On Tuesday, the British Broadcasting News (BBC) published an article on the arrest of Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of leftist propagandist portal Alt News and indicated falsely that Zubair was arrested for being a ‘vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government’.
In its article, the BBC reported, “Police in India have arrested the co-founder of a fact-checking website who has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government”. The media organization called Zubair ‘a prominent Indian journalist’ and praised AltNews for ‘its diligent work in combating misinformation and fake news.
Indian police arrest Modi critic over tweets https://t.co/9Ay6mWaZbs
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) June 27, 2022
This is a day after Zubair was arrested by the Delhi Police for sharing hateful and derogatory posts against Hindu Gods and Goddesses and hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindu community. He was arrested based on a complaint filed by a social media user who referred to one of his derogatory tweets from 2018. FIR has been filed under IPC sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 295-A (malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings).
“He is known to keep a hawk-eye on hate speech and his Twitter posts on comments made by supporters of the BJP have invited intense backlash”, the report mentioned. Further quoting the opposition leaders, the BBC reported that Zubair’s arrest was ‘a clear attempt by the Hindu-nationalist government to clamp down on those who expose hate speech’.
Notably, Zubair had taken a statement out of context from a TV debate and had released it on social media targeting ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. His tweet had forced an army of trolls and Islamist protesters to act against Sharma and demand her death. Severe Islamist protests influenced by Zubair’s tweet against Sharma disturbed the law and order and peace in the Indian cities of Kanpur, Prayagraj, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Solapur (Maharashtra), Ludhiana (Punjab), Belagavi (Karnataka), and also in the states of West Bengal and Jharkhand.
The BBC on June 28 reported that after the episode of Nupur Sharma’s alleged ‘blasphemous’ remarks, the Hindu nationalists have deliberately drawn attention to past comments made by Zubair and demanded that he be prosecuted for hurting their religious feelings.
Similarly, the New York Times which usually hires anti-Hindu, anti-Modi candidates even for an entry-level job, reported the false reason behind Zubair’s arrest. It claimed that the alleged ‘fact-checker’ was arrested for being a critic of PM Narendra Modi. Quoting a few leftists, journalists, and opposition leaders, the New York Times reported, “The detention of Mr. Zubair is part of a broad crackdown on critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party’s Hindu nationalist worldview”.
The Indian authorities arrested Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of a fact-checking website, in what journalists and activists say is part of a broad crackdown on critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party’s Hindu nationalist worldview. https://t.co/DECYVDWYyA
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) June 28, 2022
For years now, the New York Times has been accused of being brazenly Hinduphobic and anti-Modi in the content that is published on its website. Earlier, it had provided its platform to propagandist Kunal Kamra to peddle the anti-Modi propaganda, had used coronavirus pandemic to propagate Hinduphobia and had also targeted PM Modi through spinning a web of lies about Citizenship Amendment Act. It reaffirmed its hate for PM Modi and the Hindu religion on June 29 by reporting false reason behind Zubair’s arrest.
Zubair was arrested on June 27 for posting derogatory remarks against Hindu Gods and Goddesses. In the year 2018, he tweeted an image of the hotel named ‘Honeymoon Palace’ and blatantly replaced its name with ‘Hanuman Palace’, hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindus. Stating the same reason, the BBC also mocked the incident and blatantly termed Lord Hanuman as ‘the Hindu monkey god’.
Reportedly, Zubair’s arrest comes weeks after his old social media posts mocking and insulting Hindu Gods and Goddesses had gone viral on the internet, following which he deleted his Facebook account and pulled down the controversial tweets.
