On January 25, Elle India distanced itself from Rana Ayyub’s brother Arif Ayyub after his tweets attacking the Saudi government went viral on social media. In its statement, Elle said, “Ogaan Media would like to inform that Mr Arif Ayyub is not an employee of Elle India. He had resigned from his services as the Publisher w.e.f. August 2019 itself and has not been associated with the company in any possible manner.”
— ELLE India (@ELLEINDIA) January 25, 2022
Further, Elle India said the tweets published by Ayyub were in his personal capacity expressing his individual opinion and perception, and those tweets had no link to Elle.
Arif Ayyub’s anti-Saudi tweets went viral
On Tuesday, it was reported that Ayyub, former Elle India Publisher and brother of controversial journalist Rana Ayyub, had gone on an unhinged rant against the Saudi and UAE royal families. He had spewed a lot of hate after the Saudi-led coalition retaliated against the Islamist Houthi movement in Yemen for carrying out a deadly drone attack in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In a tweet, he alleged that dissenters in Saudi Arabia, Israel and India were being put behind bars. “Dissidents in SAUDI ARABIA are languishing in jails, political activists like Sharjeel, Umar, Khalid and countless others are languishing in INDIAN jails, thousands of Palestinians are languishing in ISRAELI jails. The USA is the biggest ally of them all. It supports tyrants,” Arif Ayyub wrote. Ayyub has a history of posting anti-Saudi tweets.
After his tweets went viral, many netizens, including prominent people from the UAE asked if Elle India stood by the tweets of Ayyub. Many netizens at that time had pointed that Ayyub was employed by Elle India. However, it now seems that he had resigned from the organisation two years back.
Ayyub’s Facebook profile says he is publisher of Elle India
Though Elle India said Ayyub resigned from the post in 2019, Ayyub’s Facebook profile still mentions him as publisher of Elle and Elle Décor.
His LinkedIn profile, however, mentions he left the Elle in 2019.
Arif Ayyub’s sister Rana Ayyub also went on a rant against Saudis and blamed PM Modi for the hate he was receiving for indirectly supporting Houthi Movement.
