From SC slamming Nupur and Udaipur outrage to Maharashtra thriller and Amartya Sen’s fears

Urdu Times

The Mumbai-based daily Urdu Times writes, in an editorial on July 2, that the Supreme Court slammed the now-suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma over her remarks against the Prophet, saying she has a “loose tongue” which has “set the entire country on fire” and that she is “single-handedly” responsible for what is happening in the country, including in Udaipur where a tailor Kanhaiya Lal was hacked to death for allegedly sharing her remarks. It notes that the apex court made these observations in oral remarks and that Nupur has not been arrested by the Delhi Police till date. The edit states that the top court also criticised the TV channel where Nupur made the remarks during a debate. “The situation deteriorated as no action was taken against Nupur Sharma,” the daily says, adding that Delhi Police was however patting itself on the back for having arrested journalist Mohammed Zubair, which has drawn global condemnation.

In its editorial on July 1, the daily writes on the twist in the Maharashtra political drama’s climax that saw the leader of the rebel Shiv Sena faction, Eknath Shinde, taking over as the CM with senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis forced to become the Deputy CM. It notes that the BJP is the single largest party and that its alliance with the Uddhav Thackeray-headed Sena would not have broken down in the first place if the party had agreed to give up the CM’s post in November 2019 as part of a rotational CM formula. It says this “demotion” was an “insult to Fadnavis’s stature”. The piece says CM Shinde would face a pincer movement now — on one flank from Fadnavis’s supporters for whom the last-minute change in the script is “unacceptable”, and on the other side from Thackeray’s loyalists. It asks whether this manoeuvre was aimed at clinching the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections following which Shinde might be jettisoned and mid-term Assembly polls held.

Inquilab

The New Delhi edition of Inquilab on June 30 published multiple reports on prominent Muslim leaders and organisations’ strong condemnation of

the gruesome killing of Kanhaiya Lal by two men, Mohammad Riyaz and Ghouse Mohammad, inside his shop in Udaipur for allegedly sharing Nupur Sharma’s remarks. They described the killing as “un-Islamic, barbaric and against humanity”, the daily’s reports say quoting their reactions that are as follows.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) said such acts were against Islam. “Insulting any holy religious personality is a serious crime. BJP’s Nupur Sharma made derogatory remarks about the holy Prophet of Islam, which is very painful for Muslims. The government’s move not to take any action against Nupur is like rubbing salt in their wounds. But despite this, taking the law into one’s own hands and killing a person by declaring him a criminal is a highly condemnable act,” the statement issued by AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani said. “Neither the law allows it nor the Islamic Shariah justifies it,” it said. The AIMPLB also urged the government to make stringent laws regarding derogatory remarks against holy personalities and take immediate action in such cases. It also appealed to the Muslim community to act with restraint and not take law into their own hands or indulge in any action that could undermine social unity and harmony in the country.

Maulana Mahmood Asad Madani, the president of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, described the Udaipur killing as “a blot on humanity and an act of defaming Islam”. It is disgraceful and a major challenge for the country’s legal system, he said. “No one has the authority to take the law into his own hands,” he said. Asserting that the Jamiat is against all forms of extremism, he demanded stringent action against the accused regardless of religion or community. He also appealed to people to maintain peace and stand up against the menace of communalism.

Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, called the killing an “act of cowardice”, saying the “heartbreaking, heinous murder committed in Udaipur has shaken humanity”. He also said, “Had the perpetrators of this barbaric act studied the life and character of the holy Prophet and had they been aware of the spirituality in Quran and Shariah, they would not have committed this heinous crime.”

Siasat

In its editorial on June 29, headlined “Kitni awaazein dabai jaen gi? (How many voices will be suppressed)”, the Hyderabad-based daily Siasat writes that the Delhi Police’s move at the alleged behest of the political establishment to arrest the journalist and co-founder of the fact-checking website Alt News, Mohammed Zubair, for a 2018 tweet, in which he shared a still image from a 1980s film by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, has signalled that the clampdown on dissenters and those shining a light on the prevailing situation has only escalated in the country. The daily says the police has claimed that his tweet has allegedly hurt religious sentiments, but the same was also shared by many, who did not face any such action. “This reinforces the suspicion that Mohammed Zubair was arrested because he is a Muslim and a journalist engaged in the task of checking facts and making it public,” it charges, questioning why countless cases of hate speech against certain communities and religions across social media and TV channels are ignored. “This betrays the biased action of the police and law enforcement agencies operating on their political masters’ orders, who have bid farewell to their professionalism and integrity,” the daily says, pointing out that Zubair was not the first journalist to have been thus targeted. Citing the cases of journalists like Siddique Kappan and others, it says they have been sent to jail to stifle dissent. The edit adds that the civil society and independent media must raise their voices against it.

Roznama Rashtriya Sahara

The Kolkata edition of Roznama Rashtriya Sahara on July 1 carried a front-page report on the Nobel laureate and renowned economist Amartya Sen expressing his anguish over the current state of affairs in India and making an impassioned appeal for ensuring unity in line with the country’s inclusive and liberal traditions and history. The report says that while inaugurating the Amartya Research Centre in Salt Lake near Kolkata, Sen said, “If someone asks me if I am scared of something, I would say ‘yes’. There is a reason to be afraid now. The prevailing situation in India has become a cause for fear,” referring to deepening communal faultlines and diminishing tolerance in the country. Participating in a discussion on the topic “Back to School”, which included Anita Rampal, Jean Drèze, K Srinath Reddy and AK Shiva Kumar as panelists, Sen detailed the history of unity between different faiths and communities in India. Highlighting the pluralistic history of science in India, he cited the examples of Aryabhata and Al-Biruni. Sen underlined that tolerance has all along been India’s greatest accomplishment as people of different faiths such as Islam and Christianity came here and that everyone joined hands to build the country. But now, he said, it is time to go beyond tolerance and work together to ensure and maintain unity, the daily’s report states. It quotes him as saying that “India cannot be a country of Hindus only or Muslims only… I don’t want division in a country that was historically liberal. I want the country to be united as before. So, everyone has to work together.”