Indian origin Professor has claimed that the Islamist terror outfit exhibited more humanity than the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
In a tweet on Saturday (July 17), Gaurav Sabnis wrote, “Even the Taliban itself is showing more humanity over #DanishSiddiqui than the Sangh.” Sabnis, an Associate Marketing Professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, posted the tweet in response to the criticism faced by Siddiqui after his death. The deceased photojournalist had earlier clicked pictures of burning funeral pyres in clear breach of privacy of the family of the Covid-19 victims and also put it up for sale on British-owned stock photography agency Alamy.
Through his tweet, Gaurav Sabnis suggested that the Taliban had showcased more humanity than Sangh (and its followers) despite the former being the killer of the photojournalist. The bizarre analogy, aimed at dehumanising RSS and eliminating the role of Taliban in the context of Danish Siddiqui’s death, was not well-received by netizens. A Twitter user (Princess Woke Liberal) took potshots at the Marketing Professor and wrote, “Taliban did not kill Danis Siddiqui, RSS did.” Following his comment, Gaurav Sabnis was quick to block the user on the micro-blogging site.
Later, Sabnis tried to justify his earlier tweet wherein he claimed that Sangh was less humane than the Taliban. He alleged, “The only reason sanghi vultures are trying to peck at #DanishSiddiqui is because he took a picture proving the full scale of covid deaths and resulting cremations in India. Literally the only reason. Because some of his pics spoiled their deluded narratives.”
The Assistant Marketing Professor further claimed, “Notice how the only ones on Twitter dumping on heroic late photo journalist #DanishSiddique are sanghis. Because they are still upset that when BJP tried to hide the full scope of covid second surge deaths in India, Danish took this picture. That’s the only reason. Sick!” In order to further deviate public wrath from his original tweet about Sangh and Taliban, he wrote, “How many million lives are you willing to sacrifice for the sake of maintaining the delusional that Modi is awesome?”
Liberals refuse to call out Taliban over Danish Siddiqui’s killing
Several left-wing “liberal-secular” journalists also took to Twitter to condole the death of photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, who aggressively shared these images of the deceased photojournalist to pay some sort of tribute to him. However, the intriguing part of the matter is that hardly any of them mentioned the Taliban in their condolence message.
Rana Ayyub spoke about Danish Siddiqui and his work revealing how he had a passion for photography. She also shared an image in which she was seen sitting next to the deceased journalist. The tone and tenor of the message, however, were rather perplexing. It appeared as if the photojournalist died as a consequence of some natural disease and was not murdered by Islamic terrorists. A similar strategy was employed by Manisha Pande from Newslaundry, Stuti Mishra, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Yogendra Yadav, and Ravish Kumar.
It is perplexing that not a single condolence message pointed towards the Islamic terror group that claimed Siddiqui’s life. Not a single liberal journalist had the moral fortitude to remark that he was killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Liberals used his photography to make a political point but refused to mention that it was the Taliban that killed him during clashes with Afghan forces. Instead, they attempted to whitewash the incident and deflect the narrative by preaching about how one should take inspiration from Danish Siddiqui to question those in power.
